CHAPTER 5: RE-UNION AND SURFACED SECRETS.

QUINCY POV

The last time I saw Maxwell Russo, we were seventeen and both barefoot on a wet football field. He kissed me and promised me forever. His family sent him overseas after that… or so I heard, and forever was only a week long.

He sat before me now in a cinched grey T-shirt, sling across his arm, looking nothing like the kid I had once known—and somehow, exactly the same.

"So… you're a nurse now," he'd said, after an awkward pause.

"And you're… not actually crippled, are you?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

His mouth quirked. "You were always quick."

"I work with orthopedics. That's not an actual brace, Max."

He held up his hands. "Okay, okay. You caught me. Let's just say this was a strategic misdirection."

I crossed my arms. "Does the hospital know you're lying or you’re faking this whole…?"

"Apparently, I’m not lying ," he corrected. "And yes. Ashley's involved. This was the least messy way out of that damn marriage." He murmured the last part.

I blinked. "You faked an injury to get out of a marriage?"

“No, no,” he rushed to answer. “I actually was involved in an accident, and have a little sprain in the ankle.”

I sighed softly. “Your medical reports, says something else.”

He look back at me unflinching. "Nora doesn't leave things unless they're broken. So I gave her what she needed." He confessed, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Wow." I shook my head. "You really haven't changed."

"Quincy…”

“No, it's fine," I said quickly. "It's your life. I'm not here to judge. I'm here only to get my work done."

Maxwell placed his good arm on the table. "You actually didn't know it was me?"

"I haven't thought about you in years," I lied.

He tilted his head. "Liar."

I looked away from him. "It doesn't matter. You needed a nurse. I needed the money. That's all that this is.".

"Right," he whispered. "Just business."

The rest of the afternoon was a blur of instructions. Maxwell led me around the house. A tall, silent, and too tidy house. His bedroom was minimalist. The fridge was filled with pre-cooked containers labeled "Protein A" and "No Salt B."

He was a man who liked things in an ordered fashion. I gathered much from the way he kept his things.

Neither of which I was capable of providing on a good day.

"You'll have your own bedroom," he told me. "Third floor, across from the library. That way, you don't bump into me by accident."

"Believe me," I snarled, "bumping into you isn't high on my bucket list."

He didn't smile. Just nodded, rigidly, as if he understood and valued the space I was establishing.

It was… strange.

We weren't fighting, but we weren't reconnecting either.

It was like we were dancing around a past too deep to talk about yet too unresolved to ignore.

Later, I went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and found a bunch of lilies on the windowsill. Eva would love them.

God, Eva.

I looked at my phone.

Maya: All good. Eva doodled you another mermaid. Wants to show Max one day, whatever that means lol.

My stomach twisted in knots.

"Everything alright?" Maxwell asked, standing in the doorway.

I stood up. "Fine. Just checking on my daug…." I stammered and cut out of my sentence. I wasn’t sure I was ready to let him know about my life.

He opened his eyes in expectation, still waiting for her response.

I quickly snapped out of it. “It’s nothing.” Letting out a little air in relief, before walking away.

I left him then and started cleaning the living room by early evening. I did it partly because I was nerous and also because I wanted to keep my hands busy. I toyed with some of the frames, straightened up a few books, then walked over to the desk in the corner and tidily stacked up a few scattered folders.

There was one envelope that caught my eye—white, unsealed, and written in somebody else's handwriting. It was partially buried beneath a heap of magazines. I shouldn't have picked it up.

I did, though.

There was a receipt in it.

A huge one.

Private Transaction – $50,000. Memo: "Final Payment – Arrangement Complete."

My breath caught in my throat.

Who is he paying such amount of money ?

I blinked again. Looking for where was labeled payee.

Before I could flip to the next page, footsteps approached.

I whirled round, quickly hiding the papers behind me.

Maxwell was in the doorway, staring at me with a look that said he already suspicious already.

He moved further inside the room, walking slowly towards me. “Hiding something?”

Fidgeting underneath my close, I quickly dropped the paper to the ground, and used my legs to kick it back underneath the magazines.

“No,” she cleared her throat. “Nothing.”

Maxwell finally stopped in front of me. His height and broad shoulders overly dominating his stance.

I swallowed in, he was breathtaking, and scented so nice. I could feel the heat radiating from him masculine body. My mind swirled for a moment, I felt like actually feeling his chest.

He inclined his head a bit to see what was behind me.

And he’s last move pulled me out of my delusional thinking.

He eyes slowly scanned the space behind me, and for some seconds it stayed fixed on the magazine area.

“I think you should sit,” I scooted a reply. Trying to distract his attention. “I mean, for someone who is supposedly crippled or have a dislocated leg. Should be sitting and not standing like a body guard next to be.”

Maxwell moved his gaze back to my face. Taking a minute to stare.

I couldn't help but stare back at the handsome 6ft standing in front of me.

“You're so beautiful,” he muttered beneath his breath.

“Huh?” pretending like I didn't hear what he had just said.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Maxwell kept leaning closer, our faces just inches apart.

I closed my eyes in anticipation of a kiss from the gorgeous build atabdubf right in front of me.

After few seconds, I didn't feel his soft lips on mine.

Immediately I opened my eyes, my eyes dropped in disappointment at what next I saw.