Chapter 35 Madeline #2
“Stop it. The line Atticus and I have is real. If we ever crossed it, you’d see the announcement on global stream. It wouldn’t be a secret.”
“So you’re thinking about it,” he said.
“I’m thinking about the fact I might need more than two days a fortnight of feeling like someone’s person.” My voice dropped and so did my stomach. “I’m thinking about how I can’t keep doing this, living in extremes.”
“That is not turning my feelings off. That is compartmentalising so I don’t get you killed.” his words coming out tight.
“That’s a nice tactical way of saying you’ll be able to walk past me for good one day. And I’ll be the only one standing there with my heart in pieces.”
“Madeline. That is not going to happen.”
I stared up at the ceiling, throat burning. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
The silence on the line changed. I pictured him somewhere in Villain, standing very still.
“What did you say.”
I took a deep breath. Squeezed my eyes shut, let the tears flood.
“I said I don’t think I can do this. This… half-life. This off and on. I can’t do weeks of being ignored, then forty-eight hours of being worshipped like I’m your universe. It’s splitting me in half.”
He swore, Crow words jagged and fast.
I sat up pulling my knees to my chest. “I think you should get another sub. Someone who can do this. The off and on.”
“No. We’re not having that conversation.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. This is not a fucking lifestyle. I am not a dom shopping on Veil. You are my sub because I need to control everything around you, because that is the only way I know how to love. Crows obsess, possess, protect. That’s what this is. Not a weekend hobby.”
“And, I’m saying I can’t meet you there,” I whispered. “Not like this.”
“You’re breaking up with me.”
“That’s not—”
“Say it. Say the words, baby. It’s over, Vince. I’m done. Go find someone else you can stomach ignoring in a hall.”
My ribs locked around my heart. Air felt wrong in my lungs.
Silence pulled tight between us. The phone was warm against my cheek, his breathing a low in my ear. I stared at the ceiling.
“I love you,” slipped out before I could catch it. “So much it feels stupid. So much it makes everything else in my life look… wrong. But, I can’t keep doing this.”
Something fell over on his end. Not a slam, but a dull, solid impact. Furniture, maybe. A hand against a desk.
“You’re ending this.”
“I don’t know how else to survive it.”
“Say it, then.”
His tone sent a shiver through me. Calm. Deadly. The way he sounded in rooms that made grown men sweat.
“Vince—”
“Say it, baby. If you’re going to burn us down, light the match properly.”
My eyes blurred.
“It’s over,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”
The sound that came through wasn’t a word. More like a punch to his own chest. Another crash followed—sharper this time.
“No. You weren’t meant to be able to say it. You aren’t allowed to end it.”
“It has to be.”
“The fuck it does. You don’t call Daddy from another man’s penthouse and end us? You really think,” the words caught, “you can just… walk away from this? From us? Like it was a… trial subscription you ran out of patience for?”
“It’s not about patience. It’s about pain.”
“Then give it to me instead.” His voice roughened. “That’s what I’m for.”
My throat burned.
“You’re also the one who walks past me. You can ignore me now.
What happens when you decide I’m too much and you switch it off for good?
Call it mercy. Tell me I’ll thank you one day.
You know how to compartmentalise. I don’t.
I’m scared you’ll wake up and decide loving me is a liability you can’t afford. ”
He went very quiet. I heard footsteps. The faint clink of something metal swinging—keys, maybe. A door opening, then closing again.
“I’m coming to get you.” The certainty in it made my stomach drop. “You’re going to pack what you have there, baby. You’re going to walk out of that guest room. You’re going to come to my penthouse. Now.”
“No.”
“I need to see you.”
“That won’t change anything.”
“It changes everything. I can’t beg like I need to on a phone. I need to be on my knees in front of you.”
Crow words this time, slipping low and fast under his breath. I caught fragments only because I knew the sound of him bleeding now.
“You think one day I’m going to turn to you and say it was fun, baby, time to go and then walk past you like it doesn’t rip me apart? That’s what you really think of Daddy?”
“I think you’re capable of anything if you decide it’s what the dynasty needs,” I whispered. “Including cutting yourself free of the girl who makes your enemies look too closely.”
“Baby…”
The way he said it made my chest tighten.
“What do you need,” he asked. “Right now. On this call. Tell Daddy. I will rearrange my entire life if you stay on the line and tell me how.”
“There isn’t a sentence that fixes this.”
“Then not a sentence. A list. A house. You want your own place in Villain? I’ll build it.
You want a floor in one of my towers? It’s yours.
” his voice was frantic now, “Jewellery—tell me what metal, what stones, I’ll put it on your throat.
Limited edition heels? Baby, I’ll buy every pair in your size on the planet and burn the ones you don’t like.
You want your name coded into every port contract so they know you’re above them?
I will do it. Baby, tell Daddy what you want. Anything. Just don’t hang up.”
My heart twisted.
“I am sorry. I don’t know how to do this kindly,” I whispered. “There isn’t a gentle way to leave someone you still love.”
“You hang up on me. I am coming to that penthouse.”
“You won’t,” I whispered.
He said watch me, very clearly in Crow tongue.
“You won’t,” I repeated. “Because that would mean letting the world see how much you care. You’ll pace in your war room. You’ll scare your staff. But you’ll stay where it’s safe. For you. For me. For the dynasty.”
He cursed in Crow again, messier this time. I caught my name tangled in the syllables. Then he went quiet for a moment.
“What do I say to keep you. Tell me. Tell Daddy exactly what to say so you don’t go.”
“There isn’t anything left to say.”
“There has to be. You are my girl. You are my baby. You are the only good thing I’ve ever had that wasn’t bought with blood. Don’t make this the day I lose you.”
I pressed my hand to my eyes.
“If you hang up,” he said again, “I am coming.”
“I know,” I lied.
“Baby—”
“I love you,” I said quietly. “That’s the problem. If I loved you less, I could keep doing this.”
Silence. The faint sound of something else falling in the background, then nothing.
“Goodnight, Vince.”
“Madeline—baby, please—don’t you—”
My thumb moved.
The call ended.
Silence filled into the room. The kind that made my own heartbeat sound too loud.