Semua Bab It's Just Business : Bab 31 - Bab 40

Brandon's POV The sound of the elevator doors closing behind me was the only real noise in the apartment. Everything else was still. Quiet. Controlled.Just how I liked it.Or at least, how I thought I did.I walked across the penthouse, loosening my tie as I headed for the whiskey decanter on the side table. It had been a long day—longer than I’d anticipated. Meetings, calls, back-to-back conversations with investors, and, of course, ensuring every medical detail for Aria’s surgery was perfectly arranged.I didn’t like relying on hospitals, strangers, or the promise of protocol. I trusted logistics. I trusted my team. I didn’t trust chance.I poured scotch into a glass and stared out the window.Lexi hadn’t texted me all day.Not that I was expecting her to.Except deep down, I was.Ever since the fundraiser, something had shifted,slightly…subtly. But it was there. That kiss on the terrace, her move, not mine, had thrown me off balance for a moment. And that moment lingered in my mi

Lexi's POV The alarm never had a chance to ring.I was up at 5:03 a.m., wide awake, heartbeat already hammering against my ribs. No matter how hard I tried, sleep refused to come. Not last night. Not with what tomorrow meant.I picked up my robe and left my room and padded downstairs barefoot and moving on muscle memory alone. The apartment was still dim, the early morning light barely stretching over the windowsills. I didn’t turn on the lights. I didn’t want to wake anyone.I just needed to feel… useful.The apartment was too quiet.Too clean.Too ready.I stood in the kitchen, staring down at the Ziploc bags I had carefully packed hours ago. Toothbrush. Lip balm. Phone charger. Slippers. Socks. Her favorite vanilla hand cream, her sketch book. All labeled and folded with military precision. Everything Aria might need for the hospital stay.Everything I could control.Because I couldn’t control what mattered.I reheated some leftover rice from the night before, some soup, boiled ve

Brandon's POV I’d been staring at the same damn line in this contract for twenty-eight minutes.Expansion projections. Terms of merger. Revenue forecasts. Words I could normally dissect in my sleep.Today, they may as well have been in another language.I shifted in my chair, leaning back, the leather creaking under me. The city stretched out below, steel, glass, and motion, but none of it made sense without the noise of my mind filling in the background.I checked the time. 9:48 a.m.Alexis, Aria and Ada would be at the hospital by now. Check-in. Pre-op assessments. Vitals. I knew the schedule. I’d memorized it without meaning to when Ada sent me her report last night. I mde sure I told Liam to be early, wouldn't want something as silly as traffic to delay them.I didn’t need to be there.That was the truth.Alexis could handle it. Hell, she’d been handling far worse for years before I showed up. Ada was on-site for a reason. My presence would only add pressure, people watching, wo

Brandon's POV We reached the section where Aria's room was, but we weren't allowed to go further into her main room. The place was quieter than the other section, probably because this was the section where people were recovering and needed their rest. So it had to be silent. Everyone stood outside the door, Dan and Sam behind quietly, Ada followed another nurse to go and take care of something according to her, and her... She just stood at the glass of Aria's room, head leaning on the glass, hands clasped together, lying on her mouth, and her eyes fully locked on her sister even though we can't see in clearly.The doctors and nurses moved inside, all professional and with practiced ease,we weren't seeing them clearly, but to her it was obviously better than nothing.I stood silently a few paces behind her, observing her even when I didn't want to; she was rigid, tension coiled tight, looking in through the glass at the bed even though it wasn't clear, at Aria as if she looked away f

Brandon's POV The weight of her had stayed with me long after she pulled away. And long after we left the hallway.Her body had folded into mine in the hallway, raw, shaking, her sobs tearing through the silence like glass shattering on the floor. I should never have followed her out; I hadn’t known what to do. I didn't know what to say. And that was the most infuriating part—me, the man who had spent years solving impossible problems with ruthless precision, standing there with a woman in my arms and not a single answer in reach.Now, hours later, I still felt her trembling body imprinted against me. My shirt clung to her tears; I hadn’t bothered to change out of it yet. It should have disgusted me. It should have reminded me of weakness. I shouldn't even still be here.Instead, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.Her.Alexis Torres.It was chaos. I hated chaos.I leaned back in the chair I’d taken in the corner of Aria’s recovery room. She was still unconscious, machines keeping track