Semua Bab LOST IN THE BILLIONAIRE'S SCANDAL: Bab 81 - Bab 88

Maya's PovI didn’t mean for the words to slip out. I’d promised myself I would hold it together and I wouldn’t let him know that they had contacted me. I just wanted peace and I didn't want him to see just how much the message had cut me open but the moment Adam said it out loud, something inside me snapped.“They’ll take him, Adam.” My voice cracked before I could get a hold of myself. “And I can’t even fight for him, because I’m nobody in this house.”There… it was out. The ugliest truth I carried like a stone in my chest had finally slipped out of my trembling lips. The second the words hung in the air, I wanted to take them back, to gather them into my hands and swallow them down. But it was too late. Adam was looking at me as though I’d ripped the floor out from under him. I watched as his jaw and his fists clenched at his sides. And his eyes? God, his eyes burnt like fiire and screamed of sorrow all at once.“Maya…” His voice was low and ragged, as though each syllable had be

Adams PovMy heart swelled as I stood just outside his door. This was the proudest ‘father moment’ I have had in my entire life. My boy, probably colored behind the door, had made me proud in every way by standing up for Maya and I still didn't know how to thank him. These people had thought Maya was disposable. Like they could just get rid of her but she clearly wasn't. Not to me and clearly not to Sami. If we had ever had doubts, it had been ruled out today. The image of my son standing in front of her, shielding her, gutted me. I couldn’t even imagine my quiet Sami doing that. Sami had never done that for anyone, not even for me.Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open softly, the faint scratch of crayons on paper confirming my earlier thought. The little lamp by his bed threw a warm glow over the room, casting his small frame in light as he sat cross legged, bent over his sketchpad.“Sami,” I called gently.His head snapped up, his brown eyes wide. I watched them swiftly sof

Adam POVThe courthouse was expectedly still and the air heavy. It felt like everyone here was working on egg shells. The walls were marble, ceilings high and the rows of wooden benches felt cold as we settled in. I had been in a few other courtrooms before, but never one that mattered like this. Never one where everything I cared about was on the line.Maya sat beside me at the long table, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. She wore a modest navy dress with her hair pinned back, nothing flashy or distracting but anything that had her handwriting on it distracted me. I studied her eyes, they were lined with sleeplessness, and the way she sat still told me she was bracing for impact.Across the aisle, Lena entered with her lawyer, dressed in an ivory suit that looked like it had been tailored for this occasion and a skimpy skirt that went with it. Every strand of her hair was perfectly in place and she moved like she was walking into a gala, not a custody hearing. Behind her, her pa

Adam's PovI had managed to keep my face a mask during the hearing, but the second I closed the door to my office that evening, the weight slammed into me. My tie felt like it was choking me. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, though I kept trying to make fists to steady them.Maya stood near the window, arms folded tight across her chest, her face pale in the dim light. She hadn’t said much since we left the courthouse. I couldn’t blame her. Lena’s lawyer had gutted her in that room without even having her on the stand, reducing her to nothing more than a liability in my life. And she had sat there, silent, letting herself be carved apart while I clenched my jaw so hard I thought it might snap.Now it was just us, and the silence pressed in.“You haven’t slept,” I said finally, my voice rougher than I intended.She gave a short, humorless laugh. “Neither have you.”I moved closer, but she turned slightly, like she was afraid of what might spill out if she met my eyes. That distance was