Chapter 125

Drew’s POV

The days after Lila told me to leave her house felt like the longest, darkest stretch of my life.

I have known bad days before, days where deals slipped through my fingers, where boardrooms turned hostile, where competitors tried to claw into what I built. But those were external battles, ones I could fight with strategy, numbers, and sheer determination. This was different.

This was me, stripped raw.

And every hour without her was another reminder that I had ruined the one thing that was beginning to mean more than every empire I had built.

I could not even go to the office, not once. For a man like me, who once prided himself on being the first in and last out, it felt unrecognizable. My phone buzzed with updates from my executives, but I skimmed only enough to stay afloat. If something was urgent, my secretary forwarded it. If it was not, I ignored it.

What was the point? What was the point of chasing numbers, meetings, accolades, when every night ended with me alone, staring at the ceiling, replaying the way she had looked at me, shaking, broken and her eyes full of tears as she begged me to leave.

The memory lived under my skin.

Her voice, cracking, saying I destabilized her.

Her hands trembling, pressed against her chest as if I had stolen the air from her lungs.

Her father’s fury in the doorway, the steel in his voice as he demanded I leave.

And worst of all, her silence as I walked away.

That silence crushed me more than any shouted words could.

I sat in my penthouse, blinds drawn, phone on silent, and let it swallow me. The polished marble floors, the wide glass windows with their endless view of the city didn't matter, none of it mattered. Not when the one thing I wanted, the one person I could not stop thinking about, was back in that small town, trying to rebuild her life without me.

Speaking of her town, I know that everyone would probably be talking about the incident that happened at the bar by now, and as much as I did not care about what anyone had to say I was worried about what Lila would think of me when she hears it. I came to her in one night to disrupt her life and their little town and there was no one else to blame but myself.

I had shown her the worst of me. The suspicion, the coldness and the walls I built and forced her to stand outside of. I thought I was protecting myself, maybe even protecting her, but all I did was make her bleed for my insecurities.

I closed my eyes, head resting in my hands, and admitted the truth I had been choking back for too long.

I loved her.

The word had escaped me that night in her living room, but I had not planned it, I was not even ready to admit it. Yet the moment it left my lips, I knew it had been there all along, buried under my arrogance and fear.

But loving her did not mean much when all I had given her was pain.

So I made a decision.

I was not going to give up on her. Not like this.

If she did not trust me, then I would show her I was worthy of her trust. If she doubted my presence, I would show her I was not going to walk away this time. And if she thought my love was just a storm waiting to break her again, then I would prove it could be steady, quiet, and constant.

I do not plan to impose myself on her. I would not barge into her life the way I had before, demanding she hear me out or forgive me. That was the mistake I made last time. No, this time, I would stand back, present but patient, and give her the support she needed.

Maybe, just maybe, if I was consistent enough, she would begin to see me in a different light. Not the man who broke her, but the man who was willing to change for her.

We were also going to have a child, our child. The thought of it alone tugged at my heart in ways I could not explain and I needed to be a good man for both the child and Lila. I did not want my child to grow up hating me, I wanted to be present physically, emotionally and in everyway possible.

I leaned back in my chair, exhaustion pulling at every inch of me, and stared at the half empty glass of whiskey on the table. Even that didn’t taste the same anymore. It did not numb the feeling or soothe me. It only reminded me of the man I did not want to be, drowning my regrets instead of fixing them.

So I pushed the glass aside and told myself again that this was not over.

But for now, all I could do was wait.

And hope that waiting was enough.