The Ultimate Betrayal
77 J
Ares Calloway shoved through the glass doors of the penthouse, the chill of the night slapping him harder than Selene’s words had. His mind reeled, breath ragged as he tore the tie from his neck and flung it onto the marble floor.
“Selene Laurent,” he muttered, the name burning on his tongue like poison. “Who the hell are you?”
“Sir,” Roman, his driver, stepped forward from the shadows near the Rolls. The man’s face was unreadable, professional to the last detail. “This was left for you.”
Ares turned sharply. Roman held out a small silver USB, balanced between two gloved fingers like it weighed nothing.
“Who gave it to you?”
“I don’t know, sir. It was slid under the passenger seat while I waited outside the gala. No one saw.”
Ares snatched it from him, his gaze lingering on the flash drive for a moment before he got in and slammed the door shut behind him.
Inside the car, silence wrapped around him like a noose. The leather seats, stitched in navy blue, bore the faint trace of Selene’s perfume from earlier sharp, white gardenia. Mocking him.
He stared at the USB, every instinct in him screaming that it was a setup.
Still, his fingers tightened around it like it was a loaded gun and he the one about to pull the trigger.
“Drive. Home. Now.”
“Yes, sir.”
The city blurred outside as they sped away from the gala where he’d watched Selene walk away like a queen, her heels slicing through the carpet, leaving blood in her wake.
His phone buzzed.
Blocked number. One message.
You were warned. – V.
His jaw clenched, Victor,
Ares’s blood turned to ice,
He didn’t wait for the elevator when they reached the Calloway estate he stormed up the stairs three at a time, not stopping until he reached the office on the top floor. The room smelled of old money and bourbon. Mahogany panels, dim lights, the heavy scent of betrayal.
He slammed his laptop onto the desk and jammed the USB in.
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11:58 Sun, Oct 12
Chapter 14
One video file.
He clicked play.
The screen flickered and then there she was.
Selene
Hait pinned back into a sleek twist, her cheekbones shadowed with artful makeup, eyes unreadable. She sat at a long obsidian table, legs crossed, calm, in total command.
Across from her sat Victor Harrington.
Victor the man Ares had once called his brother.
“You know,” Victor said, voice smooth and coiled like a serpent’s, “he always did underestimate you.”
Selene tilted her head slightly, lips curling. “That was his first mistake.”
Victor leaned forward. “Do we have a deal?”
She didn’t flinch.
“Yes. Ares won’t see it coming.”
Ares froze.
The video kept playing, but sound died in his ears.
Her smirk. Her voice. The elegance of her betrayal.
He fumbled to pause it, fingers numb.
Silence.
Then, A crack echoed through the office as he slammed his fist into the desk. The laptop teetered, nearly toppling over.
“Lies,” he whispered. “It’s edited. It has to be.”
But he couldn’t breathe past the rage.
She’d sat across from Victor. The bastard who’d tried to bleed his empire dry while Ares was in the hospital, broken. The man who’d kissed his fiancée’s hand at the funeral of their future and smiled like a vulture.
And Selene God, Selene.
Was it always a game?
He pressed play again, voice hoarse. “Play it. All of it.”
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11:58 Sun, Oct 12
Chapter 14
The footage resumed. Victor’s smile widened. “Then we begin. First move is the acquisitions board. If we knock out Calloway’s holdings in
Zurich ”
Selene held up a hand. “Let me handle Zurich. I’ve already made the call.”
Victor blinked. “You move fast.”
“I didn’t come back to play fair,” she said, voice as cold as diamonds.
Ares stared.
That wasn’t the woman who’d bathed him, fed him, held his hand when he couldn’t stand.
That wasn’t the woman he’d woken up whispering for in the dark.
And yet it was.
Her every word tore deeper than the last.
She hadn’t stumbled into his life.
She’d hunted him.
The video ended.
He sat back in the leather chair, heart slamming against his ribs like a caged animal. His temples throbbed.
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