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Chapter 3
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2026-01-12 05:33:15Maya did not go back to the third floor because she could not pretend she was fine. Her face was wet, her breathing uneven, and her hands were still shaking too much to pass anyone without being seen.
Instead she turned down a quieter hallway and found an executive bathroom, the kind with thick towels and soap that smelled expensive. She locked herself inside a stall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. The tile was cold against her legs, grounding in a way she needed.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket like it knew she was breaking. Elena asked where she was, then asked again, the messages stacking fast enough to feel like pressure.
An unknown number followed, calm and precise, reminding her the offer still stood and that she had twenty four hours. Maya closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to her knees. Two hundred thousand dollars did not feel real.
The number was obscene and impossible to hold in her head. It might as well have been two million or two billion for all the sense it made.
People like Adrian Holt could casually offer to pay for someone’s life while people like Maya watched their mothers disappear piece by piece. The unfairness of it burned hotter than fear. She stayed on the bathroom floor until the buzzing stopped.
The phone rang before she could shove it away. Maya answered without looking, already bracing herself for bad news. It was not the nurse but Dr Reeves, her mother’s oncologist, his voice tight in a way that made her chest lock instantly.
He said the fever was not responding and they were seeing signs of sepsis. They were moving her mother to intensive care now.
Maya stood too fast and the room tilted violently. She told him she was coming even as her voice shook. When the call ended she stared at herself in the mirror, barely recognizing the woman staring back. Mascara streaked her cheeks and her eyes were red. The suit Elena had called professional now just looked thin and tired.
She splashed water on her face and tried to breathe the way she’d been taught years ago. It barely helped but she did it anyway. Then she left the bathroom before she could fall apart again.
She nearly walked straight into Gabriel Torres. He caught her elbow before she could stumble, his grip steady and warm in a way that surprised her.
He asked if she was okay and she tried to brush past him, muttering something she didn’t mean. He did not let go right away.
He said she did not look fine and she laughed once, sharp and empty. When he apologized for whatever Adrian had said to her, her body went still.When he admitted he knew his brother too well, the truth pressed closer than she wanted it to. Gabriel’s voice was gentle but firm, like someone trying to stop damage before it spread.
He guided her into a quiet alcove by the windows overlooking the city. He said Adrian did this sometimes, found people he thought he could save and made offers they couldn’t refuse.
He said Adrian always looked surprised when it fell apart afterward. Maya listened with her throat tight because she already knew he wasn’t wrong. The offer didn’t feel like help. It felt like gravity.
Her phone buzzed again with an update from the hospital. Her mother was stable for now but they needed to start antibiotics immediately. Maya told Gabriel she needed to go and he nodded, then asked where her mother was. The question stopped her cold because it meant he already knew. Adrian had told him everything.
Gabriel said it quietly, like he understood the weight of it. Before she could leave he asked her to listen for five minutes. Just five. He told her about Adrian’s childhood, about being dragged into meetings where grown men begged Charles Holt for mercy.
He said Adrian grew up watching money destroy people and learned early how permanent that kind of power could be.
Gabriel said Adrian had spent the last six years trying to undo the damage. Paying families, fixing what could still be fixed, carrying guilt that never went away. The money helped but the damage stayed.
And the people Adrian helped usually ended up hating him anyway. Maya said that was not her problem, but Gabriel shook his head and said it would be if she took the offer.
Her phone buzzed again and the nurse asked where she was. Maya said she was on her way and thanked Gabriel before walking toward the elevator.
One year did not sound like much when she said it out loud. People wasted years all the time in jobs they hated and lives they barely tolerated. But one year with Adrian Holt felt like standing on the edge of something dark and deep.
The ride to the hospital blurred together into noise and motion. Traffic lights, horns, her heartbeat pounding too loud in her ears. Somewhere near Market Street her phone died and she didn’t bother turning it back on. The city slid past the window while Adrian’s offer pressed heavier with every block.
The hospital rose out of the fog, gray and imposing. She paid the driver with her last twenty dollars and ran inside. The ICU was on the sixth floor and the elevator was too slow, so she took the stairs. By the time she reached the doors her breath was tearing out of her chest.
She nearly collided with Dr Reeves in the hallway. He looked older than the last time she’d seen him, lines deeper around his mouth. He told her her mother was stable for now and relief hit so hard she almost cried. Then he said they needed to talk about next steps.
The infection was manageable but it was a symptom of something bigger. Her mother’s immune system was compromised and the cancer was progressing. They needed to make decisions soon. Aggressive treatment or comfort care. Maya said no before he could finish because she could not hear that yet.
She told him about Johns Hopkins, about the experimental treatment and the chance it offered. Her voice shook but she forced the words out anyway.
She said she could get the money. Dr Reeves studied her facee for a long moment, then nodded slowly. If she was serious, he could make the referral, but they had to move fast.
Days, maybe a week. Maya borrowed his phone and stepped into an empty waiting room. She dialed Adrian Holt from memory. The phone rang twice before he answered. His voice was clipped and professional, nothing like it had been earlier.
She told him it was Maya and there was silence before he asked if she was okay. She said no and told him her mother was in ICU. She said she did not have time to think. One year, she said, exactly as he offered. He agreed immediately and said he would pay for everything.
She asked him why, not guilt or fixing his father’s mistakes, but the real reason. The silence stretched so long she thought the call had dropped. Then he said he was tired of being alone and that she was not afraid of him. He said she had looked at him like a person.
Maya stared through the waiting room window at her mother’s room. The machines beeped steadily, unforgiving and constant. She said if she did this she needed a contract and everything in writing. No surprises. The money had to go directly to the hospital first. He agreed without hesitation.
She asked him to promise she would not regret it. He said he could not promise that and admitted he probably would regret it every day. She laughed softly and told him that was the worst promise she had ever heard. Then she said okay and hung up.
When Adrian arrived at the hospital later, he looked out of place in the waiting room. Too expensive, too controlled, too awake in a place built for grief. He told her the money had already been transferred and made her eat a protein bar like it was an order.
Before he left, he told her about his mother and about watching cancer take her while his father refused treatment. He said this was not about guilt, but Maya knew it still was. When he walked away,she stayed where she was, staring at the floor until the world died again.
She went back to her mother’s bedside and held her hand until exhaustion pulled her under.Her last thought before sleep came was simple and terrifying.
What did I just agree to?
Bab terbaru
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The boutique called two days later to say Maya's dress was ready for final fitting. The woman on the phone had the kind of voice that made suggestions sound like commands, so Maya agreed to come in that afternoon even though dread sat heavy in her stomach. She told Diane she had an appointment and left Holt Industries without looking back, needing distance from Adrian's office and the questions she still could not ask.The boutique looked different in the afternoon light, less intimidating but no more welcoming. The same saleswoman appeared immediately, remembering Maya's name without being told and leading her toward the back where alterations happened behind closed doors. The dress hung on a mannequin near the windows, emerald fabric catching light and throwing it back in waves that looked like water. Maya stared at it and tried to imagine herself wearing it t
Broken by the Billionaire Chapter 10
Maya's phone buzzed again but she could not make herself look at it. The streets around her blurred into shapes without meaning as her feet carried her forward on autopilot. She walked until her legs burned and her breath came sharp and cold, until the weight in her chest felt too heavy to carry another step. When she finally stopped she found herself standing outside a coffee shop she did not remember entering before, the warm glow from inside spilling onto the sidewalk like an invitation she did not deserve.She sat on a bench across the street and stared at nothing while the world moved around her. Couples walked past holding hands, their laughter floating on the evening air like something from another life. A mother dragged a crying child toward a waiting car, her exhaustion visible in every movement. Maya watched them all and felt separated by glass she could not b
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Maya stood outside the bathroom for a long time after Victoria left, her hands gripping the counter until her knuckles went white. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, the sound drilling into her skull like a warning she could not decode. She splashed cold water on her face three times before her reflection stopped looking like a stranger. When she finally walked back to her office, Diane was waiting with a message that Adrian had left early for a meeting downtown.The relief that flooded through her felt shameful but undeniable. Maya gathered her things without looking at anyone and took the stairs down instead of the elevator, needing the burn in her legs to match what was happening inside her chest. The city outside was gray and cold, the kind of afternoon that made everything look washed out and temporary. She pulled her coat tighter and headed toward Mer
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Maya spent the weekend locked in her apartment pretending the world had stopped turning. She ignored seventeen calls from Adrian, twelve from Gabriel, and three from Elena that felt more like surveillance than concern. Her mother's nurse called once to say the treatment was working and Maya cried for twenty minutes after hanging up because even miracles felt tainted now.Monday morning arrived anyway, dragging her back to Holt Industries whether she was ready or not.Maya stood outside longer than necessary, watching her reflection in the glass doors like she was looking at a stranger. She had rehearsed what she would say to Adrian a hundred times but every version felt wrong in her mouth.The lobby felt different now that she knew what lived behind its marble floors and polished surfaces. Marcus waved at her from his desk but his smile faded when he saw her face. She d
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The pier smelled of salt rust and old water soaked deep into the wood. Maya pulled her jacket tighter as the wind slipped through the fabric and settled cold against her chest. The city lights behind her felt far away like something she had already stepped out of. Ahead there was only darkness broken by weak yellow lamps and the steady slap of water against the pier. Each step she took echoed louder than it should have.Her boots scraped against the boards as she walked farther out. The night felt stretched thin and empty like it was holding its breath. She could hear her own heartbeat louder than the water. Every instinct told her to turn back while she still could. But her feet kept moving forward anyway.She checked her phone again even though she already knew what it would say. Pier 19 come alone. The message had no name and no explanation and that made it worse.
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Maya’s hands would not stop shaking as she stood outside Holt Industries at five fifty in the morning. The glass doors reflected her back at herself, small and uncertain, like someone who had wandered into the wrong life. The building looked different this early, quiet and stripped of its power. Without people inside, it felt less impressive and more dangerous. A place that did not pretend to be kind.Her phone buzzed in her palm, Adrian asking if she planned to stand outside all morning. She looked up and saw the faint glow from his office window far above, forty two floors high. Knowing he could see her made her chest tighten and her skin prickle. She hated that he could witness her hesitation from a distance. Before fear could win, she pushed through the doors.The lobby swallowed her footsteps, empty and echoing without Marcus at his desk. The elevator ride was quiet except
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