The Lie That Broke Her
It wasn't the surveillance that haunted Aiden most.
It was the moment he realized he didn't need it.
He had hired the woman out of desperation — a calculated risk dressed as a casual favor.
She was charming, unassuming, the type to slip easily into someone's blind spot. He hadn't even asked her to seduce Liam.
Just watch. Report. Observe.
But she had gone further. Much further. And Liam had let her.
And Aiden had let it happen.
The plan had been simple: tear them apart.
Emily had drifted too close to Liam — too fast, too dangerously — and something about it had never sat right.
Liam wasn't meant for someone like Emily.
And Emily... Emily deserved better than what Aiden saw in his former best friend's eyes when he looked at her.
It wasn't love.
It was possession.
Aiden didn't know it for sure at first.
He only felt it — an instinct. But instincts, when sharpened by loss, could become weapons.
So he followed the threads. Paid for answers. Bought silence where he needed it.
And in the end, it was worse than he imagined.
Liam never loved Hazel.
He wanted her, yes. Lust. Control.
The thrill of winning something Aiden once had. But love? No.
That was reserved for someone else. A woman Aiden had only seen once — in a
photograph Liam had hidden deep in a private storage folder, behind three layers
of password protection. Aiden's tech guy cracked it out of curiosity.
She wasn't Emily. She wasn't even close.
But she mattered to Liam.
And that meant Emily had only ever been a shadow. A placeholder. A game.
Aiden remembered staring at the photo for too long that night, alone in his office.
The woman — the real one Liam had loved — had a soft smile. She wore a gold
bracelet, the same one Liam once said he'd "kept for memory's sake."
Emily had never worn that bracelet.
He hadn't meant for the plan to spiral. He just wanted to create distance.
Give Emily reason to doubt Liam — to see what he really was.
But then the photos arrived.
The ones he hadn't approved.
The ones showing Liam and the woman he'd planted together in a hotel bar,
leaning in too close, hands almost touching. Staged perfectly. Cropped perfectly.
The envelope had gone to Hazel directly.
And from there... everything burned.
Hazel had shown up at his apartment in tears that night. Not to ask for help — to scream.
"You planned this!" she yelled, shoving the photos at him.
"You wanted me to see this. What did you think I'd do? Come running back to you?"
He hadn't known what to say.
Because part of him had.
But the rest of him — the part that still dreamed of Emily, the part that still ached
with guilt — knew it wasn't that simple.
He wasn't trying to win Hazel back.
He was trying to save her from Liam.
But by then, it was already too late. She was hurt. Betrayed.
And Liam had already convinced her it was a setup.
Liam played the victim like he always did. And Emily, blinded by grief and rage, believed him — or wanted to.
The fighting between them lasted for weeks. Shouts. Accusations. A final, cruel end.
And now, months later, she didn't even know the worst part.
She didn't know Liam had loved someone else the whole time.
She didn't know the bracelet wasn't hers because it had never been meant for her.
Aiden sat at his desk in the dark, the old file open in front of him.
The photograph still sat inside, untouched. The woman in it stared out at him, quiet and content.
He ran a hand through his hair.
Emily had slept beside him last night.
And in the soft light of morning, when she thought he was asleep, she had crept
across his apartment like she was looking for something.
She'd found something — he could feel it in the way her smile was tighter, her
body more guarded when he kissed her hello.
He hadn't asked what.
But he could guess.
Maybe it was time.
Maybe she deserved to know everything.
Even if it cost him her trust.
Even if it confirmed every dark suspicion she was already starting to have.
Because if Liam came back — if he made another move — she needed to
understand exactly what kind of man he was.
And the truth?
Hazel had never been Liam's love.
She'd been his distraction.
And if Liam was circling again… he wasn't coming back for romance.
He was coming back for revenge.