“Don’t play games with me. I know it was you. Celeste told me everything—how you orchestrated the leak, how you stalked me for weeks, how you’ve been pulling strings behind the scenes. Is this what you do for fun? Destroy women who don’t bow when you say so?”
I could lie. I could tell her it wasn’t personal. I could pretend I haven’t watched her for months, mapped her routes, counted the number of steps from her apartment door to the elevator in every building she enters. I don’t.
Instead, I say, “You’re safer this way.”
Her eyes blaze. “Safe? Is that what you call this? My career is gone. My face is everywhere for all the wrong reasons. You humiliated me, Nikola. You broke something in me I can’t get back.”
I hold her gaze. “Better broken than dead.”
She staggers back, disbelief flickering across her features. “That’s not your call. You don’t get to decide what happens to me.”
I take a breath, steady, controlled. “Exposure makes you a target. You’re visible, you’re vulnerable. There are men who—”
She cuts me off, voice trembling. “Don’t you dare. Don’t talk about ‘men’ as if you’re not one of them. You did this to me. You. Why? Why me?”
I want to tell her the truth. That I saw Marcus Hale circling, saw the patterns, saw her name in places it should neverhave appeared. That I’ve seen men like him take and take and never stop until there’s nothing left but regret.
I don’t give her that. She wouldn’t understand, not now, not when anger is the only thing keeping her upright.
I say, “You drew his attention. He doesn’t take rejection well.”
Her hands clench. “Who the fuck ishe?”
“He’s the reason you’re not safe. The reason you had to disappear.”
She shakes her head, tears starting to pool, but she refuses to let them fall. “You could have warned me. You could have talked to me like a human being, not destroyed everything I’ve built.”
I let her fury crash over me, let her words land. “You wouldn’t have listened.”
She laughs, a sound scraped raw. “You think you know me that well? You don’t know anything about me. You never will.”
I step closer, not touching, but close enough for me to feel the heat radiating from her skin. “I know you’re braver than most people I’ve met. I know you hate losing control. I know you would’ve tried to fight, and that would have gotten you killed. This way, at least you get a second chance.”
She looks at me like I’m the monster in the closet, the thing you tell children doesn’t exist until it rips the roof off your life. “You are so fucking arrogant. You think you’re saving me? I didn’t ask for your protection. I don’t want it.”
I don’t move. “Doesn’t matter.”
She draws back, anger and disbelief twisting in her eyes. “Then what do you want from me, Nikola?”
I answer her honestly. “I want you to stay alive.”
She shakes her head, disgust curling her mouth. “You can’t control me. You don’t own me.”
I say nothing, let the silence fill the space. I want to reach for her, want to show her how close she came to disaster, but I hold myself in check.
She grabs her purse, fumbles with the strap, rage breaking into something brittle and small. “Stay away from me. Undo what you’ve done. Leave my life.”
I look at her, at the fire burning behind her eyes, and I know I can’t make that promise. “I can’t stay away.”
Her shoulders stiffen. For a second, she looks like she might hit me. I almost hope she does.
Then she turns, storms past me, her heels pounding across the tile. The elevator opens, swallows her up. I don’t follow.
I watch her leave, a knot tightening in my chest. She hates me now. Good. Hate is armor. Hate keeps her moving, keeps her sharp.
I stand alone in the foyer, the echo of her anger ringing in my ears. I’d rather she hate me for the rest of her life than see her name in the morgue. Let her rage keep her safe. Let her hate burn hotter than fear.
In my world, that’s all the love I have left to give.
