SKYLAOne reason I had come to love Manhattan was because the city never slept. It was always bustling and teeming with people who lacked little patience. But these last months, it had been suffocating. It felt different. It felt like it was holding it’s breath. Or maybe it was me who changed. Maybe it was the way I moved through the day with my mind racing, and my heart lodged somewhere between my throat and my spine. For every step I took, every smile I forced at the office, every polite nod I had managed to give Carl’s assistant – it felt like I was acting in a play I didn’t audition for. I felt like a puppet. A polished princess in her overly tight corset. But the strings were starting to fray at the edges.When my shift ended, I texted Charlie to meet me in a secured location we jad used once before – a disused wing of a warehouse under one of Anderson Corp shipping divisions. It used to be a distribution point. Now, it was a graveyard o
SKYLAThe package came just a little bit after midnight. I should’ve been asleep, but I just couldn’t stop replaying the conversation I had with Carl. His voice still caused my heart rate to spike up. His words like ice water trickling down the back of my neck. I sat on my couch, legs tucked beneath me, and a cold cup of what was supposed to be hot chocolate tea forgotten on the coffee table.When the knock came, I froze. My whole body shut down on its own accord. The knock came once. It was a sharp rap followed by utter silence.After a long while, I moved towards the door cautiously, peeking through the peephole. No one was there, only the box, plain and square, sitting like a veiled threat on my welcome mat.I didn’t need a return address to know who sent it. Her perfume still lingered in the air like a bad omen.Tanya.I carried the box gingerly inside, ensuring I bolted my door twice before I set the box on the kitche
SKYLA I had already come to a decision, although it wasn’t one I was proud of, but I was done sitting idly. It was time to take the bull by the horns. It was time to get my hands dirty if I wanted to protect myself. If I wanted to protect everyone that I’ve ever loved.Carl Andersons office was colder than I remembered – not in temperature but in the atmosphere. It was the kind of cold that pressed against your chest like a warning. Sunlight cut sharp angles across the polished marble floors, but it couldn’t warm anything here. Not him. Not me.I stepped in and let the door click shut behind me. His eyes lifted slowly from the papers on his desk, a mask of polite curiosity stretched across his face. “Skyla,” he said, voice smooth like silk soaked in poison. “You’re here.”I walked in without any hesitation – I had to be calculating, confident, but not cocky. Definitely not sharp pressure, better still not threatening. I had to be subm
SKYLAThe weight of the moment pressed heavily in my chest like a vice the moment I stepped inside the conference room, the air thick with awkward tension. Xavier was already there, pacing slowly, his back turned towards me, his hands clutched tightly behind him. His usual composed facade had cracked, just as mine had in the past few days. But there was something new – a certain coldness, a distance between us that hadn’t been there before.I could feel it. I could feel the invisible wall between us growing taller and taller. Brick by brick.He didn’t glance in my direction when I entered, though I knew he was aware of my presence. The silence stretched on, thick and suffocating, like we were both waiting for the other to speak first. But it wasn’t just silence; it was the calm before the storm.“I’m sorry,” I said finally, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. They weren’t the words I wanted to say, but they were all I could ma
XAVIER“Why Xavier? Why do you keep on doing this to me every single time? Why?” Vanessa’s voice cracked through the walls like ice, scathing, and condescending. “ Why do you always find a way to humiliate me.” I stood by the window, my jaw clenched, hands balled into fists as I stared at the skyline. I was trying everything I could to not burst out in anger. But the tension in my shoulders betrayed the storm that was brewing within me. “Lower your voice, Vanessa. This isn’t the right time and place for your tantrums.”“My tantrums?” She scoffed, her eyes wild with anger. “Oh, so now you care about appearances? After weeks of ignoring me, skipping meetings, and making a fool of me in front of my father, you suddenly care about appearances. You’ve made it clear where your priorities lie, Xavier.”“I need you to stop pretending like this engagement was ever real. You knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to all of this,” I snapped,
XAVIERThe night was still young, but the tension had already reached a boiling point. The media storm that surrounded Skyla had intensified in the last few days, following the revelation of Tanya's pregnancy and the messy end to her relationship with Steve. It was as though a new chapter of betrayal was being written, and the headlines relentless, previous pictures from their anniversary night resurfacing. The day I let chaos loose in her perfect little life. I knew that the world would soon forget the details of what had happened, but the wounds Skyla was carrying would last much longer than any scandal.I’d been dealing with the fallout for hours, juggling with unending phone calls, meetings, and damage controls behind the scenes. The media had already begun to twist the narrative, and I wasn’t about to let them paint Skyla as some helpless victim. She deserved more than that. She deserved a chance to fight back, to have control over the narrative.