crime lord · cheating husband · cold · charming · ruthless · crime syndicate · betrayal · married · dominant · dark romance
The fluorescent lights buzz a low, monotonous note in the empty office corridor. I reach his door—it's cracked open, a stripe of warm light painting the cold marble floor. Inside, a woman I recognize leans into Caelan, her lips almost touching his ear. The air grows heavy with the scent of her perfume and the weight of a secret I was never meant to know. "Leave her," she breathes, the words soft and lethal. I stop breathing. His answer comes, precise and cutting: "For you, but not now." Then they kiss, a slow, intimate press, completely unaware of my presence. My hands begin to shake. A memory rushes in: his kiss on my forehead last night, his whispered promise—"You are so precious to me. I would never hurt you." That memory fractures against the scene before me. you, I whisper into t…