Lucian wasn’t at the office or Rosehaven.

He was in an extravagantly furnished private room.

There were windows, but layered decorative screens concealed the daylight.

He sat on a dark red sofa. Even the Persian carpet beneath his feet was red. Under the warm, hazy lights, it looked soaked in blood.

The Red Room.

Velvet was one of Fairhaven’s most exclusive private clubs. This room was its most secluded, impossible to book at any price.

Apparently, it was kept for Lucian.

Several other men were there. Familiar faces. Sons of families with wealth and real power.

Money alone wouldn’t buy a place in this room.

Most had one or two women beside them, drinking and laughing.

The women were equally remarkable. Models. Popular young actresses. Even the unfamiliar ones were strikingly beautiful, with immaculate figures and polished manners.

Their laughter was warm and flirtatious without sounding forced.

Lucian sat alone in a corner.

He seemed to occupy a separate world.

A cigarette burned between his fingers. He barely touched it.

Behind the smoke and dim light, his face remained remote as he watched the others.

His mind was elsewhere.

Since my death, every time I came near him, I seemed to feel the same lingering sadness.

Could a man like him really grieve?

“Holy shit.”

Felix was sprawled on a sofa, looking at his phone while a beautiful woman fed him fruit.

He suddenly sat up.

“Lucian, that bastard’s trending. He’s using you to make himself look like a victim.”

I hurried over.

The top trend read, “PROTECT JULIAN WHITMORE.”

What was he doing now?

Others took out their phones. Between them, I pieced together what had happened.

Lucian’s visit to headquarters and his revelation that I was still missing had caused an uproar.

Julian’s perfect-husband image had cracked badly.

“JULIAN WHITMORE IS TOO PERFECT TO BE REAL” was still trending.

But ten minutes earlier, he had posted on his personal account.

“My thanks to Mr. Blackwood for personally attending today and bringing a little excitement to my first shareholders’ meeting as acting CEO. Consider it a show we put on together. My wife is facing the hardest time of her life. She is a deeply proud person. Please forgive me for being unable and unwilling to expose her circumstances to public scrutiny. When the time is right, Stella will speak for herself.”

“I know certain people have held a grudge against my wife for years. As her husband, I will bear whatever hostility follows. Perhaps the Whitmore Group means little to you, but my wife and generations of my family have devoted their lives to it. As the eldest Whitmore son and Stella’s husband, I will do whatever it takes to protect it.”

By the time I finished, my anger had cooled into something close to admiration.

He was a master of selective truth.

Two short paragraphs, and he had become the long-suffering victim.

He had knowingly lied about the woman in the hospital. That should have destroyed his reputation.

Instead, he made it sound as though my pride had forced him to keep quiet.

My fault again.

And Lucian exposing him had become a powerful man bullying a devoted husband.

Nobody could compete with Julian when it came to looking vulnerable and collecting sympathy.

The public swallowed it.

Lucian’s reputation was as terrible as mine had been.

The conversation turned in Julian’s favor almost immediately.

“What kind of romance-novel CEO is this man? So calm. So gracious. I’m crying.”

“He looks so gentle and harmless. Like a pretty little flower getting chased by… well. I’d name names, but I don’t want a certain devil getting my account banned.”

“He’s a gentleman. Marrying that shrew was bad enough. Now he has to clean up her mess and deal with an actual psychopath.”

“Stella ruins everything. She fought Blackwood for years, and now she’s dragging Julian into it. He’s just a sweet thirty-year-old guy. How is he supposed to survive these corporate sharks?”

“Protect Julian! I’m a student, but I’ll take another shift and buy Whitmore stock!”

“One share each. We can hold him up!”

“I’ll put everything I have into his company. He deserves better!”

The sympathy campaign actually drove the stock higher.

The company eagerly reposted his message and announced his appointment ahead of time.

“Thank you for your interest in the Whitmore Group. We can confirm that Mr. Julian Whitmore’s tenure as acting CEO ends tomorrow. He will then officially assume the role of chief executive officer.”

Once the money arrived, his appointment was supposed to be certain.

“That fucking idiot.” Felix grew angrier with every comment. “He thinks he can use you? Don’t worry. I’ll deal with him.”

“What’s the rush?”

Lucian looked perfectly calm.

He carried a plate of raw meat to an aquarium and dropped in two bloody pieces.

Dozens of fish swarmed them.

The meat vanished in seconds. Nothing remained but a faint cloud of blood.

My stomach turned.

Piranhas.

Of course that lunatic kept piranhas.

“How much is the stock up?” he asked, watching them feed with unsettling interest.

“Two percent,” Felix said sourly.

Lucian tipped the rest of the meat into the tank.

“Help it along. I want it up ten percent by the close.”

Felix stared.

“What? You’re joking. Why help that bastard make money?”

Lucian didn’t answer.

Felix still went to do as he was told. He trusted him that much.

I watched Lucian.

He never made a losing deal. Never accepted a slight without responding.

Julian had used public sympathy to take a swing at him.

Why help him rise?

Then it became clear.

The higher he lifted Julian, the harder he would fall.