Chapter 45 Unaffected
I stood there a moment longer, watching Apple writhe on the pavement, her voice tearing through the street as she screamed and clutched her stomach.
Pathetic. Completely unhinged.
I turned to Lena. She had already shifted position, standing just behind Apple now, her stance steady, attention split between her and the growing crowd gathering along the sidewalk.
“You’ve got this?” I asked quietly.
Her gaze snapped to me. “Yes.”
That was enough.
I stepped back inside and pulled the door closed behind me. The sound dulled immediately, but it didn’t disappear. Apple’s voice still carried through the walls, muffled but relentless, rising and falling in waves of hysteria.
“She pushed me! She tried to kill my baby! Help me!”
I moved into the living room and sank onto the couch, folding my arms as I listened. Lena’s voice cut in occasionally, trying to contain it, but it didn’t matter. Apple was already too far gone, fully committed to the scene she had created.
I leaned back, letting the noise blur into the background.
I felt… calm.
Sirens cut through the air a few minutes later, growing louder until they stopped just outside. Doors slammed. Voices multiplied. Apple’s cries sharpened instantly, louder, more desperate now that she had an audience that mattered.
“Help me! Please!”
The neighbors were probably glued to their windows, soaking it all in. This was a quiet neighborhood. Drama like this didn’t happen here.
I barely moved.
Then, through the noise, I heard something new, and Apple’s voice climbed higher, almost frantic.
“Knox! Knox, please! She tried to kill our baby! She pushed me!”
I went still.
He was here.
I couldn’t hear what he said, if he said anything at all. Apple kept crying, her voice breaking as she begged, “Please! Don’t let her get away with this!”
The sound of the front door broke through it all.
I looked up as it opened and shut again.
Knox walked in without hesitation, Titan following close behind him, but Knox’s attention locked onto me immediately, as if nothing else existed. Behind him, faint through the door, Apple’s voice still carried.
“Knox! Come back! Don’t leave me!”
He didn’t even glance back.
He crossed the room in a few quick strides and dropped into a crouch in front of me, his hands settling lightly on my knees. His gaze moved over me, sharp and thorough, taking in my face, my shoulders, my arms, searching for something wrong.
“Ashley,” he said, quieter now. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “She didn’t touch me.”
His gaze searched my face a moment longer, as if confirming it for himself. Then he gave a small nod, a slow breath leaving him as some of the tension eased from his shoulders.
“Apple’s being taken to the hospital,” he said.
“I didn’t push her.”
His expression didn’t shift. “I know.”
There was no hesitation in it. No doubt.
“But even if you had,” he added, quieter now, “I wouldn’t have cared.”
Something dark flickered behind his eyes, cold and controlled, gone almost as quickly as it appeared. “She had it coming.”
I held his gaze for a second, taking that in, while outside Apple’s voice still carried faintly through the walls, high and desperate, still performing for anyone who would listen. Knox didn’t even acknowledge it.
“She told the police you shoved her,” he went on. “Said you attacked her without warning.”
“Of course she did.”
“They wanted to speak with you, but I told them they can talk to Lena instead. She saw everything.”
Relief settled quietly into my chest. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed to hear that until the tension eased.
“I’m also giving them the security footage,” he added, his thumb brushing once over my knuckles where his hand still held mine. “They’ll see exactly what happened.”
Apple hadn’t even looked for cameras. In all her hysteria, she hadn’t thought that far.
I nodded. “Good.”
“There’s something else.”
I lifted my eyes to his.
“I got the DNA results an hour ago.”
My breath caught. “And?”
“It’s not mine.”
For a moment I just sat there, feeling the words settle, realizing how tightly I had been holding onto that fear without even admitting it to myself. Then it slipped loose all at once.
I exhaled slowly, relief spreading through me, loosening something deep in my chest.
“Good,” I said softly. “I’m glad you know.”
He leaned in, his hand coming up to steady lightly at the side of my face as he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.
Outside, the distant noise of voices and movement continued, but it felt far away. Irrelevant.
Later that evening Knox and I were stretched out on the bed, his arm resting loosely around my waist, fingers tracing idle patterns against my skin. My head lay on his chest, listening to the steady rise and fall of his breathing.
My fingers drifted over his shirt, then stilled. “So… are you just moving in without telling me?”
His hand stilled briefly. “I thought it was obvious.”
I tipped my chin up, meeting his gaze.“What about your penthouse?”
His arm tightened slightly around me. “It’s still there.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
A faint breath left him. “Maria’s taking care of it. All that matters to me is that I’m where you are.”
Something quiet settled between us after that, the kind of silence that didn’t need filling.
Then Knox spoke again.
“You know,” he said, “there’s something I never told you. About that first time. In my office.”
I lifted my head slightly, caught off guard. “What about it?”
He went quiet after that, his gaze drifting up to the ceiling. I felt the shift in him before he spoke, the way his chest rose a little deeper under my cheek, the tension settling into his body.
“I was in a bad place,” he said finally. “Those two days before… I wasn’t myself.”
I traced a small line along his shirt, remembering. “I noticed. You were short with me. I thought I’d done something wrong.”
His arm tightened slightly around me. “You didn’t. It wasn’t you.”
I lifted my head just enough to look at him. He still wasn’t looking at me, his jaw set, like he was forcing himself through something he didn’t want to revisit.
I waited.
He exhaled slowly, then said, “Someone sent me videos. Of you.”
My breath caught. “What videos?”
“Explicit ones.” His voice stayed flat, controlled, but he still didn’t meet my eyes.
I pushed myself up onto one elbow. “Knox, I never—”
“I know.” He turned his head then, cutting me off. “I know. You were a virgin. Those videos weren’t you.”
My pulse picked up anyway. “Then why—”
“They were deep-fakes,” he said. “AI. Good ones. And I didn’t realise. I didn’t look close enough. I just… reacted.”
He dragged a hand over his face, frustration tightening his expression. I watched him, taking it in, the pieces settling into place.
“I’d been losing my mind over you for months,” he went on, quieter now. “And when those showed up, I let it get to me.”
I eased back down beside him, my head returning to his chest, but my mind was already moving ahead.
Someone had sent those.
Someone had wanted this.
And I didn’t need to guess who.
Knox turned slightly toward me, his hand coming up to rest at my side again, his thumb brushing absent patterns like before.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I should’ve known better.” A rare crack in his certainty. At the guilt he didn’t bother hiding.
I let out a soft breath and let my body relax into him. “It’s okay.”
A small, mischievous thought surfaced, chasing away the heaviness that had settled between us.
I shifted closer to him, my fingers trailing slowly down the center of his chest, feeling the steady rise and fall of his breathing beneath my touch.
His body reacted instantly, a subtle tightening, his breath changing.
“But,” I murmured, tilting my head as I looked up at him, “I know exactly how you can make it up to me.”
His eyes darkened, something heavier settling into his gaze as his hand tightened at my waist, pulling me closer. Whatever he saw in my expression seemed to erase the last trace of tension between us.
And he made good on his apology.