But Mason’s brokenness turned out to be different from mine. He needed to be needed. Needed to fix things. And when I didn’t need fixing anymore, when I started wanting more than his version of love, he found other ways to feel important.
Like cheating on me multiple times over the years.
And now, apparently, like this.
“Mrs. Volkov.” Pedro appears beside me. “Mr. Volkov wants you to come home. Now.”
“I’m fine. Mason’s gone, right?”
“For now. But we don’t know if he’ll come back. And Mr. Volkov is not happy about the security failure.”
“Security failure?”
“Mason was blacklisted. He should never have made it past the lobby desk.” Pedro’s expression is grim. “Someone’s getting fired today.”
Back at the penthouse, I find Ledger in his office, phone pressed to his ear, his voice ice-cold.
“I don’t care what excuse you have. You let a blacklisted individual into my building and put my wife at risk. You’re done. Security will escort you out by the end of the day.” He hangs up and looks at me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. Mason didn’t get near me.”
“He got into the building. That’s too close.” He pulls me into his arms. “This can’t happen again.”
“It won’t. You just fired someone to make sure of it.”
“I’d fire ten people if it kept you safe.”
The office door opens, and Alexi walks in, phone in hand, grinning ear to ear. “Dad, you have to see this. Savannah’s ex is losing his mind on the internet.”
He holds up his phone, and the video plays. Mason’s breakdown in full HD, complete with audio of him screaming about kidnapping and brainwashing.
Alexi is laughing so hard he can barely breathe. “This is gold. Pure gold. He’s like a character from a bad TV drama.”
“It’s not funny,” Ledger says, but even he’s fighting a smile.
“It’s a little funny,” I admit. “He looks completely unhinged.”
“He is unhinged.” Ledger takes Alexi’s phone and watches the video again, his expression shifting from amused to concerned. “Which makes him dangerous. Unpredictable people do unpredictable things.”
“What are you going to do?” I ask.
“For now? Monitor him. Make sure he stays in Chicago.” Ledger hands the phone back to Alexi. “But if he escalates further, if he tries to come to New York again, then we handle it permanently.”
The way he says “permanently” makes my stomach twist.
“You can’t just—” I stop. Because actually, he can. That’s exactly what he can do.
“I’ll protect you however I need to,” Ledger says quietly. “Even from your ex-boyfriend’s breakdown.”
Alexi is still scrolling through the videos, laughing at the comments people are leaving. “People think it’s a publicity stunt. Some marketing campaign gone wrong.”
“Let them think that,” Ledger says. “Better than the truth.”
Later that night, alone in bed, I can’t stop thinking about Mason’s face in those videos. The desperation. The genuine belief that he was saving me.
He doesn’t understand that I don’t need saving. That I chose this. Chose Ledger.
But Mason was never good at understanding what I wanted. He only ever saw what he needed me to be.
