The message arrived just after midnight.
No number. No warning.
Just a single line of text on Ife's phone:
Do you know what he did before he loved you?
Her breath caught.
She stared at the screen, heart pounding, instinct screaming Julian even before the second message came through.
A photo.
Arden—years younger—standing beside two men she didn't recognize. Blood on his knuckles. A body on the ground behind them, face blurred but unmistakably lifeless.
Her hands shook.
She didn't wake Arden right away.
Instead, she sat on the edge of the bed, staring into the dark, trying to reconcile the man beside her—the one who held her like she mattered—with the image burning into her mind.
At dawn, she couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Arden," she whispered.
He stirred, then froze when he saw her face. "What's wrong?"
She handed him the phone.
The color drained from his face.
"I was hoping he wouldn't do this," Arden said quietly.
"Is it real?" she asked. "Tell me the truth."
He sat up slowly. "Yes."
The word felt heavy.
She swallowed. "You killed someone."
"I was nineteen," he said. "My father's world. A test. I was told it was the only way to protect my family."
Silence pressed between them.
"I walked away after that," he continued. "That's why Julian hates me. I refused to become what he embraced."
Ife's chest ached. "You should have told me."
"I didn't want you to see me that way."
She looked at him, eyes shining. "You don't get to choose which parts of you I love."
That broke him.
He reached for her, forehead dropping to her shoulder. "I'm sorry."
She held him. Tight. "We all have blood in our pasts. Some of us just hide it better."
Later that day, Victor burst in, tense. "Julian's people were spotted near your old neighborhood, Ife."
Fear flashed across her face. "My mother—"
"We moved her," Victor said quickly. "She's safe."
Relief left Ife dizzy.
Julian was escalating.
And he was running out of patience.
That night, Arden made a decision.
"We end this," he told Victor. "Julian's going after families now."
Victor nodded grimly. "Then we don't wait."
Ife stepped forward. "He wants me shaken. Confused."
She lifted her chin. "So I'll be neither."
Arden cupped her face. "This is going to get ugly."
She smiled sadly. "Love already is."
They kissed—not gentle this time, but fierce. Like something to cling to when the world burned.
Across the city, Julian watched from a car parked across from Ife's old home.
"Still standing," he muttered.
His phone buzzed.
They didn't break.
Julian's smile returned, slow and dangerous.
"Then I'll break the city."