The silence in the opulent condo was deafening, yet it vibrated with an unspoken language. Alex had given his dismissal, the contract was ash, and Jessica was technically free. But neither of them moved. Her eyes, swollen with the grief of impending loss, pleaded with his, begging for something he couldn't, or wouldn't, offer.
He remained by the table, his gaze unyielding, a statue of control. Yet, the air around them thickened, a familiar current of s****l tension that had always simmered beneath their transactional encounters. Now, it was amplified, desperate, a final, undeniable pull.
Jessica finally broke the silence, her voice a ragged whisper. "Alex... please."
She didn't plead for the contract to remain, but for him.
Alex shifted, his cold, hard gaze fixed on her face. He saw th
