Chapter 5- Get Out.

Maya’s POV

An email had to destroy my day before it even started.

“Due to an unprecedented plumbing burst and catastrophic mold outbreak in the premium honors wing, all immediate relocations have been suspended for the next fourteen days. We apologize for the inconvenience, Miss Sloane.”

Fourteen days. Two more weeks trapped in this apartment.

Great, now I need to show this to her too.

I knocked on the door, I don’t think she had classes today.

“Come in.”

I opened the door and her look told me I needed to make this quick.

Reluctantly I showed her the email and she didn't yell. She didn't drop her teacup or throw a fit. Instead, she just kept quiet.

Her jaw clenched so tightly that the sharp line of her collarbone strained beneath her silk shirt. She stared at my screen for a long, agonizing moment, then turned around and walked straight into the bathroom without saying a single word.

The silence she left behind was far worse than a shouting match. It meant the invisible wall between us had just grown ten times thicker.

I did nothing but sleep, eat and text all day before I knew it the day was dark.

10:00pm

I just sighed as I looked away from the clock.

The rain was drumming softly against the glass. Diana was seated at the kitchen island, her reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose as she reviewed a stack of mid-term essays.

I was curled up on the edge of the leather couch, a heavy textbook open on my lap, trying desperately to focus on my reading.

It was impossible.

Every single sound in the apartment felt magnified. The soft, rhythmic *scratch-scratch* of her red pen against paper. The faint hum of the refrigerator.

I hated how hyper-aware I was of her. I hated the way my eyes kept drifting toward the counter, tracing the sharp angle of her jaw, the fiery waves of her ginger hair loose over her shoulders, and the casual, unbuttoned collar of her blouse.

“I despise this woman,” I reminded myself, my fingers tightening against the edge of my textbook.

Suddenly, Diana stopped writing. She didn't turn her head, but her voice cut through the room like a knife. "If you spend as much time staring at your syllabus as you do at the back of my head, Sloane, you might actually earn another scholarship."

Heat rushed up my neck, hot and furious. I instantly looked down at my book, my heart doing a violent bounce. "I'm studying."

"You're breathing loudly and shifting every three minutes," she countered smoothly, finally turning her stool to look at me. Her blue eyes locked onto mine through the frames of her glasses. "It's distracting."

"Maybe if this couch weren't made of literal ice, I wouldn't have to move," I shot back, crossing my arms and glaring right back at her.

"I'm doing my best to stay out of your way."

Diana leaned back, her gaze dropping to my crossed arms, then slowly rising back to my face... "Your best is highly inefficient, Sloane."

Before I could hurl a defensive retort at her, a loud, aggressive pounding rattled the front door.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

We both froze. Faculty housing rules were incredibly strict, no guests after nine, and absolutely no unauthorized visitors in the lecturer's wing.

"Maya! Open the door," Ethan's voice boomed from the hallway, muffled but thick with irritation.

Diana’s eyes narrowed instantly, the soft, strange tension in the room evaporating into pure ice. She took off her glasses, setting them down on the counter. "Did I, or did I not, explicitly state the rule regarding your boyfriend?"

"I didn't invite him!" I whispered frantically, throwing the blanket off my legs and rushing toward the door.

The moment I unlocked it, Ethan barged inside, practically pushing past me. He looked chaotic, his expensive hair slightly damp from the rain, his blazer unbuttoned. He was radiating pure, high-society fury.

"This place is a joke," Ethan snapped, completely ignoring the fact that he was invading a private space. He looked around the small apartment with blatant disgust. "I just got off the phone with Harrison. Two weeks? They expect my fiancée to live in a faculty box for two weeks because their maintenance team can't fix a pipe?"

"Ethan, keep your voice down," I pleaded, grabbing his forearm. "You can't be here right now. It's late."

"I don't care what time it is, Maya," he said, his voice dripping with entitlement as he tightly gripped my waist, pulling me hard against his side in that familiar, proprietary hold. "You're packing your bags. Right now. I already booked a luxury suite downtown at the Premiere. You shouldn't have to deal with this administrative incompetence for another night."

"She isn't going anywhere, Mr. Sterling."

Diana’s voice was low but firm. She stepped away from the kitchen counter, walking slowly into the living room. The loose silk shirt should have made her look casual, but her posture radiated the kind of absolute authority that usually sent a lecture hall into a dead silence.

Ethan stopped, his eyes sliding over to Diana. A slow, arrogant smirk spread across his face, his grip tightening on my hip. "Ah, Ms. Thorne, right? Look, I appreciate you playing babysitter for a night, but my family pays too much tuition for Maya to be roughing it on a couch. I’ll make sure the Dean sends a formal note compensating you for the... inconvenience."

The insult was plain as day, treating Diana like hired help. I felt a sudden, sharp twist of pure embarrassment in my chest.

Diana stopped three feet away from us.

"Your family's financial contributions do not buy you immunity from university policy, Mr. Sterling. You are currently trespassing in the faculty wing after hours. Take your hands off my student, and get out of my apartment before I call campus security."

"You're going to call security on me?" Ethan laughed, a sharp, ugly sound that echoed off the walls. He took a deliberate step forward, leaving my side to stand directly in Diana’s space, using his height to try and intimidate her. "Do you actually know how the math of this school works, Ms. Thorne? One call to my dad, and your little academic department loses its funding before the semester even gets off the ground."

"Ethan, please, just stop!" I begged, stepping between them, my hands trembling as the panic finally broke through my skin.

Diana didn't flinch. She stood her ground, her gaze locked onto Ethan’s face. But as Ethan leaned in a fraction closer, his smirk widening, he tilted his head and shot her a very specific, knowing look.

It wasn't just a look of arrogance. It was a look of absolute leverage. A silent reminder of a conversation, or a boundary, that had already been established long ago.

I watched in utter confusion as the dangerous fire in Diana’s eyes suddenly flickered.

Her jaw remained tight, her posture rigid, but the absolute authority she had been radiating just a second ago subtly fractured.

She took a half-step back, her eyes dropping for a split second before she looked away, her expression hardening into a cold, resentful mask of compliance.

"Two minutes, Mr. Sterling," Diana said, her voice dropping into a freezing, completely detached whisper that lacked any of its previous fight.

She turned her back to us and walked towards her bedroom.

I stood rooted to the floor, my blood running entirely cold as I looked from the closed bedroom door back to Ethan, who was now wearing a victorious, insufferable smile.

“I don’t know what you’re smiling about Ethan but get out.”

His face fell instantly.