**DAMIAN’S POV**
The words echo in my ear long after the investigator stops speaking.
“She was the bait.”
For a moment, all I can hear is my own breathing, sharp and uneven. My study feels too small, too quiet, too suffocating. The dim light from the desk lamp throws long shadows across the walls, shadows that move when I do not. My pulse pounds against my skull, each beat landing like a blow.
I force myself to steady my voice. “Clarify that.”
The investigator hesitates. I know him well enough to understand what that hesitation means. There is worse coming.
“Sir,” he begins carefully, “Adrian blames you most of all.”
The words are a blade. Clean. Sharp. Deliberate.
I swallow, but my throat is dry. “Explain.”
“Adrian fully believes you betrayed him,” he continues. “Not Elena.”
I s
