All Chapters of The Billionaire Next Door (But He's Also My Ex): Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

My phone is still vibrating when I drop onto the couch like my bones gave up on me.I don’t even look at the screen before answering. “I swear if that’s Leo—”“It’s not,” Maya says. “But the way you answered tells me everything already.”I close my eyes and let my head fall back. The ceiling fan spins too fast. Or maybe that’s just my head.“I messed up,” I say. Then, because honesty is a disease, I add, “Or maybe I didn’t. I don’t even know anymore.”Maya hums. Not surprised. Never is. She’s known me since I was broke, angry, and pretending I didn’t care about anything. She knows the version of me that still flinches when someone raises their voice.“Talk,” she says.So I do. I tell her about the party. The overheard conversation. The way Leo looked at me when I called him out. The pause. God, that pause. I tell her how it felt like standing on a bridge that suddenly cracks under your feet.When I’m done, my throat hurts.Maya doesn’t jump in right away. That’s how I know she’s takin

“I’ve seen this before.”The words slip out before I can stop them.Leo looks at me across the conference table, phone still in his hand from the breach call. “Seen what?”“This,” I say, tapping the screen where the corrupted files are highlighted. “Clean entries. Precise reroutes. Not messy hacking. Personal.”My chest feels tight. Too tight.Because I know this pattern. I know what it feels like when someone doesn’t just want to win. They want you to lose.Hard.Flashback hits without warning. College lab. My code mysteriously altered. Presentation tanking. Whispers behind my back. And then the smiling face of someone I trusted, pretending to be shocked with everyone else.I swallow.Leo notices. “Skye.”“Someone didn’t just glitch the system,” I say. “They targeted my model. My login trail. It’s my name that’s going to show up in the audit.”He goes still. “You’re sure?”I nod. “Look at the time stamps. It’s layered under my last revision. If we hadn’t caught it early, it would’ve

The door finally stopped shaking.That’s the part that scared me the most.Not the pounding. Not the voice yelling Leo’s name like they owned it. It was the silence after. The way it just… stopped.Like whoever was out there decided to wait instead.Leo moved fast. He shoved me behind him without even looking, one hand braced on my bedroom door like he could hold the whole world back with it.“Stay in here,” he said.“I’m not hiding.”“Skye.” His voice cracked just a little. “Please.”That did it. The please.He pulled on his shirt fully this time and walked out to face whoever was on the other side. I stood there in my room, heart banging in my ears, grabbing the first thing I could find to wear. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped my jeans.I didn’t hear fighting.I didn’t hear shouting.Just low voices. Tense. Controlled. Dangerous.By the time I stepped out of my room, the apartment was empty.Empty.The front door was closed. Locked. Leo was gone.Gone.I stood there fo

The gasp from the crowd feels like it punches the air out of my lungs.The screen behind Leo is huge. Too huge. And the photo is crystal clear. Me. Him. My back against my apartment door. His mouth on my neck. His hand under my hoodie.Intimate doesn’t even cover it.It looks raw. Private. Stolen.For a second, no one moves.Then the whispers start.Leo is still on stage, microphone in hand, frozen. Not embarrassed. Not panicking.Calculating.I can’t breathe. My skin feels hot, like every eye in the room is crawling over me. My chest tight. My throat burning.Maya stands beside me, watching the screen like she’s admiring her own art.“You’re insane,” I whisper.She tilts her head slightly. “You look good though. I picked that one carefully.”I don’t think. I just turn and slap her.Hard.The sound cracks louder than the whispers.Her head snaps to the side. A red mark blooms across her cheek.For one split second, the room goes quiet again.Then everything explodes.Security moves. P

“I never stopped thinking about you.”That’s the last thing Leo says before the fire alarm goes off.Not a soft little beep. Not polite.Full on screaming.Red lights flashing. People yelling. Someone spills champagne. The music cuts mid beat.For a second I just stand there, staring at him, like my brain can only process one disaster at a time.Then the sprinklers hit.Cold water crashes down from the ceiling. Women scream. Men curse. The ballroom turns into chaos in seconds.“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter, already soaked.Leo grabs my wrist. “Move.”We push through the crowd toward the exit. My heels slip on the marble floor. He steadies me without thinking. His hand stays on my waist longer than necessary.Outside, the night is a mess of flashing fire trucks and confused guests huddled under the awning. Rain starts pouring like the universe said, let’s make this worse.“This is sabotage,” I say, breath shaky. “First the screen. Now this?”Leo’s jaw tightens. “Probably.”“D