Jax Ryland sat heavily on the black leather sofa; the physical pain from Elias Vance's punch was a dull, distant throb. The adrenaline was gone, replaced by a cold, agonizing note of guilt and confusion. He wiped the blood from his split lip. Elias's words echoed in the silence of the penthouse: You triggered a profound trauma, Ryland. A nightmare she spent fifteen years trying to bury.
His obsession had been a selfish, aggressive pursuit of control. Now, it had collided violently with a genuine, devastating vulnerability. Jax no longer cared about the contract, the tour, or the corporate rivalry. He only saw Aria's face: the panic in her eyes, the desperate defense, the clear, terrifying mark of a past he couldn't comprehend.
Jax thought: Fifteen years. Kidnapped at sixteen. That's the unseen scar. He suddenly understood the fortress, the secrecy, and the violence of her reaction.
He needed answers. Not for the contract, but for her. But Elias had drawn a clear, deadly boundary. If you come near her, I will not call the security team. I will end your career and your freedom myself.
Jax knew he couldn't approach her physically again. He needed information and a different kind of weapon: silence.
He picked up his secure phone and dialed Marcus Sam.
"Terminate the upstate surveillance immediately," Jax ordered, his voice flat. "The target is not there. I have her current location. Do not approach or surveil that location. I want you to focus every resource on Aria Vance's past. Specifically, anything related to her life before she turned twenty-one. Dig deep into the old records of Thorne Company. I need every detail about a kidnapping or a major traumatic event she experienced fifteen years ago. Use extreme caution. Do not leave a single digital footprint.
He was staking his wealth on a deep, dark dive into her trauma. It was still a dangerous form of hunting, but this time, he was hunting for the cause of the scar, not the woman herself.
Across town, Soverkis Volkov was in her penthouse, reviewing the final details of the new, aggressive campaign against Zenith Publishing. The failure to buy out Vance Global had been a minor inconvenience. Now, she would deploy the leverage provided by Chloe Thorne.
She was on a video call with her marketing director in Milan.
"The acquisition strategy has shifted," Soverkis stated, looking at the screen with predatory focus. We are not attacking the asset, we are attacking the stability of the management. The target is Aria Vance.
The director looked confused. Aria Vance, the security operative? Why not Jax Ryland's finances?
Ryland is too visible. Vance is the shield, Soverkis explained, a calculating smile touching her lips. Chloe Thorne has provided us with the perfect public narrative: Vance Global destroyed her family's legacy, and now Aria Vance is distracting Jax Ryland from his duties. We will launch a controlled information leak on social media and specialized fashion blogs. The leak will suggest that Aria Vance's private vendettas are creating security instabilities for the Eclipse Tour, making Zenith appear chaotic and unreliable.
The director understood. We position her as the unstable factor. The reckless shadow. And we use Chloe's fashion house to provide an alternative, stable narrative.
"Exactly," Soverkis confirmed. The message is simple: Jax Ryland cannot focus on his business because his security is compromised by a personal drama. This will force Zenith's shareholders to panic and will show Jax that his choice of security operative is a liability, not an asset.
Soverkis ended the call, feeling a deep, quiet satisfaction. She believed Jax would soon realize that the only person who could match his ambition and provide him with true stability was her. Aria Vance was about to become collateral damage in a corporate and romantic war.
Elias Vance returned to his office, his face still tight with suppressed violence. He immediately canceled all meetings for the rest of the day.
He sat down and pulled up the most heavily encrypted file on his server: Aria Vance, Status: Active/Protected. He reviewed the details of the past, focusing on the core truth.
Aria's trauma began at the age of ten, when her mother, Elena, died, and she was taken to the orphanage. That is where he met her, a small, quiet girl whom he protected from bullies.
He was later adopted by General Vance, a soldier. A few years later, when Aria was sixteen, she was kidnapped. The official reports claimed no successful rescue, only that the case went cold. The truth was, she was saved by a covert team of mercenary soldiers. The mercenary leader saw the fire in her, the ultimate survivor, and brought her into their ranks.
Elias, who had always protected her, followed her into that shadow world. He became a mercenary soldier himself, a lower rank, serving as her operational second-in-command, a silent protector who managed her corporate life. Only Talia and Elias knew she was now Commander Aria Vance, an operative in a clandestine unit.
Elias thought: Jax Ryland would never know the truth of her strength, only the scar. I will ensure he pays for triggering that fear.
He then contacted Lena Rourke, the head of Vance Global's security division for the Eclipse Tour.
"Lena, I have a new directive. All communication with Jax Ryland and the Aether band is to be channeled through a new, single, anonymous layer of management. This layer must operate under the code name 'Vigilance.' Aria is to be completely removed from all digital and direct contact regarding the Zenith contract. All communication logs related to Aria and Jax Ryland must be purged and re-routed to a ghost server.
Lena, recognizing the extreme urgency in Elias's voice, simply confirmed: Understood, sir. Vigilance is active immediately. All tracks are covered.
Elias had put an additional, impenetrable layer between Aria and Jax. He was using his full corporate power to enforce the emotional boundary that had been so violently crossed.
He then pulled up the transfer logs for Aria's equipment. The automated tailoring system was safely diverted to the shell holding warehouse, away from the prying eyes of the industrial park. Aria's escape plan was still on track, secured by her brother's protective rage.
Aria woke slowly in the deep, quiet comfort of her silk sheets. The initial terror had passed, replaced by a profound, draining exhaustion. Mrs. Petrov was asleep in the chair beside her bed.
Aria sat up, feeling the stiffness in her muscles. She had been asleep for ten hours. The raw memory of Jax's kiss and her subsequent violence still lingered, but the protective haze of sleep had dulled the immediate shock.
She looked at her hand, the one that had delivered the devastating slap. She felt no regret. It was a reflex of survival, a line drawn in blood.
Aria knew she had two choices: retreat completely and abandon her design future, or build the walls higher and stronger.
She quietly slipped out of bed and went to her desk. She bypassed all her operational files and opened the Valkyrie game. It was a foolish risk, but she needed the contact, the mental exercise, and the distraction from the shame and fear Jax had triggered.
Nick Aliyev MoodMaker was online.
MoodMaker: "Hey. Glad you're back. You went dark fast yesterday. We almost failed the run. Jax showed up this morning, and he's quiet. Like, dangerously quiet. Something happened.
Aria felt a cold chill run down her spine. Nick was her keyhole view into the enemy's camp.
Aria thought: Jax is quiet because Elias hit him and because I hit him. He is hunting my past now. I must keep Nick close.
Valkyrie: The digital run is all I can manage right now. I'm having stability issues. We need to work on defense. Are you busy with the press junket?
MoodMaker: Not yet. We start tomorrow. Today, I'm just trying to make sense of what's happening with Jax. He keeps getting these intense, secret calls. Anyway, I'm free for the next four hours. Ready to run the South Sector?
Valkyrie: "Ready."
For the next four hours, Aria focused completely on the game. She and Nick worked as a seamless, silent team, anticipating each other's moves, building an unbreakable perimeter. The digital world was the only place where Aria felt safe and in control. Nick, focused on the game, was providing her with the perfect, innocent intelligence: Jax was now operating in secret, and he was distracted by intense, private calls, likely with Marcus Sam.
Jax Ryland received Marcus Sam's initial report late that night. It was a cryptic digital file containing fragments of old news stories and police reports. The details were sparse, but the headline was clear: Daughter of Thorne CEO Kidnapped, Held for Ransom.
Jax opened the file and read the blurred, old police reports. Aria Thorne, age sixteen. Held for three days. There was no mention of a successful rescue, only a closed investigation. The reports mentioned "emotional distress" and "extreme control."
Jax realized: The story went silent because the rescue wasn't official. She didn't come home. She ran to the shadows.
He finally had the key to the wall. He saw the full picture: The young girl, traumatized by the fear of being controlled, ran into a life of lethal secrecy. This was the foundation of her entire defense, the trauma that created the absolute need for secrecy.
His obsession was no longer physical, it was rooted in a desperate, overwhelming need to understand and protect this unseen scar. He had hurt her by triggering the fear, and he needed to fix it.
He sat back, the throbbing of his lip forgotten. He realized his corporate rival was a scared, traumatized survivor. He needed to find a way to communicate, a way that did not involve breaking doors or seizing control. He needed a bridge.
He thought of the game he often saw Nick playing. The band members sometimes talked about it: Valkyrie.
Jax walked over to Nick's room, which was vacant before the tour. He opened the door to the silent room and looked at the gaming setup. He remembered Nick complaining about the anonymity of the online players, how only the gameplay mattered.
Jax thought: If I could get into that game, I could reach her. Not directly, but through a trusted proxy. It's the only place Elias can't stop me, and the only place she seems to trust.
Jax didn't know the identity of 'Valkyrie,' but he knew Nick was 'MoodMaker,' and he knew Nick's connection to the game was his most trusted form of communication. Jax decided to use Nick as the unknowing link to the woman he had wounded.
He needed Nick to send a message a specific, coded apology that only Aria would understand, delivered through the anonymous veil of the game and directed at 'Valkyrie,' who Jax merely assumed was Aria's most reliable contact, not Aria herself.
The plan was reckless, invasive, and potentially devastating. Jax was about to use Nick Aliyev, the unknowing friend, to penetrate Aria Vance's final, safe perimeter, just as Soverkis Volkov prepared to publicly attack her stability.