Share

CHAPTER 8

Author: C Olive
last update Last Updated: 2026-03-13 08:40:15

Mason's POV

The hallway emptied fast.

People are good at that sensing when a man wants to be left alone, or more precisely, sensing when a man might do something unpredictable if they stay. My staff had developed a particular talent for it over the years. Within ninety seconds of the elevator doors closing on Maya, the executive floor had quietly rearranged itself back into the performance of a normal afternoon. Keyboards. Phone calls. The deliberate sound of people working very hard
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • He Came Back Running    Chapter 10

    Maya's POVThe candlestick was heavy.Good. I wanted heavy. I wanted something solid in my hands that would make a satisfying sound against a skull if it came to that Mason's, a lawyer's, a journalist's, whoever was standing on the other side of that door at whatever time this was in the afternoon.I crossed the sitting room in my socks, stepped over the legal pad on the floor, and pressed my eye to the peephole.Then I stopped breathing entirely....Ten years will change a person. Fill them out. Settle something behind the eyes that wasn't there before. Add a few lines to the jaw, a little more certainty to the way they hold their shoulders.But grey-green eyes are grey-green eyes. I would have known them through frosted glass at fifty paces.Alexander Voss.Standing in the third-floor corridor of my dead parents apartment building in a tailored navy coat that probably cost more than the entire annual maintenance fee of the b

  • He Came Back Running    Chapter 9

    Maya's POVI started at seven. Coffee first, strong, no milk, the way my father had always made it, the way I'd only ever allowed myself at weekends because Mason preferred the penthouse machine set to something weaker and more palatable for entertaining. Small rebellions I hadn't even recognized as rebellions until now.I carried the mug to the study, sat in his chair, and opened the folder.The trust was elegant. I say that with the full appreciation of someone who'd spent eight years reading corporate structures for a living, whoever my father had hired to build it knew exactly what they were doing.The foundation: a blind trust vehicle, registered in a jurisdiction with strong beneficiary privacy protections, established four years ago under a holding name with no visible connection to either family. The shares, forty-nine percent of Mason Empire's total issued stock had been transferred into the trust via a private instrument that

  • He Came Back Running    CHAPTER 8

    Mason's POVThe hallway emptied fast.People are good at that sensing when a man wants to be left alone, or more precisely, sensing when a man might do something unpredictable if they stay. My staff had developed a particular talent for it over the years. Within ninety seconds of the elevator doors closing on Maya, the executive floor had quietly rearranged itself back into the performance of a normal afternoon. Keyboards. Phone calls. The deliberate sound of people working very hard at not looking at me.I stood exactly where I was….Her rings were still on the floor.Two small things. Platinum and diamond, custom-designed, obscenely expensive. I'd handed them to her in a church full of people who were really there to celebrate a merger and called it a wedding. She'd worn them every day for eight years without complaint.She hadn't thrown them. Hadn't pressed them into my hand with shaking fingers or hurled them at my head, which, frankly, I'd half expe

  • He Came Back Running    Chapter 7

    Maya's POVThe city didn't care.That was the first thing I noticed as I pulled out of the Mason Empire underground garage for the last time, the traffic moved, the lights changed, a food delivery cyclist nearly clipped my front bumper and swore at me through the windscreen. The world had not paused. No one on the pavement looked up to mark the moment a woman drove away from eight years with nothing but a leather tote and a cardboard box sliding around in the back seat.I turned left at the first intersection. Away from the penthouse. Away from the harbor views and the silent, perfect rooms that had never once felt like mine.I drove without deciding where I was going until I realized I already knew.The old quarter hadn't changed much. Narrower streets, older buildings, window boxes with half-dead geraniums that somehow kept surviving. My mother's apartment building had a new intercom panel, but the same cracked tile in the lobby that I'd avoided stepping on since I was seven. Some s

  • He Came Back Running    Chapter 6

    Maya’s POVThe air in Mason’s office thickened the second I turned back toward the door. Selina moved first quick, theatrical reaching out as if to grab my arm in some mockery of concern.“Maya, wait……”Her fingers brushed my sleeve.I reacted on instinct. A small, sharp push just enough to create space. My palm connected with her shoulder, nothing violent, nothing that should have mattered.But Selina staggered backward like I’d shoved her with both hands. Her heel caught on the edge of the rug. She went down hard, arms windmilling, a dramatic gasp tearing from her throat as she landed on her side, one hand flying protectively to her stomach.The performance was flawless.Mason was out of his chair in an instant, face contorted with fury.“What the hell is wrong with you?” he roared, rounding the desk so fast the chair spun behind him. “You just assaulted a pregnant woman!”I stared down at Selina. She was already curling into herself, eyes wide and glistening, lips trembling for max

  • He Came Back Running    Chapter 5

    Maya's POV I lifted my chin, Selina is there beside Mason, in a romantic posture. “How do you sleep at night, Selina, with all that evil sitting on your chest like a stone?”She laughed soft, delighted. “Easily. Because I finally stopped pretending to be the good girl who waits for her turn”I looked past her to Mason. He hadn’t moved from behind the desk. He watched us like a spectator at a mildly interesting tennis match.“I know,” I said quietly, addressing them both. “I know about the affair. I know she’s two months pregnant, like the doctor told you in the boardroom when you thought no one was listening. I heard the kiss. I heard the promises. I heard everything…..”Selina’s smile faltered for half a heartbeat.Mason’s expression didn’t change at all.“Today,” I continued, forcing each word past the knot in my throat, “was supposed to be our eighth anniversary. Eight years of trying. Eight years of hoping you’d wake up one morning and choose me anyway. But you’re right, this is

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status