Read Chapter 21: The Agent's Betrayal

Marcus Blake’s office smelled like leather and old money. Theo had been here a thousand times—celebrating contracts, weathering storms, drowning in the quiet confidence of a man who’d guided his every move for over a decade. Today, the scent felt like a shroud.

Elise stood at his side, her hand a whisper of heat against his back. He hadn’t asked her to come. She’d just followed him out of the car and into the lift, and he hadn’t had the strength to tell her no. He needed someone in his corner who wasn’t holding a knife.

Marcus looked up from his desk, a smile already in place. “Theo. Elise. This is a surprise.”

“Cut the shit, Marcus.” Theo’s voice came out flatter than he’d intended, but it had the desired effect. Marcus’s smile flickered.

“I beg your pardon?”

Theo pulled the manila folder from his coat and tossed it across the polished desk. It skidded to a stop against Marcus’s monitor. Papers spilled out—printouts of emails, timestamped schedules, bank records, the entire ugly paper trail Elise had helped him uncover in the small hours of the night.

Marcus didn’t touch it. He looked at the papers, then back at Theo, his face unreadable. “What is this?”

“It’s you,” Theo said. “Selling my life to Camille Sheridan, one calendar entry at a time. Eighteen months. My movements, my meetings, my vulnerabilities. You fed her everything.”

The silence stretched, taut as a wire.

Marcus let out a short, breathy laugh, but it died in his throat when Theo didn’t smile. He adjusted his cufflink, a nervous tell Theo had never noticed before. “That’s a serious accusation, Theo. You’re not thinking clearly.”

“I’m thinking clearly for the first time in years,” Theo said, advancing a step. “You knew Camille before she was famous. You knew her when she was a nobody looking for leverage. And when she offered you a seat at a bigger firm, you traded me for it.”

Marcus’s jaw tightened. His stillness was damning. When he finally spoke, his voice had lost its practiced warmth. “You don’t understand how this business works.”

“I understand betrayal,” Theo said. “I understand that you were the first person to believe in me after—after everything. And you sold me out to the one person who could destroy me.”

“I didn’t sell you out,” Marcus said, standing now. His frame was smaller than Theo’s, but he squared his shoulders, a man used to being the smartest in the room. “I protected you. Camille has reach you can’t imagine. She found out about the Edinburgh incident—the real story, not the one we spun. She had enough to end you seven years ago. I made a deal so she never used it.”

Theo’s blood went cold. He felt Elise shift beside him, her palm pressing harder into his spine. His mouth had gone dry.

“You made a deal,” Theo repeated. “With her. For how long?”

“It was supposed to be a one-time trade,” Marcus said. “A favor for a favor. I gave her some harmless scheduling information. She agreed to bury the Edinburgh story forever. But she kept coming back. Each time she had a new request. And if I said no, she’d remind me of what she had on you.”

“So you kept feeding her,” Elise said, her voice low and sharp. “For eight months. You let her get close enough to dig into my personal history, my mother’s grave, everything.”

Marcus shot her a look of pure condescension. “You’re collateral damage in a war you don’t understand, darling.”

“I understand more than you think,” she said. “I know who recruited you. I know what firm you’re moving to next month. I know the sign-on bonus was tied to destabilizing Theo’s relationship with me and tanking his latest film. You didn’t just betray your client, Marcus. You betrayed your reputation.”

The color drained from Marcus’s face. He looked at Theo, something almost like pleading in his eyes. “Theo. I built your career. Every role, every endorsement, every move you made was because of my strategy. Without me, you’d still be playing bit parts in period dramas. You don’t walk away from that because of a few leaked pages.”

“A few leaked pages,” Theo repeated, his voice a knotted whisper. “You gave Camille the dates and locations of your own client’s movements. You compromised his safety. You compromised her safety.”

He gestured to Elise. She was the only person who’d ever seen him raw, ever touched the scar tissue beneath the polish. And Marcus had used her as bait.

“We’re done,” Theo said. “You’re fired. I’ll have legal draft the termination papers today. If you contact Camille again—if you so much as breath my name to her—I’ll make sure every trade publication knows what you did.”

Marcus laughed—a harsh, ugly sound. “You think you can threaten me? You think you’re walking away clean?”

“I don’t need to walk clean,” Theo said. “I just need to walk.”

He turned and took Elise’s hand. They were at the door when Marcus’s voice stopped them.

“You’re making a mistake, Theo.” Marcus’s voice had gone soft, almost gentle. “The only reason Camille hasn’t released the Edinburgh story is because I’ve held her back. The day you cut me loose, you hand her the key to the vault. She will destroy you. Not just your career—you. And she’ll use her to do it.”

He nodded toward Elise.

Theo tightened his grip on her hand. “Then she’ll have to get through both of us.”

He pulled the door open and walked out, leaving Marcus standing in the wreckage of a fourteen-year alliance. They were halfway down the corridor when Elise squeezed his hand, not in comfort, but in urgency.

“Theo,” she said, her voice unsteady. “Look.”

She pointed at her phone, still lit. A notification banner.

*New post by @CamilleSheridan — 4 minutes ago.*

He read it over her shoulder, the screen blurring and sharpening in alternating waves of nausea.

**”Thrilled to announce my exclusive documentary partnership with Blake & Associates. This is a story of secrets, lies, and the price of a public image. See you all soon. #TruthSells”**

Marcus’s new firm. The one he’d been poached by. The one that had just signed a deal with the devil to tell Theo’s story.

Theo’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Then Elise’s. Then the hum of a dozen other devices in the building around them.

They were no longer just enemies with Camille. Now, they were targets—and the first bullet had already been fired.