บททั้งหมดของ It's Just Business : บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 14

CHAPTER 12 Lexi's POV The moment my shift ended, I was already sweating, despite it being only about 11°C. I felt nauseous, as if I were a sixteen-year-old who just found out she was pregnant. My entire body ached from hours spent on my feet, and my hair was damp from helping out in the kitchen since Lori had called in sick. I was the only one who knew how to make everything just right. But none of that compared to the storm brewing in my stomach—nausea, nerves, and a kind of fear that didn’t come with sirens or shadows; it came from choices, from names like Brandon Wilson and contracts that could rewrite your life.I was in the back, gathering my things, when my phone buzzed.Aria 🦋 :Can I come with you? Please. Just to make sure he doesn’t try anything weird. I promise I won’t say anything.I stared at the message for a long moment before replying.Me: No, babe. I need to do this alone.Aria 🦋: At least let him send a car. Please, Lex.Me:I can handle it. I’ve got this.Aria 🦋:

Lexi's POV The car ride home was silent. I both liked and hated it at the same time; I could think, yet I also didn't want to think.The driver, all professional and clean-cut, didn’t ask questions or glance at me through the rearview mirror. It was like being chauffeured by a ghost, quiet, eerie, and somewhat fitting for the storm still swirling inside me. As the city blurred past my window as we drove past the city, I pressed my fingers against my thighs to keep from shaking. My mind replayed every word, every expression of Brandon Wilson across the table. Cold. Calculated. But honest, in his own terrifying way. When the car finally pulled up to my building in East New York, I hesitated before stepping out. I wanted to ask the driver how he knew where I lived when I hadn’t told him anything, but I remembered whose driver this was in the first place. The streets here were quieter, older. Familiar in a way that the rest of Manhattan could never be. The cool air smelled like... wel