"Everyone has a secret they'll kill to protect. But mine? I'll kill to bury it deeper."
---
The calm before a storm isn't silence.
It's calculation.
It's the sound of keys tapping softly at midnight.
Of legal documents quietly switching hands.
Of enemies smiling across dinner tables, knowing the knives are already drawn.
Amaris didn't sleep. She didn't need to.
She had war to plan.
And in war, the only rule that mattered was: strike first.
---
One Week Later – Public Statement
Celeste Harrington stood behind a podium, pale but poised. Her statement was polished. Prepped. Perfect.
> "While I admit to past mistakes, I want to make it clear—Amaris Lane has not told the entire truth."
> "There are things the public doesn't know about her."
> "Dark things."
> "And if she insists on dragging me into the mud, I will not go alone."
Amaris watched from her penthouse with a slow, deliberate smirk.
"She blinked," she murmured to Elliot, who sat nearby, eating popcorn.
"She's trying to flip the narrative," he said. "But she's two steps behind."
"She always was."
But then… Elliot's laptop pinged.
And everything shifted.
---
Incoming Message:
Sender: Anonymous
Subject: [ACE Project Footage – Classified Copy]
File Attached: ace_hidden_memory.mov
Note: "Thought this died with the rest of your past. Guess not."
---
Elliot clicked it.
And the moment the footage began playing—
Amaris stood.
Her skin turned cold. Her wine glass slipped from her hand, shattering.
"No," she whispered.
Because there, on the screen, was her.
A fifteen-year-old Amaris, sitting in a sterile lab room. Monitored. Hooked to wires. Surrounded by men in lab coats.
She was crying.
And she was saying something over and over again.
> "Please. I just want to go home."
---
Elliot paused it immediately. "What the hell is that?"
But Amaris didn't speak.
She just stared.
Frozen.
Like time had cracked open a part of her she buried too deep.
"Amaris," he said again, gently. "What is ACE?"
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"…a program. A mistake. Something I was never supposed to survive."
---
Five Years Ago – Hidden Memory
Before Edenrose. Before the fame.
Before the world knew her name.
There was only a girl locked in a secret facility.
Amaris Lane had been chosen—no, taken—for a behavioral prototype study run by her father's political allies. Something about emotional endurance. Neural compliance. Testing if trauma could build loyalty.
She was one of the volunteers. Orphans, mostly. But she wasn't one. She was his daughter.
But when you're an inconvenient truth in a polished legacy, you become expendable.
The project was illegal. Hidden. Shut down before it could launch.
And her mother had pulled her out, wiped the records, buried the tapes.
Until now.
---
Present – Zayden's Office
Zayden stood over the boardroom window, face tense.
He hadn't spoken to Celeste since her press conference.
She'd made it clear—she was willing to drag Amaris through fire to survive.
His phone buzzed again.
Celeste: I have the ACE file. If she keeps attacking, I'll leak it. You choose whose side you're on, Zayden. Now.
He didn't respond.
Because something about the file made him sick.
He remembered vague rumors about secret labs, whispers around Amaris's father, sudden shifts in her behavior sophomore year. But he'd never connected the dots.
He remembered the scars on her back she refused to explain.
The panic attacks.
The nightmares.
The way she flinched when someone touched her too suddenly.
God.
What did they do to her?
And worse—why did no one stop it?
---
Amaris's Apartment – Balcony
Elliot stood behind her.
She didn't cry. She didn't scream.
She just stood in the cold wind, staring down at the glittering city she now ruled with silence.
"You could disappear again," Elliot said softly. "We could wipe the file. Change your identity. No one has to know."
"I'm tired of hiding," she murmured.
"If it leaks, Amaris… it won't make people love you. It'll make them pity you. That's worse."
"I don't need love," she said, voice low. "I just want them afraid of me."
But even she didn't believe it.
Because fear wasn't what she wanted from Zayden.
She wanted something else.
Something more dangerous.
---
FLASHBACK – Three Years Ago (During Her Disappearance)
Elliot found her bleeding outside a train station. She hadn't eaten in two days.
He took her in. Never asked what happened. Just gave her warmth, silence, tools.
She never told him about ACE.
Because the moment she escaped that place, she vowed:
> No one would ever control her again.
Not her father. Not Zayden. Not the truth.
---
Edenrose Tower – Later That Night
Zayden found her standing in the private rooftop garden.
She didn't flinch when he approached. Didn't move when he said her name.
"I saw the footage."
Her jaw tightened.
"I didn't know. About any of it."
"You weren't supposed to."
He stepped closer. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She laughed bitterly. "You couldn't even believe I didn't leak a sex tape. You think you would've believed I was tortured in a facility your father helped fund?"
Zayden's face paled.
"Yeah," she said softly. "Check your dad's donation history. Project ACE. You were all part of it."
He took a shaky breath. "I'm sorry."
She turned to face him fully, finally meeting his gaze. "You keep saying that."
"Because it's all I have left."
"No," she said. "You have everything. You always did. Your name. Your power. Your life."
Her voice dropped.
"You know what I had?"
He waited.
"A cage. And silence."
---
They stood in that silence for a long moment.
Zayden reached out slowly, brushing her hand with his fingers. She didn't pull away.
"You scare me now," he whispered.
"Good," she replied. "Maybe you'll finally understand how I felt back then."
---
Celeste's Apartment – Midnight
She was unraveling.
The file hadn't worked. Zayden hadn't turned. The media was mocking her every word.
And now she had nothing left to lose.
So she called someone she swore she'd never call again.
Someone worse than Amaris.
"Hello?" a female voice answered.
"It's Celeste," she said. "I need your help."
A laugh. "I thought you never called losers."
"This loser," Celeste said, "has something Amaris wants buried forever."
The voice sharpened. "I'm listening."
Celeste's smile was venom.
"If we can't destroy her reputation… let's destroy her heart."
---
Final Scene – Amaris's Apartment
Elliot handed her a burner phone. "Message from an unknown sender. No traceable number."
She opened it.
It was a single image.
A photo of her mother.
Blood on her cheek. Eyes swollen shut.
> "This is your only warning. Stop now—or we'll start with the ones you forgot to protect."
Amaris stared at it.
Then quietly placed the phone on the table.
Her hands were steady.
But her voice…
Her voice was death.
"Then I'll stop asking for mercy."
She looked at Elliot.
"It's time I remembered who the real villain is."
---