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A Thousand Little Betrayals is a gripping romantic suspense about love, deception, and the fine line between passion and destruction. When Siena’s affair with her powerful boss’s husband threatens to unravel her relationship with Damon—the man she truly loves—secrets, lies, and dangerous temptations collide in a high-stakes game where trust is fragile and betrayal cuts deep.
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Seitenzahl: 80
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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C.F. LARK
A thousand little betrayal
An enemies-to-lovers dark romance
Copyright © by C.F. LARK
Cover design by: CANVA
Publishing label: Favvy_MRC publications
Printing and distribution on behalf of the author:
tredition GmbH, Heinz-Beusen-Stieg 5, 22926 Ahrensburg, Germany
This work, including its parts, is protected by copyright.
The author is responsible for the content. Any use without his consent is prohibited.
The publication and distribution are carried out on behalf of the author, who can be reached at: No 13, Balogun Road, 200242, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Germany Contact address according to the EU Product Safety Regulation
C.F. LARK asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. This is a work of fiction and the names and places are not real but entirely coincidental.
Editing by Favvy_MRC Publications Typesetting by Reesdy.com
First edition
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy Find out more at reedsy.com
For the ones who broke and were broken, and still chose to love anyway.
It was never the single wound that killed us.
It was the thousand little cuts I swore you’d never feel.
Prologue
Rain slid down the glass, blurring the city lights into streaks of gold and red. She stood across from me on the sidewalk, soaked to the skin, shivering in the black dress I used to love. Her mouth opened like she had something worth saying. Something that might undo the weeks of silence, the lies, the way her absence had carved into my chest.
I almost waited. God help me, I almost stayed.
But then I saw it—his hand, still resting on her wrist like he had a claim. The man who wasn’t me. The man who had been in her bed while I was building a future for us.
My future. Our future.
She whispered my name like it might save her. I stepped back, watching the light in her eyes falter, watching the rain streak her mascara into dark rivers.
“You loved me once,” she said.
“I would have loved you forever,” I told her. “If it hadn’t been for the thousand little betrayals that came first.”
And then I walked away—because loving her had already cost me everything.
Chapter 1
Siena
The elevator doors slid open to the twenty-fourth floor, and the familiar hum of Vale & Knox swallowed me whole—keyboards clattering, phones chirping, the low murmur of voices trying to sound calm under the weight of deadlines. The air smelled faintly of burnt coffee and expensive cologne, a scent I’d come to associate with ambition and survival.
I stepped out, heels clicking against the polished concrete, and ignored the way heads turned. Around here, attention was currency, and I’d learned long ago to spend mine sparingly.
“Morning, Siena.” Maya from design waved a stack of proofs at me. “The Baxter file—”
“On my desk in ten,” I said, moving past her without slowing. My voice was polite enough to pass for cordial, but clipped enough to remind her I had other things on my mind.
Like him.
Damon Knox was already in the glass-walled conference room, sleeves rolled up, tie loosened just enough to make him look like trouble in a tailored suit. He was leaning over the table, speaking to a junior associate, and I hated—truly hated—how my pulse kicked up just watching him.
We’d been paired on the Lancaster account three months ago, and from day one, it had been a tug-of-war. He was all logic and clean strategies; I was instinct and calculated risk. He liked rules. I liked breaking them. And somehow, we made magic together… when we weren’t making each other’s lives hell.
He glanced up mid-sentence, eyes locking on mine through the glass. A flicker of something—challenge, amusement—passed across his face before he looked back at the junior like I hadn’t just walked in.
Fine. Two could play at that game.
I dropped my bag at my desk and opened my laptop, pretending to focus on the morning emails. I could feel him moving in my peripheral vision, closing in without hurry. Damon Knox never hurried.
“You’re late,” he said when he finally stopped beside my desk, voice low enough that only I could hear.
I didn’t look up. “I was here before you noticed.”
His mouth curved, but it wasn’t a smile. “Marissa’s calling a department meeting in ten. I’m sure she’ll want you sitting front and center.”
Marissa Vale. Our boss. A woman who could ruin careers with a raised eyebrow—and lately, I’d caught her watching Damon in a way that wasn’t strictly professional.
I met his gaze then, just long enough to let him see the faintest smirk. “Front and center’s my specialty.”
The truth was, every time we were in the same room, the air got heavier. Thicker. Like we both knew something was coming, but neither of us wanted to name it yet.
He straightened, tapping my desk with two fingers before walking away, the heat of his presence lingering long after he was gone.
And that’s when I decided: today, I’d win whatever game Damon Knox thought we were playing.
Chapter 2
Damon
Siena Vale walked into the office like she owned it—head high, eyes sharp, mouth curved in that almost-smile that wasn’t friendly so much as a warning. It shouldn’t have gotten to me by now. Three months of working with her should’ve made me immune.
It hadn’t.
From the glass-walled conference room, I caught her reflection in the hallway—black pencil skirt, hair swept back in a loose knot, the kind of look that said she was here to win and didn’t care who she had to step over to do it. Our eyes met, just for a second, and I looked away before she could think she’d gotten to me.
The junior associate beside me cleared her throat, reminding me I’d been mid-sentence. I finished my point, sent her on her way, and let my gaze drift back toward Siena’s desk. She was already bent over her laptop, fingers moving fast, pretending I didn’t exist. Which was laughable. Siena always knew exactly where I was in a room.
I crossed the floor to her desk, slow and deliberate. “You’re late,” I said, keeping my voice low.
“I was here before you noticed.” She didn’t even glance up, and damn it, that almost-smile tugged at her mouth again.
She’d been like this since day one—half challenge, half temptation. She’d walk into meetings, contradict me in front of clients, push boundaries until I wanted to either kiss her or throw her out of the room. Some days, I couldn’t decide which I wanted more.
“Marissa’s calling a department meeting in ten,” I told her. “I’m sure she’ll want you sitting front and center.”
That got me a look—eyes glittering, the faintest arch of a brow. “Front and center’s my specialty.”
Of course it was. She thrived under pressure, and she knew exactly how to make a room notice her. It was one of the reasons we worked so well together on the Lancaster account. It was also one of the reasons I didn’t trust her. Siena had a way of holding back just enough that you were never sure which side she was really on.
I tapped her desk with two fingers and walked away, resisting the urge to look back.
Marissa Vale’s meeting was going to be a show. She was the kind of boss who wrapped her power in silk, all soft smiles and low voices, but you never forgot the steel underneath. I’d seen her cut people down without raising her tone. And lately, I’d noticed the way her gaze lingered on me—longer than it should.
The conference room filled quickly. Siena slid into a seat across the table, crossing her legs like she wasn’t aware every man in the room had noticed. I caught her watching me once, maybe twice, before she shifted her attention to her tablet.
Then Marissa walked in. Perfect hair, perfect heels, perfect smile—and eyes that found mine before she’d even taken her seat at the head of the table.
Her gaze didn’t flicker to Siena. Not once. And I had the sinking feeling that whatever game was about to start, Siena wasn’t the only one I needed to watch.
Chapter 3
Siena
The conference room was all glass and chrome, a gleaming fishbowl perched above the city. I slid into my seat near the middle of the long table, my tablet open in front of me more for show than anything else. Across the room, Damon was already there—one arm slung casually over the back of his chair, his tie loosened just enough to make him look like he belonged somewhere far less professional.
The rest of the department filed in, the hum of conversation filling the space until the door opened and Marissa Vale stepped inside. She didn’t just enter a room; she claimed it. Perfectly tailored navy suit, red silk blouse, heels sharp enough to kill. Her eyes swept the table with polite precision before finding Damon. And holding.
It was brief—no more than a few seconds—but I caught it. The slight tilt of her head, the flicker of something like amusement in her eyes. She moved toward him as she spoke, her voice warm and smooth, brushing her fingertips against his shoulder as she passed. The touch was nothing. And it was everything.
I told myself it didn’t matter. That Damon could flirt with whoever he wanted. That I didn’t care if it was the boss herself.
