---- Chapter 14 Desmond Day POV: "So that' s it?" | asked, my voice barely a whisper. "It was all just about the money? The IPO?" Aurora looked at me as if | were something she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe. "What else would it be about, Desmond? Your sparkling personality?" The contempt in her voice was the final nail in the coffin of my delusion. | had built my entire world on a foundation of ambition and ruthless calculation, and | had been played by someone who was even better at the game than | was. | had sacrificed real, unconditional love for a counterfeit version, a hollow transaction that was voided the moment my stock crashed. | had lost everything No. Not everything. | had lost Aurora. | had lost my company. But the most valuable thing, the one thing | had taken for granted, the one thing that had been pure and true-I had thrown that away long before everything else fell apart. Ariel. Ariel, who had loved me when | was a no-one, sleeping on a ---- mattress on the floor. Ariel, who had believed in my dreams when they were nothing more than scribbles on a napkin. Ariel, whose love had never come with a balance sheet or a list of expectations. | had called our life together a nightmare. How could | have been so blind? That wasn' t a nightmare. That was the only real thing | ever had. A low, choking sob escaped my lips. My body began to tremble, a deep, wracking shudder that came from the very core of my being. "Ariel," | whispered her name to the empty night air. It felt like a prayer. "Ariel, ' m so sorry." | had to get her back. | had to make her see that | had changed, that | finally understood what | had lost. A sudden thought occurred to me. The SEC investigation. The travel ban. Evelena Lindsey had orchestrated it all. Now that my company was dead, now that | had been publicly humiliated and cast aside by Aurora, maybe her revenge was complete. Maybe she would let me go. | had to try. | would go to A-Country. | would find Ariel. | would get down on my knees and beg for her forgiveness. | wouldn ' t be asking for my company back, or for my reputation. | would be asking for my soul. | booked the flight, my heart a frantic, hopeful drum against my ribs. On the long flight over the ocean, | didn' t sleep. | ---- stayed awake for fourteen hours, rehearsing my apology, my plea, my desperate, last-ditch attempt to reclaim the only thing in the world that had ever truly mattered.