CHAPTER SEVEN
Elena was scared to go home…She couldn't.
The idea of walking into her apartment…alone, with the lights off and the silence waiting felt like stepping into a trap she'd set herself.
Instead, she turned the car toward the one place that had always felt neutral ground… the old studio lot on the edge of the city, the one they'd stopped using after the last season wrapped.
It was abandoned now, chain-link fence sagging, security lights flickering like they were on their last breath.
She parked behind a row of rusted trailers, killed the engine, and sat there in the dark. The rearview mirror still showed nothing…no black SUV, no headlights trailing her. But she knew better than to trust the absence.
Her phone buzzed again. Another unknown number.
She let it ring until it stopped.
Then she opened her messages and scrolled back to the photo they'd sent…her own face, laughing in Jax's arms, captured from an angle that shouldn't have existed. She zoomed in.
The reflection in the trailer window behind them was faint but unmistakable…a sliver of a face, half-shadowed, watching.
Someone had been inside with them that day.
The realization settled like ice in her veins.
She needed answers. Not from Jax this time. He had already proven he could keep secrets when he thought it was for her safety. She needed someone who owed her nothing and feared nothing.
Mia.
Elena hadn't spoken to her since the night she had told her to get out of her life. But desperation has a way of rewriting boundaries.
She texted the last number she had for Mia…the one that hadn't changed in three years.
Meet me in…Old lot,trailer 14. Now or the next photo goes to the press with your name attached.
No reply for ten minutes.
Then: On my way.
Mia arrived twenty minutes later in a beat-up hatchback, headlights off until she was right beside Elena's car. She stepped out wearing an oversized hoodie and dark glasses, even though it was night. Her hands were shaking when she knocked on the window.
Elena unlocked the door. Mia slid in without a word.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
"You look like hell," Mia said finally.
"So do you."
Mia pulled off the glasses. Her eyes were red-rimmed. "I didn't know they had cameras in the trailer. I swear."
Elena's laugh was sharp. "Convenient."
"I'm not lying." Mia reached into her pocket, pulled out a small flash drive, and dropped it on the console between them. "This is everything I have. Emails,screenshots and audio clips.
Luke was the one who set it up. He thought it would be leverage to keep you in line…keep you from going public about Victoria too soon. He didn't know they'd use it like this."
Elena stared at the drive like it might bite. "Why are you giving me this now?"
"Because I'm scared." Mia's voice cracked.
"They came to my apartment last night. Same black SUV.
Same calm voice through the window. They said if I didn't feed them more, they'd make sure my next audition was my last ever."
Elena felt the air leave her lungs. "They're still active.. Even after Victoria's arrest?."
Mia nodded. "She was the face. Not the brain. Someone else is pulling strings…someone with deeper pockets and longer reach."
"Who?"
"I don't know. But they're not done with you nor Jax."
Elena picked up the drive…It felt heavier than it should.
"What's on here that can help?" she asked
"Proof Luke was working with Victoria's team. Timestamps. Payments. And one recording…Luke on a call, talking about 'the next phase.' Something about your father's company.
They're not just after reputations anymore. They want control."
Elena's pulse thundered. Her father had rebuilt after Victoria's collapse. If they were targeting him again…
She looked at Mia. "Why help me now? After everything?"
Mia met her gaze. "Because I laughed with Luke that day. I let it happen. And every time I see your face in the headlines, I remember how easy it was to betray someone I called a friend."
Elena didn't forgive her. Not yet. But she didn't throw the drive back either.
"Get out," she said quietly.
Mia hesitated. "Elena…"
"I said get out. But leave your phone number. The real one. If I need you again, I'll call."
Mia scribbled it on a scrap of paper, handed it over, and slipped out of the car without another word.
Elena waited until the hatchback's taillights disappeared before she started the engine again.
She didn't go home.
She drove straight to Jax's building…the high-rise downtown he'd moved into after the scandal broke. He had given her the code months ago, back when trust still felt simple.
The elevator ride up felt endless.
When the doors opened on his floor, she found him standing in the hallway outside his door, arms crossed, like he had been waiting.
"You didn't text," he said.
"I didn't want to give them time to follow the signal."
He studied her face. "You're shaking."
She stepped past him into the apartment. The lights were low, the city glittering through the floor-to-ceiling windows. It should have felt safe. It didn't.
She dropped the flash drive on the kitchen island.
"Mia," she said. "She gave me this. Proof Luke was in deeper than we thought. And that Victoria wasn't the top."
Jax picked it up, turned it over in his hand. "You went to her alone?"
"I needed answers you weren't giving me."
He flinched. "Fair."
She walked to the window, arms wrapped around herself.
"They sent me a photo from inside my trailer. Us. Together. Someone was there. Watching."
Jax went still. "When?"
"Does it matter? They have more. They're not done."
He crossed the room in three strides, stopping just short of touching her. "Then we end it."
"How?" Her voice was raw. "We can't keep running. We can't keep pretending one more secret will fix it."
He reached for her then, gently, turning her to face him. "We don't pretend. We go public. All of it. The photos, the threats, the drive. We burn their leverage by taking it away."
Elena searched his eyes. "And if they hit back harder? Your career…"
"Screw my career." His voice was low, fierce. "I already lost the only thing that matters once. I'm not doing it again."
She felt the first crack in her armor. "You really think we can win this?"
"I think we can make them regret starting it."
For the first time in days, she let herself lean into him. Just a little. His arms came around her, steady and warm.
They stood like that until her breathing slowed.
Then her phone buzzed on the island.
She pulled away to check it..Unknown number.
A video file this time. No preview thumbnail.
She hesitated, then tapped play.
Grainy footage… night and a balcony.
Jax was shirtless again. But this time the woman wasn't just holding him.
She was handing him something small. A flash drive, identical to the one on the counter.
He took it and looked straight at the camera. Smiled.
Then the screen cuts to black.
Text appeared…He's been playing both sides longer than you think.
Elena's hand went numb… The phone slipped.
Jax caught it before it hit the floor.
He looked at the screen. His face drained of color.
"Elena…"
She stepped back. "Tell me that's not real."
He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
The silence answered for him.
Outside, tires screeched faintly in the street below.
Headlights swept across the windows…slow and deliberate.
Then they were gone.
But the damage stayed.