Chapter 4 The Rules of Survival

The silence pressed against my skin like ice.

Damon stood between me and the only exit. He wasn't yelling. He didn't look angry. That's what made it worse.

I backed into the cabinet slowly, chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.

"Are you going to hurt me?" I asked, voice barely audible.

His eyes flicked to mine. "No. But you were never supposed to see this."

He stepped forward. One slow, calculated step.

"I didn't come down here to... to accuse you," I stammered. "I just....there was a picture. The frame. It felt... strange."

"You were curious," he finished, as if he understood me better than I understood myself.

He moved past me, brushing my shoulder with a chill that had nothing to do with the basement air. At the desk, he opened one of the folders, flipping through it with the disinterest of someone looking through an old yearbook.

"These documents, they're dangerous."

"Then why keep them?" I asked. "Why not destroy them if they're a threat?"

He closed the folder. Looked at it like it held a ghost.

"Because sometimes the truth is the only insurance you have."

I blinked. "Insurance against what?"

"Against the people who want me dead," he said simply.

The words hit me like a fist.

He reached for a small metal box on the top shelf and pulled out a single USB drive.

"This," he said, holding it up, "contains the last surveillance footage from the night my brother died. It's corrupted. Encrypted. Useless, so far."

He walked over and placed it in my hand.

I looked down at it like it was ticking.

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"Because I need someone I can trust," he said. "And I don't trust anyone else."

A lump formed in my throat. "You don't even trust me."

"No," he said. "But I want to."

I held the drive tighter, unsure if it was a gift... or a trap.

"I thought this marriage was supposed to be simple," I whispered. "Pretend we're in love, smile at your board meetings, wear expensive clothes, attend galas, and then go to separate bedrooms. That was the deal, right?"

He looked at me then, and for the first time since I'd met him, his eyes weren't cold. They were haunted.

"Nothing is ever simple in this house."

I looked around. At the clippings, the photos, the evidence he'd buried underground.

"You're not over it," I said quietly. "Your brother's death."

His jaw flexed. "I wake up every day knowing someone out there got away with it. Someone in my family's orbit."

I sat on the edge of the desk, my knees weak.

"You think it was your father?"

"I think..." He paused. "I think the people who smile the hardest are always hiding the most."

A heavy silence settled between us.

Then he turned back to me, voice suddenly sharp.

"If you want to stay here, Amira, you need to follow three rules."

I looked up. "Rules?"

"One: You don't go where you're not invited. That includes this basement."

I nodded slowly.

"Two: Don't believe everything people send you. Most of them want to use you to get to me. Or worse, turn you against me."

"Okay," I murmured.

"And three..." His voice dropped, low and dangerous. "If you ever betray me, I won't forgive it."

I froze.

The air felt colder than it had minutes ago. Thicker. Like it had turned to smoke and secrets.

"You think I'd betray you?" I asked, more hurt than I wanted to admit.

He didn't answer. Just turned toward the door and unlocked it.

"I'll have someone bring breakfast to your room," he said over his shoulder. "Don't leave the house today."

"Why?"

"Because they know you're asking questions now," he said. "And curiosity... has a cost."

He disappeared up the stairs without another word.

And I stood there in the dark, holding a USB that could unravel everything.

And wondering just how long I had before someone tried to silence me too.

To be continued...