Lahat ng Kabanata ng Beneath the Surface : Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

The office was a storm waiting to happen. The air just felt different that morning, charged, tense and alive with the kind of energy that could either build something brilliant or tear it apart.Even before I stepped out of the elevator that morning, I could feel it, the pulse of urgency humming through the air, the sharp clip of heels against marble, the tight voices carrying across the reception area.Sinclair Enterprises always thrummed with energy, but this was different. This wasn’t the calm efficiency of a well oiled machine. This was pressure, coiling tighter by the day. The launch was close enough to touch, and everyone knew it.People moved quickly through the hallways, clutching folders, tablets, and cups of coffee like lifelines. Everyone could feel the tension and it showed on every face I passed. Conversations were clipped, footsteps quicker, and no one lingered long enough to exchange anything more than a quick nod.The receptionist barely had time to look up before hand

The words still hung in the air like smoke, refusing to clear.Max’s voice, “It would be my pleasure to tell him your little secret” echoed in my head even though the office was dead silent. He said it as if he was savoring the thought of dropping a match into a room full of gasoline. Every single person was staring at me like I had just been caught in some scandalous affair.I could feel their eyes, dozens of them, crawling over my skin. The heat of it made my neck prickle.And then Drew turned to me.Not slowly. Not dramatically. He just turned. His eyes found mine instantly, and in that fraction of a second, the weight in them nearly buckled my knees.“What’s he talking about?”His voice wasn’t raised, but it might as well have been. It was low, steady, and heavy with something that felt like suspicion.I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth.Think, Lila. Think.I couldn’t say it here, not with the entire office watching, and with the

The mug was warm between my hands, but the air in the room felt different now it became thicker somehow.Drew hadn’t looked away from me once since taking that first sip of coffee. His gaze was steady, unblinking, and yet there was something new in it tonight. Something that wasn’t sharp or calculating like in the office, but softer, heavier… almost as if he was trying to read every inch of me without a word.It was unnerving.And the worst part? My body wasn’t reacting with the caution my mind was screaming for.The faint glow from the lamp on my side table brushed his face in gold, catching on the sharp cut of his jaw, the faint crease between his brows. His hand was still wrapped around the coffee mug, but he wasn’t drinking anymore. His attention was on me entirely.My fingers tightened around my own mug, and I suddenly became aware of how quiet the apartment was. Too quiet. The kind where you can hear the faint hum of the refrigerator and the soft tick of the wall clock.The sile

Lila’s POVThe days leading up to the launch were a blur of motion.Emails stacked up like towers threatening to collapse, phones rang off the hook, and every conversation in the office seemed sharper, quicker, like everyone was running out of time. I wasn’t just busy. I was consumed.But my exhaustion had layers.It wasn’t only the workload. It was the way my nerves lived on edge, the way I walked through each day bracing for something to strike.Because Max was still out there.I had not heard from him since that awful day in Drew’s office when he stormed in like a hurricane, spewing venom and nearly shattering everything I had tried so carefully to hold together. Security had thrown him out, but silence didn’t mean safety. Not with Max.He was the type who thrived on lurking and waiting for the right moment to sting.And so I looked over my shoulder all the time.On the train, in grocery store aisles, walking down my block in the evening. Even inside the office, the one place where

Lila’s POVThe air in my living room wasn’t mine anymore.It was thick, stolen, possessed by the shadow standing in the middle of it.Max.I wanted to scream, but no sound left my throat. My body refused to move. My legs, my hands, even the quick rise and fall of my chest felt like they were no longer mine.He sat there in the half light like he belonged here, his posture too casual for the storm simmering in his eyes. His smile wasn’t a smile at all, it was a crack in something darker, something that pulsed with rage just beneath the surface.And then he stood.It wasn’t sudden. He rose slowly, deliberately, every inch of his movement a performance. His shoulders squared, his jaw tilted, like a predator stepping out of the shadows.I flinched back instinctively.“Lila,” he said for the second time since I walked in, my name rolling off his tongue with a mocking softness that made my stomach churn. “You thought you could run from me, right?”My lips parted, but nothing came. My mind s