Chapter4
980 Words
Chapter 4: The Fire and the Fallout
Ariana’s POV
I didn’t sleep.
Neither did Adams.
The entire night passed in heavy silence, the kind that makes you question everything, especially the people you once trusted with your life. By sunrise, I was sitting on the edge of my bed, still in yesterday’s clothes, staring at the pale pink sky like it held answers.
“I’m going to talk to him,” I said finally.
Adams, who’d been standing by the window with a mug of untouched coffee, turned sharply. “Not.”
“I have to.”
“Ariana ”
“He won’t listen to anyone else, he doesn’t hate you , he hates me. I’m the one who left, I’m the one who broke his illusion, if anyone can get through to him, it’s me.”
Adams stepped toward me, crouching down in front of me. “You think you owe him that?”
“No,” I said. “But I owe us a future without him constantly in the rearview mirror.”He studied my face, jaw tight with worry. “Promise me you’ll call if he raises his voice.”
“I promise.”
Adams didn’t like it.
But he let me go.
I met Roy at the cafe where we used to fight in whispers over burnt coffee and broken dreams. He chose the same corner booth he always had—back to the wall, eyes on the door as if he expected betrayal at every turn.
When I slid into the seat across from him, he didn’t speak. Just watched me like a man watching a ghost.
“You didn’t have to drag this out,” I said carefully. “Whatever you’re planning, it won’t hurt just Adams. It’ll hurt me too.”
“Good,” he snapped.
I flinched.
His voice wasn’t raised, but it was cold, calculated.
“Do you have any idea how humiliating this is for me?” he asked.
“You left me. Fine, but then you end up in bed with the man who replaced me?”
I shook my head. “This isn’t about you.”
He slammed his hand on the table,
“It’s always been about me! You were mine, Ariana.”
“I was never yours,” I said calmly, pushing down the fear crawling up my spine. “You didn’t love me. You controlled me.”
Roy leaned in, his voice a poisonous whisper. “And yet you kept coming back. Until someone richer, stronger, younger came along and offered you a better deal.”
My blood turned to ice. “Is that what you think this is? A deal?” I asked
“Isn’t it?” he smirked. “He gets the company. You get the man. And I lose everything.”
“You didn’t lose me, Roy. You pushed me away. Over and over again. You cheated, you lied, and you broke me, I don’t owe you guilt for the life you destroyed.”
His expression cracked for a brief moment, then hardened again.
He leaned back and pulled a flash drive from his pocket, dangling it between two fingers.
My breath caught.
“Everything I need to end him,” he said smugly. “Safety reports, expense fraud, emails from the old board. The media will eat it up.”
“Even if it hurts you too?” I asked.
He shrugged. “You think I care about that? This isn’t about consequences. It’s about justice.”
“This isn’t justice,” I said, rising to my feet. “It’s revenge. And you’re still trying to control me. But you can’t. Not anymore.”
He stood too, grabbing my wrist hard enough to make me gasp. “
You walk out now, and it goes to every news desk in the city.”
“Let go of me, Roy.”
His grip tightened.
“I said, let go!”
Suddenly, a hand yanked him backward.
Adams.
He had followed me, thank God, and now he shoved Roy against the wall, rage burning in his eyes.
“If you ever touch her again, you won’t just lose your job, you’ll lose everything.”
Roy tried to lunge, but Adams caught his collar. “You think this will make her come back to you? You think power is love?”
Roy’s chest heaved. “You don’t know anything about us.”
“I know enough,” Adams growled. “I know she cried herself to sleep for years. I know she blamed herself for your mistakes. I know she’s finally starting to breathe again—and I won’t let you take that from her.”
Roy stared at him, seething.
Then, slowly, he pulled away and tossed the flash drive to the floor.
“This isn’t over,” he said.
Adams didn’t blink. “Yes, it is.”
Roy left.
Just like that.
No screaming. No fight. Just the crushing weight of defeat in every step he took out of that café and out of my life.
Back at my apartment, I sat in silence while Adams wrapped an ice pack around my wrist. His hands were gentle. His eyes… not so much.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking. “I should’ve never let you go alone.”
I looked at him, really looked.
“You came anyway.”
He gave a weak smile. “I couldn’t sit still. Not when I knew he was still capable of hurting you.”
I reached for his hand.
“You didn’t just save me today,” I whispered. “You saved the woman I’m still becoming.”
And then, for the first time since our worlds collided, I kissed him.
No fear.
No hesitation.
Just two people who had been broken by the same kind of man… now choosing each other instead.
- Writer
