Chapter 53

The silence after Kimberley left was different from the usual quiet moments in Drew’s office.

It wasn’t the calm, productive kind where we could both work without speaking.

This one was thick.

Loaded and every second it stretched, it felt like the walls were holding their breath.

I could hear the low, steady hum of the AC behind me. The faint tick tick of the brass clock on his shelf. My own breathing, shallow, too quick. I hadn’t realised I was gripping my pen so tightly until my knuckles ached.

Drew was still standing where Kimberley had left him near the edge of his desk, his back half turned toward me, jaw tight. His hands were tucked under his arms now, a pose that wasn’t defensive so much as it was… containing something.

Something sharp.

He didn’t speak right away. He just stared at the closed door for a few beats, and then, without looking at me, he said my name.

“Lila.”

It was low. Deliberate. The kind of tone that told me this wasn’t a casual follow-up question.

My throat was dry. “I…” My voice cracked, and I stopped. I had no idea where to start without sounding like I’d been keeping secrets, which I had.

I looked down at my notebook, pressing my palm flat against it like that could ground me. “If I tell you everything, you have to promise me one thing.”

That got his attention. His gaze cut to me, sharp. “You’re setting conditions already?”

“It’s not like that,” I said quickly. “I just… I need you to understand why I haven’t said anything until now. And I need this to stay between us. For now.”

His brow furrowed, the faintest crease appearing between his eyes. But after a moment, he gave the smallest nod. “Alright. Go on.”

I exhaled slowly, my fingers curling over the edge of my notebook. “It started a while ago. At first, it was nothing or I thought it was nothing.

Max has always asked questions about my work. Harmless ones. Stuff like how the launch was going, or whether I was stressed. But lately… it’s been different. More specific. He’d ask about suppliers, or which parts of the property you were still finalising, or if there were any big reveals planned for the launch.”

Drew’s expression didn’t change, but his gaze didn’t leave mine either. It was like he was watching my face for every flicker of emotion.

“I told myself I was overthinking it,” I said. “That I was just reading into things because… well, because it’s Max, he has been acting very shady and I had also seen him with Kimberley. He insists that they are just business partners but there seems to be more.

But then there was this one time…” I hesitated, remembering the moment with crystal clarity. “We were having lunch and he went to the bathroom, leaving his phone on the table. A message came in while he was away that made me very suspicious of him.”

I felt my stomach twist again, even now. “It said: Has she told you anything interesting about the launch?”

Drew’s jaw flexed, his lips pressing into a thin line. Still, he didn’t interrupt.

“I didn’t confront him right there,” I continued. “If I accused him without proof, he’d just deny it. And if I was wrong, I would ruin… Well, everything and lose my chance to find out his true intentions. So I decided to test him.”

His brow lowered. “Test him how?”

“I gave him something to see if he’d run with it.”

There was a subtle shift in Drew’s posture, like he’d guessed where this was going. “You baited him.”

“Yes,” I admitted, my voice steady even though my pulse was racing. “I used the Visage & Void collection. I pretended to be on the phone with a gallery, right in front of him. I told them we were moving forward with it for the Manhattan property and made it sound urgent, like you were coming to inspect it yourself next week.”

The side of Drew’s mouth twitched, though it wasn’t amusement, it was calculation.

“I knew he’d recognise the name,” I said. “And I knew it would be tempting. It’s not just valuable, it’s memorable. And you had considered it once, but it didn’t match the hotel’s theme, so we scrapped it. He didn’t know that part.”

Drew’s eyes sharpened as the pieces aligned. “And today, Kimberley walks in here acting like she’s holding the key to my entire project.”

“Exactly.” My voice was quieter now. “She couldn’t have known unless someone told her. And the only person that could have told her… is Max.”

Drew moved away from the desk, pacing once toward the window. His hands went to his hips, then fell to his sides again. When he turned back, there was something unreadable in his eyes.

“You could have told me sooner.”

I looked down at my hands, twisting my pen between my fingers. “I know. And I’m sorry. I just… I didn’t want to come to you with nothing but a gut feeling. I thought if I confirmed it myself, I’d have something solid.”

“You were working on this alone?”

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I didn’t want to drag you into something that might’ve been a coincidence or false. I thought… I could figure it out.”

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything right away.

“What’s your plan now?” he asked finally. “Are you going to show up at his place and demand the truth?”

I shook my head. “No, not yet. He will just deny it and I still don’t know why he's doing all of this or why he's working with Kimberley to ruin the launch. Everything seems very calculated from their end so I need to know what their true intentions are before I do anything.”

Drew’s gaze was fixed on me, steady and unflinching.

“I want you to help me,” I said, leaning forward slightly. “Please. You have resources I don’t. If we watch him and Kimberley closely, track what they do or just lead them on a little more, maybe we can figure out their angle and stop it before it hits the launch.”

“Another thing I'm not sure of is if this is a personal attack on me or if they are trying to sabotage the launch for other selfish reasons.” I added

His silence stretched long enough for doubt to creep into my chest. Maybe I’d miscalculated and asking him for help had been a mistake.

Then he exhaled slowly, shaking his head once. “You realise this could get messy fast. People like Max and Kimberley don’t like being cornered. And I don’t like leaving loose ends.”

“I’m not asking you to protect me,” I said. “I’m asking you to help me find the truth.”

His eyes searched mine for a long moment, like he was trying to see if I really meant that or if there was more I wasn’t saying.

Finally, he nodded. “Fine. I’ll help you. But we do it my way.”

Something in the way he said it made my stomach flip, calm, steady, but edged with something I couldn’t name.

I swallowed. “Okay.”

His gaze lingered on me for a beat longer, as though he was silently warning me that “his way” might be more than I was prepared for.

But I didn’t look away.

Because whatever happened next, it was too late to back out now.