All Chapters of It's Just Business : Chapter 51 - Chapter 57

Lexi's POV I woke up at 7 a.m., later than usual. I was proud of myself; sleep hasn't always been my friend, but I've been able to rest these past few days. The apartment smelled like chamomile tea as sunlight poured through the living room window, so bright and beautiful. It had been four days since we brought Aria home. Four days of adjusting, of Ada hovering like an iron-fisted guardian angel, of me trying to convince myself that, although not my home, it meant safety now. That we’d turned a corner. But every night when I closed my eyes, I still felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because if there's one thing I've learnt in life it's that there's always another shoe. I padded barefoot into the living room where Ada was already fussing with the cushions on the couch, straightening what was already straight. Her braid was pinned back in a bun. Her expression was determined. She’d been relentless these past few days, checking medications, tidying, keeping Aria’s w

Brandon's POV The door clicked shut behind Stacy, leaving the office in silence. It was about two minutes, but it seemed more than an hour. I usually craved silence, except now it only amplified the sound of her hesitant breathing on the other side of that heavy wood. The only thing between us right now. She stood there for a second too long before finally pushing the door open. And when she did...Christ. Alexis stepped in, casual but with elegance in a way I hadn’t expected. Nothing showy, after all she's not really the type. Just a soft blouse top tucked neatly into fitted jeans that hugged her curves, her hair was in a bun at the top of her head but a few were out fanning her face and neck, her makeup understated but still precise, it was soft. She looked… better. Better than she had in weeks. Not tired or worn like she had in that hospital room. There was more color in her cheeks again. For a second, I forgot to breathe and was frozen. Then I remembered who I was, who she

Lexi's POV “Consider it the real test of our performance.”I saw the shock on her eyes, although she hid almost immediately. She nodded and faced the window, silence enveloping us immediately.The drive back should have been routine. Straight lines, traffic lights, the hum of the engine, everything that usually calmed me. But right now the car felt too small, too alive with something I couldn’t name.The clock on the dash read 4:02 p.m.Impossible.We’d left just after noon. Lunch wasn’t supposed to stretch into hours. Lunch wasn’t supposed to feel like… that.I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, my jaw locked. How the hell had I let myself waste an entire afternoon? Worse, how the hell had I enjoyed it? I let a whole afternoon that I could have used to do so many other things talking...to her.Her laughter replayed in my head, it was uninvited. Loud, bright, unrestrained, the kind of laugh that turned heads. For a moment, I’d wanted to hear it again. In that moment, I hadn’

Brandon's POV Work is something you can throw yourself into until it bruises you in all the right places. That’s what I told myself as I paced my office at past two in the morning, the city a dark blur through the glass. Papers, projections, legal memos, name it, I devoured them the way a man eats his own thoughts when he’s trying not to think about something else. Lunch shouldn’t have unsettled me but I guess that's what you get when you go out of the plan. But it was tactical, public, and I had it under control. I planned things so things would not plan me. But I guess I've learnt a lesson now. I finally left the office and went home past three. Way too late to be sane. I’d buried myself in work, and I wrung the rest of the day dry on purpose. If I kept moving, kept signing, kept making calls, maybe I wouldn’t think about the way lunch had slipped into totally something else. But the second I shut the penthouse door behind me, the silence hit way too loud. I poured a drink just to