LOGINEliana
The package sat on my desk like it might explode. There was a heavy cream colored card with my name embossed in gold lettering across the front.
Eliana Ashcroft.
My hands shook as I slid my finger under the seal and pulled out a letter. The header at the top of the latter made my heart stop.
International Marketing Excellence Summit - Milan.
No way. No fuckin
Third POVTheodore himself, still in his suit jacket from the meeting they had pulled him out of walked in to take in the scene. His eyes swept the room once and found Eliana on the bed, his daughter on the floor. He moved to Eliana without looking at anything else, his hands going to her face, her wrist, the torn IV line hanging loose and bloody from her arm.Maxwell was already on the floor with two men on top of him, face down, his cheek against the hospital tile, arms wrenched behind his back. He strained against the hold until the third man put a knee in his back and he went flat on the ground.Theodore sat on the edge of Eliana's bed and put both arms around her, tugging her into his chest. She dropped her forehead against his chest and closed her eyes.In the corner Serena sat on the floor with her back against the wall, both hands at her throat, her phone in her lap still recordin
Third POVMaxwell had to give it to them.Blackwell's PR team was good. Really good. He had watched them work over the past months and he had to admit, the way they pivoted the narrative, slowly and then all at once, pulling focus from the scandal and redirecting it toward some global launch was a smart move. The board had gone quiet. The investors had retreated, satisfied that they would be making money and all his schemes to take down Blackwell had ended flatly.He sat in his study with the lights off and his drink untouched, admitting to no one but himself and only because there was no one else in the room that he was losing.Everything he had built toward was falling apart. Leslie was in prison, The mole operation was gone. The legal fees he had paid for Leslie's case and the public humiliation of watching his daughter get dragged out of Serena Blackwell's house in handcuffs while half the
ElianaThe hospital ceiling was the same one as last time.I knew it before I fully came back to myself, that particular pattern of tiles and fluorescent light. Damn, I was becoming a regular at the hospital, wasn't I? First the fire incident, now getting my shit rocked in the alleyway by Damon.Everything hurts. If I hurt in one place, that would have been manageable. But everywhere hurts, my ribs when I breathe, my cheekbones when I move my face, my hands when I try to close them and my legs.I lay very still on the bed, keeping my eyes glued to the ceiling. When would the painkillers kick in again?Theo had brought me in. I remembered that much. The car, his arm around me, his voice talking to someone, then the lights of the emergency entrance, a wheelchair and hands that weren't his taking me away. I remembered him standing at the edge of whatever they were doing to me wa
TheodoreHer door was wide open.I pushed through and stopped. A box was overturned near the kitchen counter, books scattered across the floor, her phone against the floor with the screen shattered and a chair knocked on its side. I was back on the street before I could think, glancing for any other sign of struggle.Someone had attacked her."Help! Somebody help me!"Fuck, was that coming from the alleyway down the street? I raced down without thinking twice with Steve getting out of the car and following behind me."Eliana?!"I came around the corner and everything in me went cold and still. Damon had a metal pipe raised above his head, both hands wrapped around it. Eliana had her back flat against the wall with nowhere left to go, both arms up in front of her face."HELP-" 
Third POVVivienne's number went straight to voicemail.Damon stared at his phone screen in the fluorescent light of the motel room he had been hiding in for four days. He called again- Voicemail- and threw the phone onto the bed.He stalked to the window with his hands on the back of his neck and looked out at the parking lot. He had no money, no plan, and a woman who had just used him and discarded him as if she were throwing a receipt away.Those two bitches had betrayed him. He should have known better than to trust them when they approached him in Atlanta. Not like he was living a decent life back in Atlanta anyway. He was on the run from loan sharks dammit and when Vivienne had approached promising him a load of money and one last dig at his soft dumbass ex girlfriend, he hopped on that ride faster than anyone could blink.And he had done his part. He threat
Theodore"Theo calm down-""GET OUT!" I bellowed, rising on my feet and slamming my fist on the desk. Pain shot up my arm but I couldn't exactly care. "I do not want to see you near me again. The only reason, the only fucking reason you're not in prison right now, is because of Anna. You hear me Vivienne? Get out!"Her eyes widened and without a word more she walked out of the study. The door closed behind her while I panted heavily, fury steaming my veins. Serena hadn't moved from the couch. Her eyes flickered to me warily."D-Dad?"I pulled my chair out, across the carpet, ignoring the screeching sound and sat across from her."Now," I said. "Just you and me, Princess. We should have this talk a long fucking time ago. Tell me why."Her shoulders hunched up. "I already told you,""You told me
ElianaHis hand covered mine, pressing my palm harder against him. The thick length pulsed under the fabric."Yes." I licked my lips. "Please, I need it.""Then work for it." His eyes were dark as he tipped his head forward. "On
ElianaThe golf course stretched out in every direction with pretty emerald grass that looked too perfect to be real. There were rolling hills dotted with trees in the distance and a white clubhouse gleaming in the distance.I stepped out of Theodor
ElianaWithout thinking, I stormed for the elevators.The private one opened with one swipe of my card. Theo had given my card access to his private systems so we could meet much more discreetly.I guess after what happened with Leslie,
TheodoreThe Maxwell estate sprawled across some fifteen acres in Greenwich and had a mansion that had housed four generations of Maxwells.Four generations of annoying little fucks apparently. Rage burned in my veins and it took everything not to order S







