Chapter 5
When I sat across from Damian that day, he looked at me as if I were mildly interesting.
“You want to date me to piss off your roommate?”
“No,” I said. “I want to date you to destroy her.”
One elegant eyebrow rose.
“That’s a strong opening.”
I slid my phone across the table. On the screen were screenshots. Bella’s messages to my exes. Her revealing photos. Her smug bragging to Jennifer and Rachel about how easy men were to manipulate. A few audio clips too, secretly recorded in the dorm, where she laughed about “training” me by stealing my boyfriends.
Damian glanced through them, expression unreadable.
Then I showed him the last screenshot.
Bella’s private post from a small-circle account.
Damian Steele is the final boss. Once I take him, I’ll know for sure that no man can resist me.
He finally looked up.
“That’s bold.”
“I know.”
“And you want me to be the bait.”
“I want her to think she won. Completely. Publicly. Irreversibly. I want her to climb to the highest point of her fantasy and then fall so hard she never recovers.”
The corner of his lips moved.
“That sounds less like heartbreak and more like a business proposal.”
I sat straighter.
“It is.”
“What do I get?”
“Entertainment.”
He laughed.
The first real laugh I had ever heard from him.
Then he leaned back and studied me for a long moment.
“You’re not hurt at all, are you?”
I smiled at him.
“Oh, I’m hurt. I just prefer revenge.”
That was how our arrangement began.
At first, it was simple.
He would pursue me publicly.
Bella would hear about it, see it, obsess over it.
Then he would create just enough cracks for her to slip through, enough for her to believe she had done it again.
But there was one rule.
One absolute rule.
No matter how convincing the act became, Damian would tell me in advance before every key move.
And for a while, he did.
The tennis court? Planned.
The yacht? Planned.
The project bait? Planned.
Even Bella’s “accidental” entry into the school play had been nudged into place.
The injured female lead was real. Bella stepping in was also real. But the person who quietly made sure Bella heard there was an opening was Damian’s cousin.
What wasn’t planned was that Bella turned out to be greedier than either of us expected.
She didn’t just want Damian.
She wanted access to the Steel family’s pharmaceutical project.
And once money and patents entered the picture, the game changed.
I stared at Damian in the dim stairwell.
“You should have told me it got this dangerous.”
He looked at me for a few seconds before answering.
“If I had told you how far she was willing to go, you would have stormed into the dorm and ripped her hair out.”
“I still might.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
I sucked in a breath and looked away.
He stepped closer, gentler this time.
“Molly.”
I refused to meet his eyes.
“Molly, look at me.”
I still didn’t move.
Then his fingers lifted my chin, and I had no choice but to look.
There was no teasing in his face now.
Only seriousness.
“She and Lucas have been trying to get information from me for the last three weeks. They’re not just flirting. They’re cooperating. Bella doesn’t even realize Lucas is using her too.”
That made me frown.
“Using her for what?”
“The formula.” His voice went flat. “Or at least enough internal information to help an investor undercut us before the product launch.”
Cold rushed down my back.
So that was it.
That was why Lucas had reappeared.
That was why Bella suddenly had access to people she could never have reached on her own.
That was why Damian’s father had been pressuring him day and night.
Bella thought she was in a love triangle.
In reality, she had wandered into a corporate trap.
And because she loved feeling chosen, she had stepped right into it.
I exhaled slowly.
“So where do I come in now?”
Damian’s eyes sharpened.
“Now we end it.”