I open it up and my guts shred. Fuck. Inside, glossy images glare up at me, stark reminders of the night when I screwed up royally. The night that turned Lucy against me, the beginning of the end.
I was so blitzed I didn’t even notice someone snapping shots.
“I’m handling it,” I say in a low voice.
“It’s worse than this. There’s a video.”
“Have you seen it?”
“Yes. Have you?”
“Yes.” A heavy sigh escapes my lips. The tabloids already sent it over to me for comment. Now I’m doing everything in my power to tie them up in legalities and prevent that damn video from seeing the light of day.
Killian snorts. “We run a business empire, not a back-alley racket. You handle the casinos, the clubs, and that does afford you certain… liberties. But this?” He jabs the envelope with enough force to dent the mahogany beneath it. “This is a PR ticking time bomb. We’re one headline away from our shares crashing and the gaming commission revoking our licenses.”
His words send a cold shiver down my spine, but there’s a bigger dread gnawing at me. The one he doesn’t see. The one he doesn’t care about. If the story leaks, Lucy will be gone for good. My second chance at mending things with her will be snuffed out.
“I’m aware.” I force the words out through gritted teeth.
“And it’s not just about the media,” Killian continues, ignoring my interruption. “Our employees see you as a leader, a role model. What happens when they see this?”
I drop my head into my hands, my mind reeling. “I’ve got the best lawyers working on it,” I assure him, my hands muffling my words. I look up, my gaze hardening. “It’s under control.”
He raises a skeptical brow. “You sure about that?”
“As sure as I can be,” I reply, my tone steadier than I feel.
It’s a well-practiced routine, a front of confidence carefully constructed and maintained over the years. But the cracks are showing now.
“All right, then,” Killian finally grunts. “Just… fix this shit, yeah?”
I nod, watching as he strides out of the office. I catch my reflection in the glass window behind him—the dark eyes, the tense lines around the mouth, the look of a man being crushed under the weight of his own sins.
How did I end up here? At the top of the world, surrounded by wealth and power, yet feeling so fucking empty.
Lucy was my ray of sunshine. But I let my demons consume me, and in the process, I lost her.
In that elevator ride, it took every ounce of restraint not to pull her close and make her mine again. I’m walking on thin ice, perpetually caught between what I want to say and what I can say.
“I am my own worst enemy,” I mutter to myself.
My phone rings, jolting me from my thoughts.
“Hey, big bro.” The cheery lilt in Maggie’s voice is a jarring contrast to my own turmoil.
“Maggie.”
“Wow. You sound worse than I expected. I take it you haven’t made any progress with Lucy then?”
Maggie, my closest confidant, my little sister, knows about Lucy. But she isn’t privy to the whole brutal truth behind why Lucy and I fell apart. I’m too ashamed.
“I don’t know how much longer I can do this.” My voice wavers, breaking the facade I’ve been maintaining for far too long. “Acting like she’s just another employee… it’s killing me.”
Maggie’s response is brimming with empathy. “I know this is tough on you, JP.”
The admission rips a tortured growl from my throat. “I’m on edge, Maggie.”
“Just… don’t do anything rash, okay?”
