Page 82 of The Billionaire’s Contract Bride

Aria looked down at Damien’s hand. “Who else has access to your voice synthesizers?”

Damien raised his eyes, looking directly at the hidden security camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling. “Anyone who has been secretly recording me for the last five years.”

Before anyone could speak, Aria’s phone vibrated violently against the glass table.

An encrypted message had arrived from an unknown international number. It contained a single, low-resolution video attachment.

Aria tapped the file.

The video opened to reveal a woman sitting in a dimly lit study. She was older than the pictures Aria had seen, but unmistakably alive.

Celeste Laurent—Damien’s ex-fiancée, who had disappeared years ago.

“Aria,” Celeste said into the camera, her voice raspy. “If you are watching this, Evelyn has been poisoned, and Lucien has been set up to take the fall.”

Damien stepped beside Aria, his entire frame rigid as he stared at the screen.

Celeste continued, her expression severe. “Do not trust whoever steps forward to prove Lucien innocent. That is precisely how they intend to earn your absolute trust.”

The video cut to black.

A second text notification flashed across the screen immediately beneath the expired video file:

I HAVE THE ACONITINE ANTIDOTE. COME TO THE GRAND TERMINAL ALONE. DO NOT BRING YOUR HUSBAND.

Chapter Twenty-One: Husband or Monster

“You are not going,” Damien said.

Aria read Celeste’s message again. An address followed: an abandoned church in Queens, midnight.

Husband or monster was too simple a choice, Aria realized. Damien was capable of tenderness and cruelty, restraint and obsession, love and harm. The question was not which one was real. They all were. The question was which parts of himself he would feed.

“My mother is dying,” Aria said softly, stating her ground in the makeshift command center.

“Which is precisely why they expect you to behave irrationally,” Damien replied, his voice clipped.

“We don’t even know who they are yet.”

“Celeste is not working alone.”

Lucien remained under guard in a nearby hospital suite. He had surrendered his weapon willingly, but Damien had removed his access cards and stationed two-armed operatives outside the door.

“You know Lucien was framed,” Aria insisted.

“I know the video metadata was altered.”

“That is the exact same thing.”

“No,” Damien countered, his jaw tight. “It means whoever planned this wanted us to reach that conclusion quickly.”

Aria looked through the glass wall separating them from Evelyn’s room. The medical team had stabilized her mother’s heart, but the aconitine continued to destroy her internal organs.

“Dr. Patel says the antidote is experimental and nearly impossible to acquire on short notice.”

“I have international teams locating it.”

“Celeste says she has it in her hands right now.”