Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
Maia
Irushed from the window, waiting impatiently by the penthouse elevator, my hands wringing one another in an attempt to calm my growing nerves. The doors opened, and he walked out, effectively ignoring me as he stepped to the side of me.
“Where have you been?” I asked in a panic, but Felix didn’t answer. Just walked past me as he tossed his jacket and briefcase onto the floor. “I saw her,” I said, my voice sounding small in the thick air between us. “You didn’t even bother to hide it.”
His smirk was lazy, practiced. “And?”
“I want to leave.” The words trembled, even in my dream.
Maybe because I’d never actually gotten them out back then, he poured himself a glass of whiskey over ice before he took a sip.
Suddenly, we were in his office, my memory of the moments between us blurring in and out.
He leaned back in the chair he was now sitting in, swirling his drink like I’d just told him the weather. “Leave?” His chuckle was sharp enough to cut. “You think you can?”
I said nothing, just stared at the condensation sliding down his glass. I seemed more focused on it this time around.
“You think you’re worth it?” His voice dipped lower, the way it always did before his words sank deep enough to bruise. “Without me, you and that washed-up uncle of yours are nothing. You wouldn’t last a month on your own. You’re only here because I let you be here. Don’t forget that.”
I was sitting across from him now. My hands curled feebly in my lap, my nails digging into my palm. I wanted to scream, to throw the drink in his face, to run until I couldn’t feel my legs. But all I did was sit there.
“You’re not special, Maia.” He smiled, slow and cruel.
“You’re a whore. I dressed up nice enough to fool myself for a while.
Cleaned you up, made you look expensive…
but deep down? You’re still the same desperate little thing I found in that shitty bar begging me to save your uncle because you couldn’t even save yourself. ”
You’re different, Maia, he used to say. Smarter than the rest. Not like the others.
I used to believe him. I used to think he meant it.
But now—
“The only difference between you and any other no-good whores is that they knew exactly what they were. You’re still pretending you’re not.”
I jolted awake, breath catching, the echo of his words still burning in my ears. Blaine’s slow breathing was warm against my shoulder, but it didn’t ground me. It didn’t feel real. My chest was still tight, my mind still trapped somewhere I swore I’d never go back to.
Careful not to wake him, I slid from the bed.
The carpet was cold under my feet as I crossed to the dresser, my bag already waiting there.
My fingers found the black card, cool and weightless in my hand.
I turned it over once, tracing the raised numbers, thinking of the freedom it gave me.
Thinking of the short-lived happiness it brought me.
It was my lifeline, my way out of the hole I was in. But it was also my leash. My proof that Felix had been right all along. I couldn’t do any of this without someone else saving me. Couldn’t pay the rent, couldn’t breathe without asking.
God, what a joke. I traded one man’s pocket for another’s and called it survival.
I set it on the nightstand beside his phone, the faintest click as it touched the wood.
Then, I left the room, left him behind, because I couldn’t be his everything.
Blaine
The first thing I noticed when I woke was the quiet, the utter silence.
Her side of the bed was cold. The sheets still held her scent, faint and sweet, but she wasn’t there.
My eyes drifted around the room in search of her belongings, but they landed on the nightstand.
My gut fucking twisted. The black card I’d given my little Sunshine was staring back at me like this was all some sick fucking joke.
A small note was beside it, a piece of paper she probably ripped off the edge of a book in a hurry.
I’m sorry, Blaine.
That was it? Nothing else. Not even a goddamn goodbye.
I was on my feet before the thought had fully formed. Phone in hand, I was already scrolling to my driver’s number after shooting Tommy a quick text to keep an eye out for her.
God, I was ready to tear the city apart if I had to find her. She wasn’t leaving me. She couldn’t leave me. Not like this. Not now. Not ever.
The phone buzzed in my hand before the call had connected.
Lucifer.
I sent him to voicemail, and he called back immediately. Fuck.
I answered, my jaw fucking tight. “What?”
Killian didn’t waste a breath. “Where the hell have you been? I need Masahiko’s contract finalized before the end of the week. Investors are already restless, and your little disappearing act isn’t helping.”
My hand flexed around the phone. Every nerve in me was screaming to walk out, to track her down, to not waste another second on corporate bullshit when she was God knows where.
“Hate to break it to you, Killian, but Masahiko’s acquisition is the last thing on my mind right now.”
There was a pause on the line, then his voice came back. Only adding more fire to the anger I was feeling.
“Of course it isn’t… Because you’ve never had your mind where it should be. Not in the company. Not on the people depending on you. Always on something irrelevant like some random woman you couldn’t keep out of your bed.”
I raked a hand through my hair, heat crawling up my neck. “You don’t get it. You don’t fucking get it—”
“I don’t want to get it,” Killian cut me off, his tone like a blade.
“If this is another one of your spirals over one-night stands you don’t even know the names of, then I don’t want to hear it.
I don’t care who spread their legs in your bed to make tomorrow’s headline.
I care about the company you’re driving into the ground because you can’t keep your dick or your emotions under control. ”
“Killian—”
“You’ve got lawsuits pending, contracts bleeding, and a scandal in the news every other goddamn day. You need to wake the fuck up.” His voice was low, dangerous. The kind of calm that only made the fury underneath sharper.
I didn’t say anything, my pulse pounding, the note still crushed in my fist.
“You want to keep Porter Industries intact?” he pressed, every word a hammer blow.
“Then you show the fuck up. You sit your ass in that chair. And you act like you give a damn about something other than whatever mess you’ve crawled into this time.
Because if you don’t, I’ll start handling things my way.
And if I do, I promise you—you won’t like how fast I cut your little distractions out of the picture. ”
Every nerve in me wanted to tear into him, but I forced myself to breathe. Losing it now meant losing her. And I couldn’t—fuck, I couldn’t risk that. I was already fucking losing her.
“For once in your life… act like a man running an empire. Not the spoiled bastard trying to burn it down.”
I dragged a hand down my face, jaw locked so tight it ached. “Fine,” I bit out. “You made your point. I’ll be there soon.”
“First meeting is at nine. Don’t be late.”
The line went dead, leaving nothing but silence and the note crumpled in my fist.
He drove me insane, but I knew he meant every word—every threat, every order, every low-blow insult.
Because underneath all that corporate tyranny bullshit, Killian always thought he was protecting me.
From failing. From getting hurt. From myself.
Usually, he was right. Usually, I needed it. Not that I’d ever admit it to his face.
But not this time.
This time, he was wrong.
Because she wasn’t one of my mistakes.
She was everything.
I stared at the black card on the nightstand, my chest heaving.
Keeping the peace with Killian bought me time. Nothing more. I paced the room once, twice, the note burning in my palm. My chest ached like my ribs could barely cage it in, and the only thing I could think of over and over was, She’s mine.
It also bought my little Sunshine a little time to come to her senses. Because when I found her… I wasn’t asking. I wasn’t begging. And I sure as fuck wasn’t coming back home empty-handed.