The lock surrendered not to a key, but to the rough, hand-carved wooden badge Archer pressed against a hidden scanner.
A mechanism whirred softly, and the solid oak door swung inward.
He stepped into the silence.
Moonlight bled through the windows, illuminating a confession etched across the entire wall.
At its heart, enlarged and dominant, was a single photograph: two children, their smiles blazing with unguarded joy under a summer sun. The same crude badge was visible in the boy's grubby hand.
Spreading from that central point was a meticulous archive of a life lived elsewhere. Nora receiving her badge at the police academy, her posture rigid with pride. Nora mid-combat, a champion's kick frozen in devastating motion. Nora captured unaware in a café, sunlight weaving gold through her hair as she read.
Archer's calloused fingers traced the outline of the laughing girl in the central photo, a gesture startling in its tenderness.
"I turned the world upside down searching for you," he said, his voice a low, gravelly truth in the quiet room.
His gaze, dark and possessive, swept over the timeline of her life—a life that had unfolded without him.
"And you…" A faint, incredulous smile touched his lips. "You finally walked right back to me."
The smile faded, replaced by an intensity that was absolute.
"What a waste," he murmured, his voice low and threaded with a possessiveness that felt almost like reverence. "That your heart still wanders somewhere in the dark… clinging to Mark, a man unworthy of the ground he kneels on."
"Now you will learn to stay and love me."
Dawn's golden light spilled through the dining room's arched windows. Archer dominated the head of the table, his silk robe falling open to reveal a torso of sculpted muscle. His attention fixed on Nora as she entered.
"Slept well?" he asked, his voice rough with morning.
"Like sleeping on a bed of nails," she shot back.
He offered her a morsel of Sachertorte on a sterling silver fork. "Eat. I don't let what's mine go hungry."
"I am not yours—"
"Shall we test that theory with Mark?"
She turned, eyes blazing.
He captured her wrist, pressing her palm against the heated marble of his chest. "Admit the truth—I surpass him in every way."
The wall screen crackled to life. Static danced across the surface before resolving into the face of a golden-haired youth, his cerulean eyes locking onto Nora.
"Nora? Can you hear me?" The voice came through clear and resolute. "I'm coming for you."
"Leo?!" The name escaped her lips.
Archer's expression frosted over. "Vanderbilt."
BANG!
Archer's bullet shattered the display. Shards of glass rained down as he turned to her, fury in his eyes.
"Another admirer?" he ground out. "When did you acquire the Vanderbilt heir?"