The grand moment arrived, but nothing unfolded as Damien had anticipated.
Alex didn't flinch. He didn't cry, rage, or expose the cruel deception Damien had woven. Instead, he played along, pretending they had never met before. His expression was carefully neutral, his tone professional—just another waiter attending to his guests. He met Damien's gaze only briefly before moving on.
Damien had expected a scene. He had envisioned shock, heartbreak, maybe even a desperate plea for an explanation. But instead, the only reaction he got, was from Alex's parents, who were visibly taken aback—not because their son had been humiliated, but because they hadn't known he was working as a waiter in the first place.
So that was it? That was the great revelation? That the youngest Masterson truly did whatever he pleased, slipping out of their perfectly curated world whenever he wished?
The evening continued, and when their food arrived, it was another waiter who served them. A flicker of irritation burned in Damien's chest. He turned to inquire about Alex's absence and was met with a simple response:
"He went home early. He wasn't feeling well."
Sick? That was almost amusing. It was understandable, of course. Seeing him after all this time, in such an unexpected way, must have been a shock. Damien could imagine it—Alex struggling to keep up the act, his stomach twisting, his mind reeling. Perhaps he had decided to save himself and his family from public humiliation, planning to tell them everything once they were behind closed doors.
But when the next day passed and no word came from the Mastersons, and Alex showed up to work as usual, unaffected, as if nothing had happened, something in Damien twisted. A flicker of irritation turned into something sharper—annoyance, frustration.
So, he took matters into his own hands.
A message was sent to Richard Masterson: Send your son to my office. I'm acquainted with every member of your family except for him, and I'd like to correct that.
The reply came swiftly. A simple Okay. No questions. No refusal. Just blind compliance.
But Damien didn't want to have their reunion in his office. That would be far too impersonal. No, he wanted to see how Alex would react to being summoned to a hotel room by the man who had seduced him, abandoned him, and now held power over his family.
He left instructions for Alex to wait for him there. A test. Would he actually go through with it? Would he sit there, stewing in uncertainty, waiting for Damien like a fool?
When Damien finally arrived, he found Alex curled up in an armchair, dozing off.
His face looked… worn. There were faint shadows under his eyes, his usual warmth dimmed by something Damien couldn't quite place. For a split second, something in his chest clenched, but he ignored it.
Alex jolted upright the moment Damien stepped into the room, his entire body tense with barely contained fury. His breathing was uneven, his chest rising and falling in sharp, angry motions, as if he had been holding back an explosion and had finally reached his limit. His amber eyes—usually warm, expressive—were now burning with unfiltered rage, pupils blown wide, his entire frame vibrating with emotion.
The unmistakable puffiness around his eyes, the redness along his waterline—Alex had been crying. Not just moments ago, but enough that the evidence lingered, staining his face with exhaustion and sorrow. That wasn't the only thing that caught Damien's attention. The left side of Alex's face bore a faint, uneven discoloration, the skin slightly swollen, as if someone had struck him. A slap? No. Impossible.
Who would dare lay a hand on the youngest Masterson? The darling of the family, the one they treasured most?
The thought unsettled him more than it should have.
Still, he did what he came here to do. He confirmed what Alex already suspected—that their relationship had been nothing more than a calculated move, a cruel game designed to break him. He had pursued Alex with purpose, seduced him, made him believe in something tender, only to abandon him at the peak of his trust. It should have been the final blow, the one that left Alex utterly shattered.
And yet, Alex did not crumble. He stood his ground, his nails digging into his palms, his entire body rigid with restrained emotion. There was hurt beneath the fury, raw and exposed, but he refused to let it show any further.
Damien wasn't sure why, but the idea of letting Alex walk away so easily didn't sit well with him. He should have been satisfied. The game had played out just as he intended—he had seduced Alex, toyed with him, and discarded him without remorse. He had watched the light in those amber eyes flicker with heartbreak and fury. That should have been enough.
And yet, some restless part of him refused to let it end there.
On impulse, a reckless thought took shape. It was ridiculous, absurd even, but he said it anyway. He told Alex that he had just ended things with his previous fuckbuddy and needed a replacement. No romance, no attachments—just a body to use until he got bored. He wanted Alex in his bed, on his terms, until he decided he was done.
Predictably, Alex recoiled, disgust flashing across his face. He rejected the offer without hesitation, as Damien knew he would. But Damien wasn't one to accept refusal so easily.
He leaned in, testing the limits of Alex's defiance. If Alex wouldn't give in willingly, then perhaps a little pressure was necessary. So, he brought up the things that mattered—the people Alex cared about. His friend. His new job at Magnolia…
It was a simple threat, a quiet, precise application of pressure. And to Damien's surprise, it worked.
Alex, the spoiled darling of the Masterson family, had caved. Not for himself or his family, but for others?
Interesting.
The urge to keep Alex longer in the hotel room was a strange, unwelcome thing, but when Alex insisted they meet another time, Damien relented—begrudgingly. He told himself it was just another step in the game, another layer of control to weave around the Masterson family's most beloved son.
But then Alex ignored him.
The message with the information about their first sexual encounter went unanswered. So did the one after that. Silence. A deliberate, infuriating silence.
Damien's patience thinned. Had Alex agreed to his terms only to protect his friend and his precious little job at Magnolia? If that were the case, why wasn't he keeping up his end of the bargain? More than that, why hadn't he run crying to his parents? Surely, after everything, after the way Damien had used him and tossed him aside, Alex would have sought their protection. And yet… nothing.
So Damien decided to push.
If Alex wouldn't react to direct threats, then maybe his friend Eric would serve as the perfect weak spot. A subtle move, a quiet application of pressure on Eric's family business, and Damien had what he wanted. Alex reached out first this time. No more ignoring, no more silence. He was desperate, pleading for Damien to stop interfering, promising to do whatever was necessary to make it end.
And that was exactly what Damien had been waiting for.
If Alex thought he could keep their arrangement in the shadows, he was wrong. Damien wasn't going to make it easy for him. He wasn't just going to control him—he was going to break him, humiliate him, and make sure there was nowhere left to hide. Not even from his own family.