Craved by the Wrong Volkov-Chapter 262: Watch him burn

Braelyn’s POV

After that day, the war stopped being whispers. Lucien was a man of his words and he delivered

New Horizon did not slow down. If anything, they became bolder. Calculated attacks started landing one after another, not reckless moves but precise strikes aimed at pressure points only insiders should have known. Volkov Apex was a titan that could only be destroyed from the inside and that’s what Lucien did

Deals we had nurtured for months collapsed overnight. Long-term partners suddenly pulled out with rehearsed apologies. Suppliers we had worked with for years were quietly acquired, their loyalty replaced with contracts that favoured our enemy.

I watched it unfold from the inside, pretending to be just another concerned executive while my thoughts churned with a different awareness.

Lucien’s attack was brutal in the way a snake coils before tightening. Every move was measured. Every loss we suffered was timed to cause maximum instability without triggering panic in the market too early. He wasn’t just attacking Volkov Apex, he was suffocating it slowly.

But Raphael did not crumble.

If anything, the pressure sharpened him.

Emergency strategies were rolled out one after another. Counter-bids, sudden acquisitions of our own. He put out fake bids to trick New Horizon, and he formed silent partnerships in the shadows. Departments were restructured overnight. Legal teams worked around the clock, plugging leaks, tightening contracts, and setting traps for whoever was feeding information out.

From the outside, Volkov Apex still stood tall. That month Raphael managed to cross the monthly revenue goal by a slim margin. It wasn’t a great feat but it showed he wasn’t going down easily.

Volkov Apex was not the only one with damage, Raphael didn’t only defend, he attacked. He sabotages partners who betrayed Volkov Apex. Some collapsed, some still stood by the new horizon but the message was clear: Volkov Apex didn’t forgive traitors.

Inside Volkov Apex, it felt like living in a building with cracks spreading through the walls.

Raphael was always at the centre of it. He remained calm in meetings, ruthless in negotiations and unshakable in front of the board. We later discovered a new tactic Lucien was using to get the partners. Blackmail, he had a lot of dirt on them.

My stomach tightened wondering what he would do if he had true evidence of his mother’s death. He was terrifying.

I started noticing the small things no one else did around Raphael. I knew him too to see the way his jaw stayed clenched even when he wasn’t speaking. The faint shadows under his eyes. The way he sometimes paused a second too long before answering, like his mind was running ten battles at once.

At home, he was rarely present.

Most nights, the light in his study stayed on until dawn. Going through papers, reports, and projections to make sure they were perfect.. Even when he sat across from me at dinner, he tried his best to be present but I knew he was constantly analysing.

Raphael took precautions too, internal investigations intensified, and compliance teams swept through departments. One by one, the moles were exposed.

Or so we thought.

They were caught with evidence, suspicious transactions, and hidden communications. But every trail ended the same way. They were contacting middlemen, anonymous accounts or dead ends with no real connection to New Horizon.

In all this chaos No one suspected Lucien. His role in the company was high-ranking, but not in areas that handled sensitive trade secrets directly. On paper, he had no access to the kind of information New Horizon was using. I had a hunch Raphael didn’t trust him or maybe he thought Lucien was incompetent because Lucien wasn’t handed any serious task.

This made him the perfect snake in green grass. The villain they didn’t expect.

During that period, I barely heard from Lucien. He was probably also busy fighting Raphael. I only saw him once at the lobby, he looked exhausted. No one would imagine it was because he was the one destroying Volkov Apex. They probably imagined he was worried about the company.

At first, I felt relieved. A strange, guilty comfort in the distance. Things were going according to Lucien’s plan, and a small, ugly part of me felt satisfied watching Raphael pushed to his limits. Watching him finally struggle. Watching the empire that had once caged me start to shake.

But days blurred into weeks. The satisfaction faded. In its place was something emptier because no matter how angry I was... I couldn’t ignore what I was seeing.

Raphael was fighting with everything he had. Not just for the company, for us too. Despite the chaos, he still tried with small things. Asking if I’d eaten. Telling the staff to make my favourite tea when I had headaches. Sitting beside me some nights in silence, like he didn’t know how to bridge the distance but refused to stop trying.

He noticed I was looking pale, and the next morning I woke to the smell of pancakes. After that, he made breakfast every day.. It was nothing special but my comfort meal.

"You don’t have to do it. You already have a lot to handle. " I tried to convince him to stop. He only smiled while flipping the pancakes and laughed genuinely which reached his eyes.

"It’s fine. Even if the world is ending I would never make the mistake of neglecting you again," he said sincerely that morning it twisted something in my stomach.

"But..." he shushed me, placing his finger on my lips.

"Don’t rack your brain Lynn and stop overthinking. I can’t afford for you to be sick." He said then cupped my cheek. I stared into his eyes, dark circles shadowing them. They didn’t make him look any less handsome, if anything, they made him look devastating.

Why was he doing this to me? He broke me, he didn’t trust me. This was meant to be my revenge but he was making it so damn difficult.

"You are annoying.." I could only blurt out and he laughed. A grin plastered across his face as he reached for the corner of my eyes to wipe a tear I didn’t know I shed.

"I bet I am," he chimed. "Stop crying or worrying. I will be fine. I will win this." He was confident.

"It doesn’t matter the tricks Killian uses or how many people he blackmails. He isn’t the only con artist. " his eyes blazed with confidence. "I will protect Volkov Apex for us.."

Here he was fighting for everything he owned, unknown to him it was probably a lost cause and the woman he was trying to protect was the one holding the final dagger.

It felt pitiful in a cruel way..