Hi dear reader. I've not been well and I don't know when I'll be better again so the updates might be inconsistent this week. I'm sorry about this and I'll try my best to update but in case I can't, this is to inform y'all in time. Thank you for reading♡ and I hope you're enjoying the ride.
Aaliyah’s POVThe air in the hospital room felt thick and too heavy for the cool temperature the vents pushed out in a low hum. My pulse was still running too fast from everything that had happened. I sat at the edge of the bed, my hands clenched together in my lap, while Henry stood a few feet away, as though he was giving me space. But space no longer mattered that much now that I suspected him.As far as I can remember, Henry's company is still suffering from the damage I caused. It made more sense that this could be a revenge scheme.I needed answers and I needed them now.I turned my head slowly toward him, taking in the way he looked, immaculate as always in that annoyingly perfect tailored suit, hair swept back neatly, expression somewhere between wary and concerned. He was trying to read me. He’d always been good at that. But not anymore.“Was it you?” I asked, my voice low but bold enough to cut through the silence.His brow furrowed, lips parting in confusion. “Was… what m
Aaliyah’s POVThe quiet hum of the hospital room felt deafening after Lisa’s last words.Not only had someone stolen seventy million dollars from me—seventy million—they were actively sabotaging my company.The number alone made my stomach clench. Seventy million wasn’t just some unfortunate accounting error—it was huge.Even for someone like Orrin, it was a figure that commanded attention. Not to talk of me—a newcomer still carving my name into an industry of sharks, it was a gaping wound.I blinked at her as if my brain couldn’t quite wrap itself around the shape of what she’d said. “Someone’s trying to sabotage me?” The word scraped out of my throat.Lisa’s gaze locked on mine. Her eyes were wide, but her voice was steady, careful, almost like she was talking to a patient with a head injury—which, in a way, I was. “Yes. This isn’t just theft, Aaliyah. This… this is calculated. Someone’s trying to ruin you. Not just financially, but publicly.”Her words slipped under my skin, cold
Aaliyah’s POVBlackmail?For a moment, the word cut through everything else —the dull ache in my ribs, the throbbing at my temple that hadn’t stopped since the accident. My chest rose, and I found myself staring at him, my breath caught somewhere halfway out.“What did she blackmail you with?” My voice came out low but sharper than I meant, but I couldn’t help it.I had every right to know. After all the ways he’d torn my heart apart tonight. First with betrayal, now with this cryptic half-truth, I was owed the rest of the story.And if I’d be honest with myself, there was a part of me, a small, stubborn, foolish part, that wanted to believe there was something here worth salvaging.That what I saw in that hotel room wasn’t the whole truth.His eyes flickered.I saw the hesitation right away. The tiny pause. The almost-imperceptible way his Adam's apple moved as he swallowed.“Orrin.” I said his name like a demand. “What did she blackmail you with?”He opened his mouth, and I leaned
Orrin's POV I walked into the hospital lab with the kind of hollow determination that felt like a bad joke. My chest still stung from the image of Aaliyah with her eyes burning a hole right through me. I’d left the ward raw with anger at Bridget and at myself, and now I needed something concrete to hold on to. Proof. Anything that would give me a chance to be believed.A tech at the reception glanced up, rapped a few keys, and without condescension, informed me they’d be ready for the samples in five minutes. I watched a nurse push a stretcher with wheeled legs through the corridor, her shoes squeaking on tile.“Mr. Hayes?” a young woman in scrubs called when I stepped into the small recessed area reserved for specimen collection. Her name tag read LUCY. She had the professional composure of someone who’d seen everything and been asked to not react to most of it.“Yes,” I said. “Thank you.”She handed me a consent form first. I signed without reading more than the top line. T
Orrin’s POVLisa and I had barely stepped out of the elevator when the faint antiseptic scent of the hospital hit me harder than I expected. The corridor ahead was quiet except for the distant shuffle of nurses’ shoes and the soft beep of some machine in a nearby room.Lisa walked briskly ahead, glancing at the room numbers as we passed. My chest was tight the whole way, not from the walk but from what I was about to face. Aaliyah.My head was throbbing due to the surge of thoughts in and out. Is she okay? I wonder what happened, how it happened. But deep down, guilt clawed at me because it might just be because of me that she ended up here. Because of my foolishness and recklessness.But just maybe, I'll get a chance to explain everything. But that fragile hope sat uneasy in my gut, because what if she wouldn’t even look at me?When we reached the right door, Lisa hesitated just long enough for me to catch the flicker of apprehension in her eyes before she pushed it open.And that’s
Henry’s POV“Leave.”The word was laced with the kind of venom that could cut me in half.I should have expected this reaction. I don't know what made me think just an accident would make her listen to me just once, make her allow me to stay by her side again.The word should’ve been enough to make me walk away.It should’ve been the cue for me to step back, respect her boundaries, and vanish from her line of sight.But I didn’t. I didn't want to.“No,” I said quietly, shaking my head. My voice came out rougher than I intended. “I’m not going anywhere.”Her eyes narrowed a fraction, like she was trying to summon the strength to glare properly, but her exhaustion betrayed her.“I’ll be by your side,” I continued, leaning forward so my words didn’t echo too far beyond us. “Until you’re fine again. Completely fine. And I don’t care what…Orrin Hayes has to say about it.”The moment his name left my lips, her expression hardened like stone. It was subtle but impossible to miss. There was a