4: The Most Powerful Man In The City

“How dare you say that to me?”

Madison’s voice echoed through the private restaurant.

She stood across from Alexander Voss, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her cheeks flushed with anger.

Xander simply stared at her.

He had expected embarrassment or perhaps even nervousness.

But anger was the last thing he had expected.

“I was only giving you an option,” he said calmly.

“An option?” Madison scoffed. “You damaged my car, and now you're asking me to sleep with you to pay for it?”

“The cars were damaged because of you.”

“I already said I would pay for the repairs!”

Xander leaned back in his chair, studying her. For he had found her fascinating.

Not because she was beautiful. He had met hundreds of beautiful women.

Women had thrown themselves at him for years. Single women. Married women. Women who knew exactly who he was and women who only cared about his money and influence.

He had never needed to pursue a woman.

They pursued him.

So Madison's reaction was new.

She wasn't pretending to be difficult.

She genuinely didn't want him.

And Xander couldn't understand why.

Every woman wanted Alexander Voss.

Or at least, that was what he had always believed.

Madison turned away from him, trying to calm herself.

She couldn't believe she had actually agreed to sit in his restaurant after the accident. She should have simply exchanged insurance information and left.

Instead, she was sitting across from the most powerful man in the city while he casually suggested that she sleep with him.

Her eyes accidentally met his.

For one brief second, she noticed just how attractive he was.

His sharp features.

His dark eyes.

The expensive suit fitted perfectly over his broad shoulders.

Madison immediately looked away.

No.

Absolutely not.

She was married.

She loved Evan.

The thought of Evan made her chest tighten.

The second phone flashed through her mind.

She swallowed.

Xander noticed the change in her expression.

He didn't know what had caused it, but he knew something had.

“You're married,” he said.

Madison looked at him.

“Yes.”

“And you're faithful?”

Her eyebrows pulled together.

“What kind of question is that?”

“A simple one.”

“I don't understand why that matters.”

Xander's gaze remained fixed on her.

“Because you're acting as though the fact that you're married makes you completely immune to temptation.”

Madison's jaw tightened.

“I don't cheat.”

“Then you trust your husband completely?”

She hesitated.

Only for a second.

But Xander noticed.

He noticed everything.

Madison hated that he had seen her hesitation.

“I trust him.”

“That wasn't my question.”

She looked away.

Xander leaned forward slightly.

“How much do you trust him, Madison?”

She stared at him.

She wanted to tell him that she trusted Evan more than anyone in the world.

She wanted to say that Evan had stayed when she thought he would leave.

But but she couldn't.

For the first time, Madison wondered whether trust could disappear before love did.

Across the table, Xander watched the uncertainty flicker across her face.

He didn't know about the phone.

He didn't know about Evan.

He didn't know that his careless question had touched a wound that had already begun bleeding.

But he knew Madison was hiding something.

And for reasons he couldn't explain, he wanted to know what it was.

Madison pushed her chair back.

“This conversation is over.”

Xander didn't stop her.

He simply watched her walk away.

For the first time in years, Alexander Voss found himself genuinely curious about a woman.

And that curiosity was something he wasn't accustomed to feeling.

Meanwhile, Madison angrily drove home.

Her hands tightened around the steering wheel as her mind replayed everything that had happened at the restaurant.

Alexander Voss.

Just thinking about him irritated her.

“Eww,” she muttered, making a disgusted face. “As if I would ever do something like that.”

She couldn't believe he had casually suggested that she sleep with him in exchange for paying for the damages to her car.

Who did he think he was?

Then again, everyone knew who Alexander Voss was.

He had divorced his wife a year ago, and ever since then, his name had constantly been linked to one woman after another. There were always rumors about him sleeping with women, and Madison had heard enough stories to know that many of those women had been married.

Some of them had ended up divorcing their husbands.

Madison shook her head.

Maybe that was what Xander wanted.

Maybe he enjoyed ruining marriages.

Perhaps he had seen that she was married and decided that she would be his next target.

“Well, he's wasting his time,” she muttered.

There was no way she would allow a man like Alexander Voss to destroy her marriage.

She loved Evan.

Madison's expression softened for a moment.

Then the image of the second phone returned.

Her hands tightened around the steering wheel again.

She didn't understand why that phone bothered her so much.

Her gut was telling her something. But she kept on refusing to believe it. She had to confirm first before making any kinds of judgements.

By the time Madison arrived home, it was already late.

She parked her car and walked toward the house, exhausted from the long day.

The moment she stepped inside, she noticed that the lights were still on.

“Evan?”

There was no answer.

Madison placed her bag down and began walking toward their bedroom.

Then she heard his voice.

He was making a phone call.

She stopped outside the bedroom door.

She couldn't hear the other person, only Evan's low voice as he spoke.

Madison frowned.

Who was he talking to this late?

She took another step closer.

Then Evan said the last words of the conversation.

“I love you.”

Madison froze.

Her entire body went still.

For several seconds, she couldn't move.

She had heard those words countless times before.

Evan said them to her every day.

But tonight, standing outside their bedroom, those three words suddenly felt completely different.

Her heart began pounding.

She stared at the bedroom door.

She didn't know who was on the other end of that call.

She didn't know why Evan had said those words.

At the other side of the door, Evan smiled sweetly as he told the woman on the phone how he felt.

Completely oblivious to the fact that his wife had just heard what he had said.