The ride home from the gala is silent.
Damien sits beside Elara, his jaw tight, his hand clenched so hard she can see the strain in his knuckles.
He's furious — not at her, but at the fact someone touched his wife.
For the first time, she sees something human beneath his cold exterior.
When they arrive at the mansion, Damien orders everyone out except Elara.
> "Sit."
She does.
He kneels in front of her — the billionaire, the man everyone fears — gently lifting her chin to examine the shallow cut on her neck.
His eyes burn.
> "You could have died tonight."
Elara swallows.
No one has ever looked at her with that kind of intensity.
She tries to lighten the tension.
"It's just a scratch."
But Damien isn't amused.
> "You think this is a game? Someone walked into a high-security gala to kill you."
He stands, pacing.
Elara finally asks the question she's been afraid to voice:
"Why does marrying you put me in this much danger?"
Damien freezes.
For a moment, the walls around him seem to crack.
> "Because I didn't choose you…"
He turns toward her, eyes dark.
"And the woman who expected me to choose her doesn't accept rejection."
Elara understands something then:
The masked woman wasn't working alone.
Damien had powerful enemies.
And now, she was the easiest way to hurt him.
He sits beside her, lowering his voice.
> "From today, your security doubles. You don't go anywhere without my approval. Not even the garden. Not the balcony. Not the front door."
Elara clenches her fists.
> "I'm your wife, not your prisoner."
Damien looks at her — not angry now, but tired.
> "Elara… I'm trying to keep you alive."
Silence.
Heavy, charged, unspoken.
Just when she thinks the night is finally calming down—
BOOM.
A small explosion rocks the outside of the mansion.
The windows shake.
Alarms scream.
Damien reacts instantly, grabbing Elara and shielding her with his body.
Guards rush in.
> "Sir, someone detonated a device by the eastern gate. No casualties."
Damien pulls Elara close.
> "They're not warning me anymore," he whispers.
"They're coming for you."
Cliffhanger:
As the smoke rises outside, Elara notices something on the ground — a burned scrap of fabric from the attacker's clothes…
the same metallic purple shade as the masked woman's dress.
__