Collateral Damage นิยาย & เรื่องราว

“I don’t need to.” Her eyes darkened slightly. “You always were stubborn.” “And you always talked too much.” That wiped the smile off her face for a second. Good. But then— She recovered. And this time… Her expression was different. Not playful. Not fake. Just… cruel. “If you don’t leave,” she said quietly, “this gets out.” My stomach dropped. “You wouldn’t.” “Try me.” I clenched my fists. “That would destroy Damien too.” She shrugged lightly. “Collateral damage.”

And she? She was just collateral damage.

I scream, my voice cracking a bit. The word of endearment just rolling off my tongue with ease. Unplanned. Untimed. Yet all that follows is the bang coming from the front door.

The lawyers relaxed a fraction, obviously misreading my intentions. “So,” she said, as if we’d just finished discussing a good wine year, “you see now what the ghost really is. It is not a flaw in your mother’s formula. It was just a story. A useful tool.” “And the people in the pictures?” I asked. She held my gaze. “Collateral damage,” she said. “Or unfortunate props. Depending on how sentimental you want to be.” Elky inhaled sharply. I put a hand on his knee under the table, applying a small pressure. It was not to calm him. Just to remind him we were still here, still collecting facts, and were were not finished yet.

“Seeing how much disruption they can cause without drawing a response.” Damon stood by the window, jaw tight. “They’re escalating.” Aria nodded. “They’re normalizing chaos.” The first real damage landed before noon. A community partner—one of the foundation’s earliest allies—was raided on suspicion of financial misconduct. Assets frozen. Staff detained. No charges filed. Just paralysis. “They were clean,” Damon said, fury threading his words. “We vetted them ourselves.” “That’s why they were targeted,” Aria replied. “Collateral damage is meant to teach fear.”