THIRD PERSON POV
Sarah slams the car door hard enough to rattle the frame, cheeks flushed red from the scolding the Ashcombe patriarch just gave her. She doesn't look up as she speaks, rubbing her forehead in distress.
"Drive me to the factory, Kate."
"The destination depends on your next few answers."
Sarah freezes. Her head snaps toward the passenger seat — and the blood drains from her face.
Theodore Schweitzer is sitting beside her.
Grey suit fitted across broad shoulders. Fingers laced over crossed legs. Violet eyes carrying the weight of a storm forming beneath absolute stillness.
"T-Theodore."
Her lips tremble. Without saying a word, his presence alone fills the car with something suffocating — fear, and something worse than fear. The knowledge that screaming won't help.
He turns to her with a small, calm smile. "It's been a while, Sarah."
She forces a smile back. "It is. What are you doing inside my car?"
She looks toward the driver's seat. Lucas Lincoln sits behind the wheel, adjusting the mirror. He winks at her. "Hello there."
"Where is Kate?"
Lucas hums, starting the engine. "Maybe in the trunk. You never know."
Sarah grabs the door handle. Locked. Her hands are shaking, tears already blurring her vision. The car is soundproof and bulletproof. She knows this because she ordered the upgrades herself.
Being in a closed space with Theodore Schweitzer is worse than a death sentence.
"Let me go. Please — I haven't done anything."
Theodore blinks. Looks ahead. Says nothing.
That silence is more dangerous than anything he could say. The silence of this man has caused more damage than most men's shouting.
Lucas takes a turn onto an unfamiliar road. "You went to Laurent Corporation today?"
Sarah nods frantically. "You need information on the Laurents? I'll tell you everything."
Lucas scoffs. "What makes you think we need a puppet like you to get information on the Laurents?"
Sarah swallows her tears. Sits back. Her chest feels like it's caving in.
"Who told you to go there, though?" Lucas glances at her through the rearview mirror. "The chairman just gave you an earful, so I doubt he sent you. Who was it?"
Sarah wipes her face. Dabs the sweat forming at the back of her neck. Looks at Theodore, who still hasn't spoken.
"Olivier."
"You mean Olivia?"
Sarah's eyes widen. Lucas's smile vanishes from the mirror, replaced by something cold and bloodless. "Do we look stupid to you, Sarah?"
And then she understands.
From the beginning, Theodore wasn't after her. He was after Olivia.
That knowledge is both terrifying and strangely calming — because at the end of the day, no sane person wants to become the enemy of Theodore Schweitzer.
Sarah bites her lip. Looks down. There's no way out but honesty.
"Olivia didn't like the fact that a girl was working so closely with Aurélien. A girl who gained his favor despite not coming from our circle." Her voice cracks. "She asked me to teach her a lesson."
Tears fall again. She can't stop them. "I didn't know she was that important to Aurélien. I didn't know he'd kick out ten board members because they insulted her."
Lucas glances at Theodore's face in the rearview mirror.
His blood goes cold.
Theodore's expression is blank. Completely, perfectly blank — the kind of blank that only appears when logic has stopped making sense to him. When the thing inside him that he keeps locked behind control and precision breaks loose.
Theodore's hand moves toward his coat pocket.
Lucas slams the brakes. The car jolts to a stop.
"Okay then." Lucas's voice is sharp, controlled. "You're clear now."
Sarah looks up, confused, teary. Lucas gets out, walks around the car, and opens Theodore's door. Theodore blinks slowly. Steps out. Lucas looks back at Sarah with a thin smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
"Your guard is in the trunk. Take care of her. Good day."
He closes the door and steers Theodore to the other side of the highway by the arm.
***
Sarah scrambles to the trunk. Kate's wrists are bound, tears streaking her face, body trembling. Sarah pulls her out and wraps her arms around her.
"I'm sorry," Kate whispers.
Sarah holds her tighter. Says nothing. Watches the car behind them grow smaller in the distance, carrying her as far from Theodore Schweitzer as rubber and asphalt will allow.
Theodore stands on the side of the Brooklyn Bridge.
His hand is still resting on the gun in his coat pocket — the one he almost drew in the back seat of that car. The river moves below them in silence. Cars pass behind them. The world continues as if nothing happened.
Lucas stares at him in disbelief. "You were going to shoot her?"
Theodore doesn't deny it.
Lucas grabs the gun from his pocket, face tight with frustration. "Theo. You cannot do this."
"Sarah hurt her."
Lucas freezes.
Three words. Spoken with a dread calmness that Lucas has only heard a handful of times in twenty years — when logic stops governing Theodore's actions and something older and darker takes the wheel.
Theodore turns his head toward the setting sun. "Olivia. She's been meeting with a senator?"
Lucas swallows the tension building in his gut. "Yeah. She's planning to monopolize the new microchip production line. Buying off Ash Tech's competitors to push herself to the front of the succession."
Theodore watches the sky bleed red and orange over the water. The light catches his violet eyes, turning them almost magenta. The breeze ruffles his hair, and for a moment he looks serene. Almost gentle.
Lucas has wondered before — what would have happened if Theodore's reputation didn't precede him. If the world only saw this face without knowing what lived behind it. Would they love him? Would they trust him?
The Devil was never the ugliest in the Garden of Eden. He was God's favorite.
"Go to Ash Tech tomorrow."
Lucas stiffens. Studies Theodore carefully. "Theo. You aren't planning a visible move against the Ashcombes."
Theodore looks at the sunset with empty eyes. Anyone watching would think the soul behind them died a long time ago. They wouldn't be entirely wrong.
"Olivia targeted my woman. I can't be civil with her."
Lucas's head snaps toward him.
Until this moment, Lucas hadn't taken the Beatrice situation seriously. He thought Theodore was infatuated with a difficult, interesting woman — a temporary fixation that would dissolve once the novelty wore off.
But in twenty years, Theodore Schweitzer has never called anyone his.
"Theo." Lucas's throat feels dry. "Do you love her?"
Theodore's brow relaxes. His shoulders loosen slightly. The corner of his lips lifts — barely, just enough that someone who didn't know him would miss it entirely.
Lucas has known him for two decades. He's never seen this expression on Theodore's face. Not once.
"If knowing how rotten and disgusting and unfortunate a man I am — and still wanting her to look at me and smile..." Theodore pauses. Breathes. "If that's love."
He looks at Lucas. A small, genuine smile. The kind that looks like it costs him something to make.
"Then yes. I've been in love with her from the very first sight."
He shakes his head slowly, turning back to the sunset. Somewhere behind his eyes, Lucas knows, he's picturing her — the woman who glares at him but doesn't flinch. Who refuses him but doesn't treat him like a monster. Who sees something in him that he's never been able to see in himself.
"You're down bad," Lucas whispers.
There's disbelief in his voice. But underneath it — relief. The quiet, desperate relief of a man who has spent years secretly hoping that his best friend, his savior, would experience something as simple and devastating as love. Just once.
Theodore doesn't deny it.
Standing on the Brooklyn Bridge, in front of a setting sun, beside the only person who has ever seen him without armor — he confesses a love he doesn't fully understand.
But he knows one thing with the certainty of a man who has built his life on knowing things:
He will never feel this for anyone else.