Xander's office was dark except for the cold blue glow from the city lights pressing against the glass. He hadn't moved from the chair since Evelyn dropped the name.
"Austin."
The word hung between them like smoke. Victor stood by the door, arms folded, eyes on the floor. He looked like a man who'd just watched his house burn down and didn't know whether to run or stay and breathe the ashes.
Xander's hands were still in his hair. His fingers trembled once, then locked tight. When he finally spoke, his voice came out cracked, raw, nothing like the velvet command she was used to.
"How much do you know?"
Evelyn didn't sit. She stayed standing, palms flat on the desk, leaning forward so he had to meet her eyes.
"Enough to know you've been lying to the whole world for three years. Enough to know Mia wasn't carrying your baby. Enough to know she was buying heavy sedatives and experimental drugs for someone who's supposed to be dead."
His throat worked. "You went to the pharmacy."
"Yes."
"Alone."
"Victor followed me. But I'm the one who asked the questions."
Xander's gaze flicked to Victor. The head of security gave the smallest shrug. "She's quick, sir. And stubborn."
A bitter laugh scraped out of Xander. "Yeah. I noticed."
He pushed up from the chair. Slow. Like every bone in his body hurts. He walked around the desk until he was close enough that Evelyn could smell the faint whiskey on his breath and the sharp cedar of his cologne. He didn't touch her.
He just stared, searching her face like he was trying to decide if she was the enemy or the only person left who might understand.
"You want the truth?" he asked quietly.
"I've wanted the truth since the day I walked into this building."
"Then sit down, Evelyn. Because once I start, I'm not stopping until it's all out. And you're not going to like most of it."
She hesitated for only a second. Then she pulled the chair closer and sat. Xander didn't sit. He leaned against the edge of the desk, arms crossed, eyes fixed somewhere above her head.
"It was four years ago. Late October. Rain like the sky was trying to drown London. Austin and I had been fighting for months. The company was bleeding money. The board wanted new blood. Julianne was whispering in everyone's ear that I was too young, too reckless. Austin… he was the golden boy, Charismatic. Everyone loved him. I was the one who actually ran the numbers and kept the lights on."
He paused and swallowed.
"We were driving back from a dinner with investors. He'd been drinking. Not enough for most people to notice, but enough that his hands shook on the wheel. I told him to pull over. He laughed and said I was scared. Said I'd always been scared of him. Then he looked at me, and said the one thing he knew would cut deepest."
Xander's voice dropped. "He told me our father never wanted me. That I was the mistake Mom made after Dad was already gone. That Austin was the real son. The only son."
Evelyn felt her stomach twist. She stayed quiet.
"I lost it," Xander continued. "I grabbed the wheel. We fought over it. The car spun. Hit the barrier. Rolled. When it stopped… Austin wasn't moving. Blood everywhere. I thought he was dead. I crawled out, called Victor. Victor got there before the ambulance. He saw the shape Austin was in, spine crushed, brain swelling. Doctors said he'd never wake up. Vegetative state at best. Permanent if we were lucky."
Xander's hands clenched into fists. "I could've told the truth. Could've said we fought. Could've let them drag my name through every tabloid in the country. But the company would've collapsed. The board would've used it as an excuse to sell everything our father built. Julianne would've won. And Austin… he would've been remembered as the drunk who killed himself and almost took his brother with him."
He finally looked at her. "So I lied. I told the police I was driving. Said Austin was in the passenger seat. Said the rain was bad and I lost control. They bought it. Insurance paid out. The company survived. And I moved Austin to a private facility in Switzerland. Round-the-clock care. Experimental treatments. Anything that might give him even a one-percent chance. I pay for it all. Every month. Every year. No one knows except Victor and three doctors who signed NDAs thicker than the Bible."
Evelyn's mouth felt dry. "And Mia?"
Xander exhaled through his nose. "Mia found out six months before she disappeared. She was going through old financials, saw the transfers. Confronted me. I thought she'd run to the press. Instead she cried. Then she asked to see him."
He rubbed a hand over his face. "I let her. First time I'd let anyone near him in years. She sat with him every weekend after that. I talked to him. Read to him. Held his hand. She believed he could hear her. Believed he was still in there somewhere."
His voice cracked on the next words. "She fell in love with him, not me, never me. Austin, the man who was supposed to be dead. She wanted to try one last treatment, something the doctors said was borderline illegal. High-risk. She went to St. Jude's because they don't ask questions if the cash is good. That's why she was buying the drugs."
Evelyn felt the room tilt. "She was pregnant."
Xander nodded once. "Twins. Austin's. IVF before the crash. She'd kept it secret because she didn't want anyone using the babies as leverage against me or against him. She was going to disappear. Start over somewhere quiet. Raise them away from all this poison."
He looked at Evelyn like he was seeing her for the first time.
"I didn't know she was planning to leave. Not until she was gone. I thought… I thought maybe she'd finally had enough of me, of the secrets, of the way I kept her at arm's length because I couldn't stand to see how much she loved someone I'd destroyed."
Silence stretched thick and heavy.
Evelyn's throat burned. "Why tell me now?"
"Because you didn't run screaming to the police the second you found the receipt."
His lips twisted into something that wasn't quite a smile.
"Because you looked at me like you were trying to decide whether to hate me or help me. And because I'm tired, Evelyn. I'm so fucking tired of carrying this alone."
He stepped closer. Close enough that she had to tilt her head back to hold his gaze. His hand came up slowly until his knuckles brushed her cheek. Not a caress, not yet just contact. Skin on skin.
"I've spent three years thinking I deserved every bad thing that happened to me," he whispered. "Three years thinking if I just paid enough, suffered enough, maybe the universe would call it even. Then you walked in here. Pretending to be my assistant. Watching me like you could see straight through the suit and the bullshit. And for the first time in years I didn't want to be alone in a room."
Evelyn's breath caught. "I'm not who you think I am."
"I know exactly who you are." His thumb traced the line of her jaw. "You're the woman who could ruin me with one phone call. And you haven't. Not yet."
She grabbed his wrist. Not to push him away. To hold him there. "If I ruin you, I ruin Austin too. I ruin Mia, I ruin those babies."
His eyes darkened. "So what are you going to do, Evelyn?"
She didn't answer with words.
She rose out of the chair, slow, deliberate, until they were chest to chest. Her hands slid up his arms, over shoulders that felt carved from stone, until her fingers curled into the hair at the back of his neck.
Xander sucked in a sharp breath.
She tugged him down.
Their mouths met, hard. Hungry. No gentle first kiss. This was teeth and desperation and three years of guilt crashing against six months of suspicion. He groaned into her mouth like a man who'd been starving. His hands found her waist, dragged her flush against him. She felt every hard line of him, felt the way he shook, like he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go.
When they broke apart, both breathing ragged, he pressed his forehead to hers.
"I don't deserve this," he rasped.
"Neither do I," she whispered back. "But I'm not walking away. Not tonight."
He kissed her again. Slower this time. Deeper. Like he was memorizing the shape of her mouth. His hands moved one sliding up her spine, the other cupping the back of her head, holding her like she was something fragile and dangerous at the same time.
Victor cleared his throat from the doorway.
They broke apart, breathing hard.
Victor didn't look surprised. Just tired.
"I'll be downstairs, sir. Call if you need anything."
He left without another word. The door clicked shut.
Xander rested his forehead against Evelyn's again.
"You still want to stay?"
She nodded. "I want the rest of the truth. And I want you to stop punishing yourself for something you didn't mean to do."
He let out a shaky laugh. "That might take longer than one night."
"Then we've got time." She pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I'm not going anywhere."
He pulled her into his arms then, properly this time. Wrapped her up like he was afraid the world would take her away if he loosened his hold. She buried her face in his neck, smelled the salt of his skin, felt the rapid thud of his heart against her chest.
For the first time since she'd walked into Voss Tower, Evelyn didn't feel like she was walking a tightrope.
She felt like she was finally standing on solid ground.
Even if that ground was built on secrets and lies and blood.