Alex started walking down the hallway.

The others followed in silence.

But as they stepped out into the cool night air, the weight of what waited hung between them... unspoken, thick, impossible to shake.

The night was quiet, but not still.

Alex didn't look back.

His mind was already moving forward, cold and calculating.

Sophia thought she was clever. Thought her little games gave her power, that she could manipulate people like chess pieces and walk away untouched.

She had no idea what was coming.

He was going to teach her a lesson she'd never forget. One so thorough, so devastating, that she'd understand exactly what happened when you came after the people he cared about.

But not yet.

Not while she had a use. Marcus still had to be taken care of... and she was the tool for it.

Patience, he reminded himself. Let her think she's won for now. Let her plan her punishment for Lila. Let her believe she's still in control.

Then, when the time was right...

He'd take everything from her.

"This isn't over," he said quietly, almost to himself.

Mike didn't reply, but Alex felt the shift in his friend's energy. The quiet acknowledgment.

Alex glanced sideways at him, catching the profile of his face in the dim streetlight.

And that's when he really saw it.

The tension in Mike's jaw. The way his shoulders curved slightly inward, like he was trying to protect something fragile inside.

The distant look in his eyes that had nothing to do with what they'd just left behind in that apartment.

Mike wasn't just affected.

He was hurting.

And Alex suddenly understood why.

Who wouldn't be?

When you're used as a pawn in someone else's game. When your emotions are manipulated, your trust weaponized, your friendship turned into a tool for someone's revenge.

It didn't matter that Mike had known about Lila from the beginning. Didn't matter that he'd played along, pretending to be fooled.

The fact that it was necessary didn't make it hurt less.

Sophia had tried to turn him into a victim. Had tried to destroy his friendship with Alex the same way she'd destroyed others before.

And even though they'd stopped it, even though they'd won...

The wound was still there.

Alex's jaw tightened, a cold fury settling into his chest.

Sophia would pay for that too.

For every moment of doubt she'd planted. For every second Mike had to pretend to care about someone who was lying to his face.

For using his kindness, his loyalty, his capacity to trust as weapons against him.

She'd pay for all of it.

Not just once.

A hundred times over.

He'd make sure of it.

***

Sophia's Bedroom: Blackwood Mansion

The room was dark, the glow from the monitor painting her face in cold blue light. She sat motionless, wine glass poised halfway to her lips, as Mike burst through the door.

Finally.

Her pulse quickened with anticipation.

This was it... the moment she'd been waiting for.

Her heart thrummed with anticipation, a smile tugging at her lips before she could stop it.

She'd imagined this scene a hundred times... how it would unfold, how Mike's face would twist the instant he saw them.

Alex would see them together, rage would consume him, and the carefully constructed friendship between him and Alex would shatter like glass.

Then Mike stepped in... and froze. Disbelief cut across his face, every muscle locking tight as his gaze flicked from Lila to Alex, confusion curdling into raw betrayal.

Sophia's pulse spiked. There it is. The look she'd been waiting for. That raw, stunned pain that cracked through even his practiced composure.

A rush of heat flooded her chest... part triumph, part adrenaline, part something dangerously close to exhilaration.

Her fingers trembled, not from fear but from the intoxicating thrill of control.

"That's it," Sophia breathed through the earpiece, her voice smooth and electric. "Sell it, Lila. Make him believe."

On screen, Lila clutched the sheet to her chest, tears spilling in perfect rhythm... every sob, every flinch, every broken plea executed with precision.

The way she trembled, the way she choked out those accusations... it was so convincing that even she might've believed it, if she hadn't known the truth. Let alone Mike.

The perfect victim.

Mike dropped to his knees beside Lila, his voice gentle, concerned... exactly as it should.

"There," she murmured, lips curving into a faint, mocking smile. "That's better. The one thing you're actually good at, my little bitch."

But then Mike's expression changed.

The gentleness vanished, replaced by something cold. Hard.

Furious.

And when his hand came up...

CRACK.

The slap echoed through Sophia's speakers.

Sophia froze in place, eyes locked on the screen.

At Mike standing over Lila.

At the rage in his eyes.

At the contempt in his voice as he spoke words that made Sophia's blood run cold.

"You two-faced bitch."

No.

"Did you really think I didn't know?"

No no no...

"From the beginning, Lila. I knew what you were."

Sophia's hands gripped the armrests of her chair, knuckles white.

This wasn't possible.

He couldn't have known.

She'd been so careful. Every detail planned, every contingency accounted for. The manipulation had been flawless.

How...?

Her mind raced, scrambling to understand.

Where had they miscalculated?

And then Mike said it. The words that made everything crystallize with horrifying clarity.

"Alex and I figured it out from the very begining."

Which meant...

Sophia's breath stopped.

Which meant every moment since then had been a performance. Every interaction, every response, every carefully baited trap... they'd been playing along.

Watching her.

Letting her think she was winning while they...

"No," she whispered, shaking her head. "No, that's not... I would have seen it. I would have known..."

But even as she said it, she knew it was true.

Her plan... the one she'd thought was flawless, untouchable... had crumbled right in front of her.

Had failed.

No.

Worse than failed.

It had been anticipated. Countered. Used against her.

She pressed her palms against the desk, breathing hard, staring at the screen as Mike delivered the final blow and walked away.

For a long moment, she just stood there, trying to process what had just happened.

The room was dark, the glow from the monitor painting her face in cold blue light.

On the screen, the girl she had made... sculpted from fear and desperation... crumbled.

Piece by piece.

It should have bothered her. It should have made her angry.

But it didn't.

A slow smile curved across Sophia's lips.

Because this wasn't failure.

This was revelation.

Her perfect, obedient little creation... the one who was supposed to be an extension of her will... had dared to reach for something that wasn't hers.

Had dared to want Alex.

Sophia leaned back in her chair, wine trembling in her hand from the slightest shake of laughter.

"Oh, Lila…" she whispered, amusement slipping into the edges of her voice. "You really thought you could keep him, didn't you?"

She watched the feed again... watched Alex's words slice through Lila like a knife, watched the girl fall to her knees and beg, watched her choke on humiliation until there was nothing left but ruin.

And Sophia smiled wider.

It wasn't anger burning through her chest. It was pleasure.

A deep, sharp satisfaction that made her pulse quicken.

"You failed," she murmured softly. "You stupid, ungrateful bitch. You failed."

Her fingernail traced slow, aimless circles against the bedsheet, the faint rasp of fabric breaking the heavy silence.

"I told you not to want him," she said, voice low, threaded with dangerous calm. "I warned you what happens when you try to take what's mine."

The word mine lingered in the air, soft as silk, sharp as metal.

Sophia leaned closer to the screen, her eyes narrowing.

Alex's face filled the frame... his patience, his control, that quiet fury simmering in him even as he tore Lila apart with every word.

God, he was exquisite when he was angry.

Her breath caught.

A strange, slow heat unfurled low in her spine.

For weeks she had told herself this was about revenge. About settling a debt. About proving she was smarter than him, stronger than the men who had ever underestimated her.

But watching him now... watching him look at Lila the way he used to look at her, cold and dangerously calm... she understood the lie she'd been telling herself.

She didn't want to destroy him.

She wanted him.

Not his submission. Not his surrender.

Him.

His quiet cruelty. His measured words. His mind. His hands. His discipline that could strip a person bare without ever raising his voice.

A shiver ran through her... slow, deliberate. Her fingers tightening around her glass until it creaked softly.

She could see it vividly... the way it should have been her beneath him, not that other woman. Those eyes. That voice. Every detail burned into her mind.

And for the first time in years, Sophia's envy didn't taste like bitterness. It tasted like hunger.

"That stupid girl," she whispered, a small laugh spilling out of her. "She got to touch what she could never keep."

Her grin sharpened.

And the thought that she had watched it... that she had seen every second, every movement, that she had been part of it even from behind the screen... sent a faint, electric thrill down her spine.

"Pathetic little thief," she breathed. "You thought you could replace me."

Her gaze hardened as she whispered, "But you're the one who reminded me how badly I still want him."

She stood slowly, crossing the room as the replay ended... the final frame frozen on Lila's collapsed, naked form.

Sophia stopped before the monitor, her reflection staring back at her from the smoke-gray glass.

"You wanted what's mine," she murmured, almost tenderly. "So I'll take something from you in return."

Her fingers brushed against the edge of the screen.

"I'll make sure you understand what punishment actually feels like, my sweet little Lila."

Her smile deepened, soft and chilling.

Then her tone shifted... quieter, serious, almost reverent.

"And Alex…"

She exhaled slowly, letting the words linger like smoke.

"You've awakened something that should've stayed buried. You still belong to me. You always did."

Sophia's eyes glimmered in the half-darkness as she reached for her phone.

The reflection of her grin on the screen was as beautiful as it was monstrous.

It wasn't rage that fueled her anymore.

It was the thrill of desire.

And the knowledge that the next game she played... it wouldn't be for revenge.

It would be for love.

Twisted. Obsessive.

And hers alone.

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