The morning sun over Velmora's skyline was a weak thing, filtered through storm clouds, it barely lit the boardroom windows. Kael watched the city from behind tinted glass, coffee in one hand, the other tucked in his pocket to hide its trembling.
Aurelia hadn't spoken to him since the night on her desk.
Not a word.
Not in the elevator, not in meetings, not even a flicker of eye contact.
The chill was back.
Worse than before.
And yet… she wore the same lipstick he'd smeared across her collarbone. The same heels he'd peeled from her thighs. Her hair was tighter than usual, her tone sharper but Kael knew her tells now.
She was unraveling.
He just didn't know if it was because of him or in spite of him.
Twelve floors below, in the velvet-lined VIP lounge that few even knew existed, a man with cold eyes and a silver snake pin sat with a tablet and an untouched glass of scotch.
Lucien Voss.
Aurelia's uncle.
The real architect behind the Voss empire. Quiet, powerful, calculating. The kind of man whose name opened vaults and silenced witnesses.
Aurelia had been given the crown, yes... but Lucien was the one who wrote the rules.
And today, he was rewriting them.
He watched the security footage from the penthouse office, silent frames of Kael and Aurelia in an embrace far from professional. Her legs around his waist. His mouth on her neck. Her face…
Soft, Open, Vulnerable.
Lucien's jaw tightened.
He tapped a button on the tablet, sent the file to a private channel, and made a call.
"Summon her," he said. "Now."
Aurelia was summoned in the middle of a quarterly investment review.
When she entered the shadowed lounge, Lucien stood with his back to her, staring at the skyline like it was prey.
"Uncle."
"Aurelia."
They didn't embrace. They hadn't in years.
"You know why I called you here," he said without turning.
"I can guess."
He finally faced her and placed the tablet on the table between them.
She didn't blink.
He hit play.
Kael. Her. Skin. Sweat. Desire.
Silence.
"This is beneath you," Lucien said, voice flat.
"I don't recall asking your opinion about my personal life."
"You have no personal life. You have a legacy. And you're risking it for a commoner with nothing to offer but a sharp jaw and some clever hands?"
Her face remained stone. But inside, fury bloomed.
"Say what you really mean," she said. "You don't like that I've chosen someone you can't control."
Lucien smirked.
"I don't like that you've chosen someone at all. Especially when our enemies are sharpening blades."
He stepped closer.
"You want to rule Velmora? Fine. But I built this empire. And I won't let you ruin it for a pretty face and some backroom orgasms."
She inhaled, slow and sharp.
"What do you want?"
"Fire him. Today. Publicly. Clean break. Or…"
"Or what?"
He slid a document toward her.
Her blood ran cold.
It was a motion from the Board of Elders.
A vote of inquiry designed to destabilize her leadership and trigger a suspension.
If she didn't comply, he'd make it pass.
Aurelia clenched her fists so tightly her nails bit through skin.
"Noted," she said coldly. "Now get out of my company."
Kael felt it coming.
By midday, Aurelia had gone completely silent.
By evening, security had asked him to wait outside the buildingstandard protocol, they claimed, for "executive reassignments."
He waited two hours.
Then she appeared.
Alone.
Drenched in that same power.
But when she looked at him, it wasn't ice he saw.
It was pain.
And regret.
"I need you to leave," she said quietly.
"No."
"This isn't a negotiation, Kael."
"Then fire me."
Silence.
"Do it, Aurelia. Look me in the eye and say I mean nothing to you."
She opened her mouth.
But the words didn't come.
Instead, her voice cracked.
"I'm trying to protect you."
"Then trust me."
She shook her head, stepping back.
"I can't afford to be weak."
"You're not. You never have been. But you'll lose everything if you push me away."
She turned before he could see the tears burning at the corners of her eyes.
And walked back into the elevator alone.
That night, Kael went home to his mother's failing breath.
The healer stood by the cot, holding another invoice.
"This was her last chance."
Kael sat beside Maris, held her hand, felt how cold it had become.
"She's losing the battle," the healer whispered.
"So am I," Kael said.
But even as despair curled in his gut, his mind burned with a single truth:
He wasn't done.
Not with Aurelia.
Not with Velmora.
And not with the men who thought they could control them.