INICIAR SESIÓN“Why are you here?” I whispered, voice trembling in the dark, though no one answered me.
I jolted awake, sheets twisted around me like a suffocating cage. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might break through my ribs. Sweat clung to my skin, and the taste of him...Drake...was everywhere: on my lips, my tongue, the back of my throat. It wasn’t real. I told myself it wasn’t real. Yet the echo of his voice, low and dangerously near, made my knees weak.The nightmare had been vivid. Too vivid. His fingers brushing against me, but not his gentle, teasing touch this time...the touch that burned me awake in moments of longing. No. This was him cold, distant, unreachable, slipping from my arms just when I thought I could hold him forever. And I had screamed, tried to call his name, but my voice had been swallowed by the darkness.I forced myself up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. The floor was icy under my bare feet. M“I won’t let her get hurt.”The words escaped me in a whisper I couldn’t even hear. Alone in the penthouse, the city lights sprawled beneath me like a galaxy I no longer wanted to be part of, I gripped the edge of my desk until my knuckles went white.Sabrina. Sabrina Mendoza. Her name had haunted me for days, weeks, every moment since I forced her away. I hadn’t seen her since… the last day, the contract, the money, the lies I had to tell myself were for her safety. I hadn’t touched her, hadn’t called her, hadn’t even checked her social media....because it didn’t exist anymore. She had deleted herself from my world, and yet, every fiber of me could feel her presence in the air around me.She was alive. That’s all that mattered.But she was alone. And Emma Brookes… that venomous, calculating fiancée, was back in New York, circling like a predator. Emma was patient. Emma was manipulative. Emma was everything I had sworn I would protect Sa
“Why is this happening to me?” I whispered into the dark, my voice barely louder than the hum of my laptop.I stared at the blinking cursor on the blank screen, but the words wouldn’t come. Not now. Not while my chest still ached from him...Drake. Drake Peterson. The man who had consumed every part of me, and now… he was gone.Gone because Emma Brookes had returned. Gone because he chose to protect me in a way that shattered me completely.I let out a trembling breath and leaned back in my chair. My apartment, usually a safe haven, felt like a cage. The walls whispered his name. His memory hovered in every corner. His voice, low and intense, haunted my ears. “Don’t leave me…” he had never said it, but I could hear the echoes of it in my mind.I opened my bank account statement again. The compensation. Millions. Enough to vanish from his life forever. Enough to erase every trace of him from mine. I blinked rapidly, the numbers blurring as tears fil
“Why are you here?” I whispered, voice trembling in the dark, though no one answered me.I jolted awake, sheets twisted around me like a suffocating cage. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might break through my ribs. Sweat clung to my skin, and the taste of him...Drake...was everywhere: on my lips, my tongue, the back of my throat. It wasn’t real. I told myself it wasn’t real. Yet the echo of his voice, low and dangerously near, made my knees weak.The nightmare had been vivid. Too vivid. His fingers brushing against me, but not his gentle, teasing touch this time...the touch that burned me awake in moments of longing. No. This was him cold, distant, unreachable, slipping from my arms just when I thought I could hold him forever. And I had screamed, tried to call his name, but my voice had been swallowed by the darkness.I forced myself up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. The floor was icy under my bare feet. M
“Why did he have to leave like that?” I whispered into the empty kitchen, voice trembling, though only the hum of the refrigerator answered me.I didn’t even realize I had stayed up all night on the couch, wrapped in Drake’s sweatshirt I’d swiped from his apartment before leaving. The faint scent of him still clung stubbornly to the fabric, a cruel reminder that he was gone...gone in a way that was permanent, irreversible. My fingers traced the embroidered initials on the cuff, and I swallowed the ache lodged in my throat. “Why, Drake? Why not… fight for me?”Mom cleared the dishes in the sink behind me, not pressing, just moving, letting the quiet weigh heavily between us. I hated the silence almost as much as I hated the empty space in my chest. I hated that I had missed him before he was even gone, and I hated even more that I wanted him back, even after the heartbreak he had left behind.“You need to eat, Sabrina,” she said softly, setting a plate in front of me. “Breakfast won’t
“Come here, my daughter.”My mother’s voice broke me before her arms even wrapped around me.I didn’t answer. I just stepped into her embrace and collapsed, my forehead pressing into her shoulder as if my body had finally remembered where it was allowed to fall apart. The airport noise blurred...rolling suitcases, muffled announcements, strangers passing by with lives intact...until all I could hear was her heartbeat and the way my own cracked open.“It’s okay,” she whispered, rubbing my back the way she used to when I was little and afraid of thunderstorms. “You’re home now.”Home.The word landed heavy and strange in my chest.“I didn’t plan to come back like this,” I said, my voice hoarse, barely holding together. “I didn’t plan to come back at all.”My father stood in front of us, hands stuffed into his jacket pockets, eyes soft but worried. He didn’t ask questions. He never did when he knew the answers would hurt more than silence.“We’ll talk later,” he said gently. “Right now,
Insurance Clauses (Drake POV)“Don’t open it alone.”That was Ramon’s voice on speaker, sharp with warning, but the file was already glowing on my screenADDENDUM_II.pdftimestamped three minutes ago, sender masked, signature unmistakable.“I’m opening it,” I said, calm enough to lie to myself.The first page looked clean. Corporate font. Neutral language. The kind that murders reputations without raising its voice.Alleged Evidence Packet – Supplemental MaterialsMy jaw locked.“Sir,” Ramon said, quieter now, “that header alone...”“I know.”I scrolled.Screenshots. Emails fabricated to look forwarded. A calendar invite with Sabrina’s name misspelled the way only Emma used to misspell it. Bank transfers that never happened. A grainy photo of a woman who wasn’t her, cropped just enough to suggest it could be.My pulse thudded in my ears.“This is fake,” I said. “All of it.”“Most of it,” Ramon







