جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 88

XAVIER The hiss of the espresso machine was the only thing cutting through the suffocating silence of the penthouse. It was a sharp mechanical sound that felt like it was drilling directly into the base of my skull, right where the three fingers of meat scurred from last night and settled into a dull, reddened throat. I stayed in the shadow of the hall before it had been longer than necessary, watching her. Laura was moving with a terrifying and mechanical precision. She didn't hew; she did not scroll through her phone; she just stood there, her back a rigid line of defiance against the floor-to-ceiling windows that displayed the very city I tried to conquer at her expense. Even from behind, I could see the toll the night had taken on this slight slum in her shoulder, the way she gripped her mug like it was the only thing keeping her upright. My chest tightened. I had spent my entire career anticipating moves, calculating risks before they even manifested, yet I had not seen this co

LAURA I watched Xavier for the first time in such a panic I didn't know how to say or even how to calm the situation down. I was still pissed at him for what he did. And now this. I knew he needed my help. I did not want to even have any conversation with him. I just wanted to keep my distance from him and make him realize his mistakes. But I had to talk. “What is going to happen now? Talk to me. You look like you know what wants to happen, but you are just trying every possible way to avoid it,” I said to him, still trying to show him I was very much angry. “I don’t know. I’m going to find a way, Laura. You don’t have to worry, okay? I don’t know what to say to you at this moment, but your stepdad is just trying to weaponize every trauma you guys face and turn it into a legal nightmare, and he is doing it to destroy the both of us. I am racking my head at the moment to find a possible solution, but I want you to be assured that nothing can go wrong and I just want you to be happy,

LAURA "That's the thing you don't know about this life. Everyone is ready to do everything and anything to get what they want. And if manipulating and turning the story around is the only way for him to do it, believe me, he will do it tenfold. I don't know why this is still surprising you. You are supposed to be expecting the negativity. All you have to do is pretend like you don't see it and try to cope with it. That is what matters at this point," she said as I tried calming my nerves down, just as she suggested.But I couldn't fight it. At least one thing I could assure Juniper of was the fact that I would stay away from the media. But I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I couldn't stop worrying and thinking about everyone's negativity towards me. Suddenly, I don’t know. "Why are they suddenly acting like this? Why are they making a big thing out of it? This is not what I wanted. Can't you even see it? This is just the evening of the out, and major outlets are already running differe

LAURA The floor was cold beneath my palms, a grounding chill that did not match the heat of the humiliation boiling in my throat. I watched a single tear hit the hardwood, a time-insulted evidence of the weakness Alex had bragged about on national television. Xavier's shadow fell over me, long and suffocating. I could feel him hovering, that restless energy of a man who wanted to fix a problem he had spent months creating. “Laura,” he breathed, his voice thick with that agonizing soft pity. “Please get up.” I didn't get up. I stayed there for a bit longer, listening to the hum of the Chicago wind against the glass. In that silence, something shifted. The surgical cord I had felt earlier wasn't a temporary max; it was melting. The girl who needed Xavier to check under the bed for monsters was being replaced by someone who realized the monster was currently standing in her living room holding a glass of water. I wiped my face with the back of my hand. A shower. Sharp, jagged motion