CHAPTER 4:THE SHOCKING TRUTH

Sometimes the truth isn’t a light—it’s the match that burns the whole damn house down."

I stared at the photo until the edges cut into my fingers.

Me. Asleep in my bed. Barely visible through the sheer curtain of my old apartment window. The timestamp in the corner? Two nights ago. Right after I'd had that conversation with Tasha.

And scrawled across the bottom in that blood-red ink:

“Stop digging, little dove.”

Xander took one look and went rigid. "Where the hell did this come from?"

My voice came out rough. "You tell me. You’re the one with a list of enemies longer than the Fortune 500."

He didn’t even flinch. His jaw flexed like he was holding back something explosive.

"This isn’t just a threat," he said. "It’s a warning."

"No kidding."

He took the photo from me, scanned it again, then reached for his phone. "I need to call someone."

I grabbed his arm. “No. You don’t get to play protector now, Xander. You don’t get to lock me out of whatever this is. Not anymore.”

He looked at me, really looked, and for a second—just a second—I saw something crack behind those icy eyes.

“I was trying to keep you safe,” he said. “But I think it’s too late for that.”

---

We ended up at his private security firm's downtown office—because of course Xander Vale doesn’t trust the cops. He trusts his people—the kind who don't wear badges, but wear earpieces and carry guns discreetly under designer suits.

I sat stiffly in the leather chair while he reviewed surveillance footage, barked quiet orders, and pulled out a tablet loaded with encrypted files.

“I ran a background trace on the IP from the message you received before the brick,” he said. “It was rerouted through a dozen dead servers, but one name came up over and over.”

He flipped the tablet toward me.

Sebastian Marlowe.

The name meant nothing to me. But the photo attached? The man with the wolfish grin and cruel eyes?

I’d seen him once.

At one of Xander’s galas. He’d been whispering something into Xander’s ear while I stood three feet away, completely ignored.

“Who is he?” I asked.

Xander’s jaw tightened. “My former investor. Now? My most dangerous liability.”

“Because of the Circle?”

Xander looked up sharply. “Who told you that?”

I didn’t answer. He didn’t press.

Instead, he sat across from me, hands folded like we were in a negotiation.

“Marlowe funds the Circle. Quietly. He likes to dig his claws into powerful men. Offers capital and connections—then demands loyalty and silence.”

“And you?”

“I took his money. Then tried to walk away.”

I shook my head slowly. “That’s why you divorced me, isn’t it?”

He didn’t answer right away. Just stared at the photo on the table.

“Partly.”

“God,” I whispered. “You didn’t want me to get caught in the fallout.”

He finally met my eyes. “I knew they were watching. You would’ve been a vulnerability. An easy way to control me.”

"So you threw me away like I was disposable."

"No." His voice broke, barely audible. "I threw myself away to keep you safe."

“Lies are easier to swallow when they come from the lips you used to kiss goodnight.”

“I don’t believe you.”

My voice was barely above a whisper, but it sliced through the room like a scream.

Xander didn’t move. He just sat there, soaking in the accusation like he’d been expecting it all along.

“You could’ve told me,” I said. “You could’ve let me in instead of pushing me out. I would've helped you fight.”

“I couldn’t risk it, Raven.”

“And yet here we are,” I snapped. “The risk found me anyway, didn’t it?”

I stood up, pacing the room. Every memory now felt like it had a double meaning. The late nights. The cold distance. The quiet fury he never explained. God, had I been living in a damn movie set while someone else wrote the script behind my back?

“Tell me everything,” I demanded. “No more crumbs. No more ‘not now’ crap. I want the whole ugly truth.”

Xander looked at me for a long time. Then—he nodded.

---

He started from the beginning.

A private investment deal with Marlowe that turned into a blackmail trap. Hidden surveillance, threats of financial ruin, the Circle’s reach extending into government contracts, international assets, and yes—into Xander’s own boardroom.

“They don’t just ruin people,” he said quietly. “They erase them.”

My stomach turned. “And you thought divorcing me would protect me?”

“I knew it would put distance between us. At least legally. You’d stop being a target.”

“You don’t get it,” I said. “You didn’t save me. You shattered me. And then left me in the dark to bleed.”

His face didn’t so much as twitch. But his fingers curled into fists.

“I regret it every damn day.”

I didn’t want to feel sympathy. I shouldn’t feel it.

But then he opened a hidden folder on the tablet. And what I saw next burned all sympathy to ash.

---

Photos.

Dozens of them.

Of me.

Walking to work. At my apartment. Having coffee with Tasha. Shopping. In my gym clothes.

All timestamped.

All recent.

I looked up at him slowly, throat dry. “You’ve been having me followed.”

“No,” he said. “They have.”

He tapped the screen again. Zoomed in on one image I hadn’t noticed before.

A man. Standing across the street from my apartment.

Dark hoodie. Face down. Phone out.

Not the same guy each time—but always there.

And in the corner of one photo… there it was.

A glint of something metallic.

A ring.

Engraved with a symbol I didn’t recognize—but Xander did.

He whispered it like a curse.

“The Ouroboros.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

Xander looked at me, expression hard.

“It means they’ve marked you.”

“What?”

He leaned forward.

“You’re not just being watched anymore, Raven.”

He picked up the tablet and turned it off.

“You’ve been chosen.

"The worst betrayal isn’t the lie—it’s realizing they thought you couldn’t handle the truth."

“Chosen for what?” I asked.

Xander didn’t answer right away. And that silence? It said more than any confession could.

I stood slowly. My chest felt tight, like my ribs were holding in a scream.

“I need you to tell me everything. Right now.”

He rose too. “It’s not that simple.”

“No.” I stared him down. “It’s exactly that simple. Either you talk, or I walk. For good this time.”

His eyes narrowed, and for a split second I saw the CEO in him take over—the man who built empires with his gaze alone. But I wasn’t the broken girl he walked away from anymore.

He noticed.

“They marked you because of me,” he finally said. “The Circle selects leverage points—people close to their enemies. They manipulate them, own them, destroy them if needed.”

I swallowed. “So I’m bait.”

“You’re more than that.” He paused. “You’re proof I have something to lose.”

That broke me.

Because part of me wanted to hear it. The twisted romantic in me, the girl who used to wear his ring, wanted to believe that meant he still loved me. That all of this chaos came from a place of protection.

But the rest of me? The woman who clawed her way back from heartbreak?

She wasn’t buying it.

“I won’t be your weakness, Xander,” I said quietly. “And I won’t let you be mine.”

He moved toward me. “Raven—”

“I’m done,” I said. “I’m done with secrets and bodyguards and being the collateral damage in your private war.”

I picked up my purse, ignoring the ache in my chest.

“I’m not scared of them,” I added. “But I’m done letting you decide how this ends.”

Just as I reached the door, my phone buzzed.

Unknown number.

I answered on instinct.

A voice—distorted, low, calculated—slithered through the line:

> “You’re brave, Raven Vale. Let’s see how long that lasts.”

The line went dead.