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Safe choice…really?
Huling Na-update:
2025-09-17 09:44:45Tonight was for knowing and confirming the suspicions which had been eating at me all through the week. I get there just in time and peep through the glass façade, laughter and champagne glowed warm against the storm.
I spotted him instantly. My boyfriend, my safe choice, head bent towards a woman in a crimson dress that melted into her figure. The same woman who was having dinner with him weeks ago. When he kissed her, it wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate, deep, and devastating.
For a heartbeat, I thought the rain had blurred my vision. The betrayal was painfully clear.I pushed open the door. Warm air collided with my drenched clothes, but couldn’t thaw the ice crawling across my ribs and chest. I stand quietly behind a pillar, half concealed staring at them.
The woman suddenly felt a stranger's eyes on them. She turned and looked directly at me, cheeks flushed. Her eyes betray her knowledge of me, before she slips back her mask of defiance. She quickly turns all her attention back to my Ethan again, like I was a silly interruption.
I thought about confronting him, creating a scene but I went with my better judgement and decided against it . Instead I strolled out, back into the Angry rain. Once outside, the rain swallowed me whole with my tears, until the city looked like a watercolor painting bleeding in the sink.
My phone buzzed again, his name flashing, but I didn’t answer. I wondered if she’d told him or it was mere coincidence or worse, a butt dial.
I stop to catch my breath and I catch a glimpse of my reflection, staring back at me in a dark shop window. Mascara streaks, tangled hair, and a woman who’d just been undone.
Somewhere in that broken image, a thought slid in, quiet but fierce, This is my rock bottom, nowhere to go but up now.
As Lightning suddenly split the sky, a dramatic reminder that even storms passed, as I braced myself.****
Months earlier.The rain was raging non-stop and by the time I stumbled through Cross Development’s revolving doors, my hair had given up and laid all plastered on my skull and face. My blazer clung like an ill fitted body shaper, and my laptop bag felt twice as heavy with every soaked step.
The marble lobby smelled like bergamot and money. My shoes squeaked a confession across the floor, late.
I quickly make my way Upstairs to the conference room, which glowed like an aquarium of sharks. Twelve tailored predators turned as one to study the soggy girl who dared show up. At the head, Zane Cross, billionaire developer, media darling, and rumored corporate assassin.He leaned against the table with a poker face, watching me.
“Ms. Alvarez,” he finally said, his voice clipped. “You’re late.” “Or you’re early,” I replied, stretching my mouth into a grin that felt like a loan I couldn’t repay. “Let’s call it fashionably synchronized” I quickly added.It irritated me a bit that no one had acknowledged my condition or the fact that they expected me to be early, with the downpour. No points for the effort.
A pen clicked somewhere to my left. My boss, Neha, gave me the look bosses reserve for employees who are both talented and terrifyingly unpredictable.
I opened my laptop, heart pounding loud enough to be its own back ground track, and launched into the pitch.
“Vald’s image is bleeding,” I said, clicking to the first slide. “We stop the hemorrhage with transparency. live factory tours, worker stories, no airbrushed apologies. Customers forgive mistakes, they don’t forgive lies.”
Zane’s gaze was a stone image. “You’re suggesting penance as a strategy? Well, well, look at that? Didn't know you had a priest in your firm ” he jested looking at my boss in the midst of the whole unnecessary chuckles coming from the others.
“I’m suggesting honesty as survival.” My voice wobbled, but I aimed it like a blade and he was my target.My phone buzzed against my hip. I ignored it. Buzzed again, longer. A third time, urgent.
Mr. Zane arched an eyebrow. “Does your data account for limited attention span?” he asked. “Only yours,” I fired back, trying to sound clever instead of sick with dread.Another buzz. I slid the phone out beneath the table. It read,
MAYA, IT’S MOM ANSWER NOW. A follow up message stacked instantly. Your father collapsed. ER. The room went still and my slides blurred. My throat went dry.
“I…excuse me. Family emergency.”Zane didn’t blink, but something in his expression softened and it caught me unawares. I quietly wondered if he could actually be flesh and blood underneath the granite exterior
“Go,” he said quietly. I nodded to my boss and bolted. The elevator ride felt like eternity. Outside, a cab screeched to a stop when I waved like my life was on fire.Within minutes I was at the hospital. It smelled like bleach and borrowed time. My mother was hunched in a plastic chair, clutching her purse like it contained pearls.
“Stable,” she said as I look at her worried sick “They’re running tests.”A voice I hadn’t heard in three years said my name as i heaved out a sigh of relief, like it still belonged to him.
Ethan Carter, my college sweetheart, my first love and almost-forever. He stood there holding two coffees like no time had passed. He smiled that same quiet, devastating smile. My chest squeezed with memories I didn’t invite.
“Your mom called,” he said. “And I came as fast as I could.” “I didn't know you were back in town, how come no one told me? I can’t believe you've been talking to my mum..” He hugged me before I could spiral any further and I melted unexpectedly into the familiar body. It felt like coming home.Hours bled into each other, nurses’ shoes squeaked, monitors chirped, my mother whispered prayers in Spanish under her breath like spells. Ethan sat beside me, his presence so familiar it ached.
He handed me coffee, my old order, milk and one sugar, without asking. I took it, hating that my fingers trembled .
“You still stir counterclockwise,” he murmured. “You still notice weird things,” I shot back, but my voice was soft. “Not weird,” he said. “Just you.”We sat in silence, till Dad finally drifted to sleep, then I slipped outside for air.
The Rain had settled into a mist, delicate as regret.That was when a tall, dry silhouette stepped out from under the hospital’s patio.
Mr. Zane Cross.He held my soaked portfolio like a judge holding evidence. “You left this,” he said. His suit was immaculate, as if the rain was suddenly a respecter of persons, while I looked a mess by contrast.
“Did you teleport?” I asked as my eyes widened. “You were downtown a few minutes ago.” “I fund the cardiac wing. They let me lurk.” he said sarcastically “You fund it or you’re laundering your conscience?” “Both.” His lips curved faintly. “Your pitch was bold. Too idealistic for most of my peers, but bold.” I reached for the portfolio, but he didn’t release it immediately.The pause wasn’t flirtation, it was a test. When I didn’t flinch, he let go.
“Be at Cross Development at ten,” he said. “Show me staying power, finish what you started.” “I’ll be there.” “And, Alvarez?” He stepped closer, voice lowering. “Next time, leave the sermon, bring more armor.” “Next time, bring a conscience, leave the swagger,” I shot back underneath my breathe.He smirked, turned, and melted into the rain like a rumor.
Inside, Ethan was waiting in the hallway, eyes searching my face. “Everything okay?”
“Define okay,” I said, sliding the portfolio under my arm.My phone buzzed, it was NEHA: Call me NOW. The board just voted.
Another vibration followed immediately, but this time it wasn't Neha. A blocked number flashed across the screen with a single line: Walk away from Cross. Last warning,They wont protect you twice, Alvarez.
Pinakabagong kabanata
The billionaire , the ex and the fake fiance. Chapter 21- Walk of shame.
I woke up to a bunch of missed calls from Priya. Shit! shit! shit! I stared down at myself wearing a large T-shirt, only that it wasn’t mine. I took in my surroundings for the first time and that was when it dawned on me.I had fallen asleep on the car ride after visiting the bar. In my defence I didn't want to go home in that sorry state, forced to face my depressing thoughts without Priye to distract me. She had gone on a date, yeah she was still doing that.My head was pounding.Like someone had replaced my brain with a marching band and forgotten to stop the rehearsal.I blinked at the ceiling, tall, white, and way too expensive to belong to me. Then the scent hit: something crisp and faintly masculine. Not Priye’s air-freshener-meets-coconut-chaos.My heart dropped.Oh, God.I sat up too fast and groaned. My dress was gone. My makeup was ruined. And I peered down at the large T-shirt again.Zane Cross’s shirt.“Okay, breathe,” I muttered to myself. “You can fix this. You didn’t do
The billionaire , the ex and the fake fiance. Chapter 20- Shatter point.
The sky started crying first, before I joined in.As I cried, I told myself I wasn’t supposed to be here. I’d told Ethan I couldn’t make the gallery, pitch decks, my dad, a dozen good reasons. So why was I now crying? After all,was this not the outcome I was expecting? As the rain crawled under my collar. I felt a cold hand at my back, “Maya, wait. I was going to tell you.”“Were you?” I asked mildly in irritation and disgust. “Before or after tonight?”I noticed he wasn’t alone , he had the audacity to bring his evidence with him.Leah’s mouth tilted. Not a smile. An assessment. “I’ll give you two a minute,” she said, already stepping back as her fingers brushed his sleeve as she passed. The audacity was infuriating.He reached for my hand. I let him take air. “Please,” he said, “Let me explain.”“Start with the bar,” I said. “I know she was with you that night, your so called business meeting.”“It was nothing.” He insisted “She needed closure, that was all.” He then continued.
The billionaire , the ex and the fake fiance. Chapter 19 - Lines and fire.
I didn’t knock.By the time I pushed through Zane Cross’s office door, my pulse was already sprinting ahead of me. If I’d stopped to think, I probably wouldn’t have done it , but I was past caring about protocol or professionalism.He was behind his desk, sleeves rolled up, focus deep on some sleek tablet. He didn’t even flinch when I walked in, just looked up slow, unbothered, like a man immune to confrontation.“Maya,” he said, voice calm, low. “ Right on time.”“Good,” I shot back, crossing my arms. “Because I wasn’t planning, I needed to be back here. You had me removed from my own team attacking my competence, you couldn’t find any other less demeaning excuse?”He set the tablet down carefully, like my anger was a fly he could just brush off the table. “You read the memo.”“Of course I did,” I snapped. “Do you have any idea what that email does to my professional reputation? I’ve worked my ass off here, Zane. And you just…”“Protected you.”I laughed, the kind that sounded lik
The billionaire , the ex and the fake fiance. Chapter 18 - The quiet conspiracy(With a ghost in the room)
“You’re sure Cross won’t see this coming?” Malcolm Kane asked without looking up, as he swirled the liquid in the crystal tumbler. The rooftop restaurant purred around them, soft jazz, soft voices, as the city below gleamed like an accomplice, bright, reckless and too far away to care.“He’ll see something,” Richard Hale said, “You boys never tire of underestimating men like Zane Cross. It’s adorable.”“ Exactly why we would stop him before he connects the dots together.” Victor added from the other end of the table.“Let’s skip the foreplay,” Malcolm said, leaning forward. “Cross Developments’s Harbor South filings lock the waterfront for five years, if he gets council sign-off. That’s a death knell to my pipeline.”“Correction,” Hale murmured, sliding a mint to the edge of his napkin. “It’s a death knell to our pipeline.”“And whose fault is that?” Malcolm said. “You were supposed to slow him.”In the shadowed corner, Leah crossed one silk-sheathed ,over the other the slit of her cr
The billionaire , the ex and the fake fiance. Chapter 17- One click, one truth.
I woke up before dawn, disoriented by the false quiet. Ethan’s arm was still draped lazily across my waist, his breathing deep and even.For a moment, I let myself believe in the peace of it, I almost wished I had not encountered the text and just lived in the moment.The flowers from last night were still all over the apartment, half-wilted but still looked beautiful in the soft morning light.I turned to check my phone, out of habit. A single unread message blinked in my mind’s eye again.“Don’t ghost me L.”My stomach knotted. The message was sent close to midnight, around the time Ethan had drifted off to sleep beside me..I had stared at it for a full minute, as my thumb hovered over reply, but what would I have said? I’d forced out the foolish thought and forced myself to a sad sleep.I decided to catch a little sleep again as it was still too early to be useful.By the time I woke up, Ethan was already o
The billionaire , the ex and the fake fiance. Chapter 16- Arms full of Sorry.
I was back at my apartment and working on some files when I heard the knock. Three gentle knocks, slow and patient like it was contrite.I wasn’t expecting anyone and Priye never knocked. Then I heard his voice.“ Are you in Maya?”I didn’t move, Ethan didn't tell me he was coming over and we hadn't spoken throughout the day.The knocking came again, more insistent.“Maya? It’s me.”I walked over to the door in my socks, flipped the chain, and opened the door. I had to physically step back because he was all flowers. The smell pleasantly assaulted my senses. He was holding a ridiculous, arm-aching, florist’s annual profit amount of flowers: roses, lilies, something that looked like a tiny pine tree having a glamorous crisis. One bouquet under his chin, two balanced against his ribs, another tucked in the crook of his elbow like a baby.“I panicked,” he said, breathless, eyes wide. “Forgive me, I couldn't recollect your preference and I didn’t know how to stop buying.”“You stood me u
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