Chapter 8

By the time Maya and Charles arrived at the bar, a strange anxiety was already gnawing at Maya's chest.

She hadn't wanted to come. She shouldn't have come. But Charles's earlier words had planted a seed of suspicion in her mind—what if he was right? What if Oscar was just faking the whole thing? Another calculated performance just to lure her in for a reunion?

With a queasy breath, she stepped through the doorway of the private suite.

And what greeted her wasn't the sight of a pitiful, drunken ex-lover—no. It was something else entirely.

A woman's moan. Breathy, sultry, unmistakable.

A muffled gasp.

Then came the sound of bodies moving in a way that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Maya went rigid.

In that one second, all the blood drained from her face.

She shoved open the door, and the scene lay itself bare—there was Oscar, pressing his entire body down against her half-sister. Oscar's lips locked with Diana's in a passionate, fevered kiss.

"...Maya..." Oscar's voice slurred through the haze of intoxication—still murmuring her name, as if she were the one under him.

The irony was sickening.

And then there was Diana—oh, Diana—with her faux-innocent smile curling into something far more venomous. The moment she caught sight of Maya standing at the door, her eyes lit with a victorious gleam, a challenge that didn't even bother to disguise itself.

"Maya, what a surprise! Oscar said he was drunk and needed someone to pick him up, so... here I am. Don't get the wrong idea, okay?"

In the corner, Charles raised a brow.

Well, that was fast.

After all, he was the one who had deliberately fed the message to Diana. His aim was simple: expose Oscar for what he really was. A man who said one thing, did another, and thought he could keep both women orbiting around him like moons circling a sun.

Except this "sun" had clearly been drugged—Charles could see it now. Oscar didn't look drunk; he looked sedated. The flushed skin, the slightly unfocused eyes—it reeked of something chemical.

Still, Charles's eyes drifted toward Maya, and he couldn't help but feel a pang of worry.

But to his surprise, Maya didn't cry. She didn't scream. She didn't even blink.

Her gaze barely lingered on Oscar.

And then she exhaled, slow and icy. "Great. Enjoy yourselves."

Without waiting another second, she grabbed Charles's arm and turned to leave.

Behind them, Diana's voice rose in a syrupy whine. "Oscar... not so rough..."

Maya's stomach flipped. She quickened her pace.

They had barely stepped out of the building when the nausea hit her in full force. She bent over, clutching Charles's arm, retching dryly into the night air.

When she finally lifted her head, her cheeks were wet with tears.

Charles's heart twisted.

He hated this. Hated seeing her like this. But he also knew—it had to be done. Only something this devastating could finally shatter her illusions about Oscar.

Only something this grotesque could wake her up to who he truly was.

Later that night, Diana sent a message.

[Maya, Mom's already working on convincing Oscar's dad about our engagement. I don't think you'd want to make this whole thing uglier than it needs to be, would you? Stay away from Oscar for a while, okay?]

Maya stared at the text. Then, without a word, she blocked Diana's number, as if blocking out the noise could somehow mute the chaos in her heart.

For more than a decade, she had grown up with Oscar, shared secrets and birthdays and tearful adolescent confessions. Their bond had once felt like it would last a lifetime.

Now, piece by piece, it was unraveling.

She walked forward, slowly. Stumbling. As if her legs no longer belonged to her.

And then, just like that—everything went black.

A blinding flash. And suddenly she was seventeen again, Oscar approaching her in his school uniform, calling out her name like he always did.

"Maya..."

"Maya!"

Except now... it wasn't Oscar's voice anymore.

It was Charles's.

She tried to open her eyes. Tried to reach for him.

But she couldn't.

She was sinking, deeper and deeper, into the darkness, and this time... she didn't know if she could come back.

…

Elsewhere, Oscar finally stirred awake.

His head pounded. His limbs felt heavy.

As his eyes adjusted to the morning light, he realized—this wasn't his bed.

And next to him... wasn't Maya.

It was Diana.

He shot up like he'd been burned.

"What the hell—why are you here? Where's Maya?!"

Diana sat up with a face full of hurt. "You're really still thinking about her?"

She sniffled, then gave a trembling sigh. "She never came to get you last night. She called me instead. Said if I didn't show up, you'd be left at the bar all night. You came at me the moment I arrived…"

Oscar's mind reeled. "No—no, I didn't... I didn't... Shut up!" he shouted, scrambling to find his clothes. His heart was racing—no, thundering—with panic.

He had to get out. He had to explain. He had to find Maya.

But as he reached the door, Diana threw herself at him, barefoot and desperate, clinging to him like a lifeline.

"I love you too! Why won't you ever see me? Why do you only look at her?"

Oscar froze. For a moment, he looked as though he might falter.

But then he shook her off, his voice ragged. "Stop. You know it's impossible. You know this was never going to happen!"

And just as he reached for the doorknob—

It opened from the other side.

Standing there was Mary Colridge, Diana's mother.

She looked down at him with a gaze that could slice through steel.

"Before you say another word, Oscar," she said coolly, "you might want to take a look at this."

She handed him two things: A confidential project file—the kind that Francis Group couldn't survive without.

And a set of photos.

The photos were taken this morning. Photos of Charles, quietly looking after a pale, unconscious Maya in a hospital bed.

"Without Diana, your precious Francis Group would've gone bankrupt long ago," she said, her voice honeyed with poison. "And now you want to chase after that slut who abandoned you last night? You have to choose, Oscar. Diana… or Maya. If you pick Maya, you can kiss your company goodbye."