The Mafia King's obsession

The Offer

Alexander POV

The door was still closed behind Lara.

I was still sitting on the floor where she left me.

The candles in the dining room were still burning. The food was still half-eaten. The wine was still untouched.

She had been gone for maybe ten minutes. Maybe twenty. I didn't know. Time had stopped making sense.

My phone rang.

I looked at the caller ID weakly. The screen was blurry. My eyes were wet. I hadn't even realized I was crying.

Jenna calling.

I groaned. My voice came out rough. Broken.

"Do you know what time it is?" I muttered. "Couldn't this wait till morning?"

"Mr. Grey." Jenna's voice was different. Brighter. Almost excited. "A solution has come. A way to save us."

I steadied myself.

My back straightened against the door. My hand tightened on the phone. My heart, which had been nothing but a dead weight in my chest for the last hour, started beating faster.

"Talk," I said.

"I just got off the phone with their legal team." Jenna paused. I could hear her smiling. "Ludans Enterprise and Co. has offered to buy Grey Enterprise for Ten million dollars."

The words hung in the air.

Ten million dollars.

"That's not all," Jenna continued. "They want an answer tomorrow. By noon."

I went silent.

My mouth opened. Nothing came out. My brain was spinning. My heart was pounding. Ten million dollars was more than the company was worth right now. More than the red numbers. More than the debt. More than the two-point-four million we owed in compensation fees.

Ten million dollars could fix everything.

Ten million dollars could save my family from bankruptcy.

Ten million dollars could…

My father's voice rang in my ears.

"Son, I believe in you."

One minute passed.

Two.

Three.

The candles flickered. The room was quiet except for my breathing. In and out. In and out. The same rhythm my father used to teach me when I was a kid having panic attacks.

Breathe, Alex. Just breathe.

"Mr. Grey?" Jenna's voice crackled through the phone. Worried now. "Are you still there?"

I hung up.The screen went dark. Jenna's face disappeared.

I stared at the wall.

Ten million dollars.

Sell the company that had been in my family for three generations. The company my grandfather built with his bare hands. The company my father protected with his whole heart. The company I was supposed to pass down to my children one day.

Or don't sell it. Watch it crumble. Watch the debt swallow everything. Watch my parents lose their home. Their retirement. Their legacy.

I pressed my palms against my eyes until I saw stars.

What did believing in me even mean anymore? Did it mean holding on to a sinking ship? Did it mean letting pride destroy everything my family built?

Or did it mean knowing when to let go?

I didn't have the answer.

My father's voice kept ringing in my ears. Over and over. The same five words.

Son, I believe in you.

I wanted to make him proud. That was all I ever wanted. From the first day he put me in a tiny suit and walked me into the Grey Enterprise headquarters. From the first time he showed me his office and said this will be yours someday.

I wanted to be worthy of that.

But what if the right choice felt like betrayal?

What if selling the company was the only way to save my family?

What if keeping it was just slow suicide dressed up as honor?

My head hurts.

My chest hurts.

Everything hurts.

Should I sell it? Should I not sell it?

The question spun around my brain like a storm. Ten million dollars on one side. My father's voice on the other. Lara's words somewhere in the middle.

I don't want to suffer.

Was selling the company suffering? Or was it survival?

I couldn't think anymore.

I needed air. I needed noise. I needed to be somewhere that wasn't this penthouse with its dying candles and half-eaten food and the ghost of a woman who said she loved me but not enough to stay.

I decided to take a break.

From the heartbreak. From the bad news. From the impossible choice sitting on my chest like a boulder.

I needed to forget.

Just for one night.

I grabbed my keys and walked out.

---

The night air hit my face.

Cold. Sharp. Real.

I started my car.. a black Audi that cost more than most people's houses…and pulled out of the parking garage. The city was alive around me. Lights. Noise. People laughing outside restaurants. Couples holding hands.

Everyone living their lives.

Everyone not falling apart.

I drove without thinking. Turn left. Turn right. Stop at the red light. Go when it turns green. My body was on autopilot. My brain was still back in that penthouse, staring at the wall, hearing my father's voice.

I saw the sign before I knew where I was going.

The Black Thorn.

A bar. Not the fancy kind I usually went to. This one was smaller. Darker. The kind of place where no one asked your name or why you were drinking alone at midnight.

Perfect.

I parked my car, walked to the door. The music spilled out into the street…deep bass, slow rhythm, the kind of sound that vibrated in your bones.

I pushed the door open.

The air inside was thick with smoke and sweat and cheap cologne. The lights were low red and gold. Shadows moved in the corners. Bodies pressed together on the dance floor. Voices overlapping into one loud hum.

I walked to the bar.

"Whiskey," I told the bartender. "Double. Make it cheap."

He raised an eyebrow but didn't argue. He poured. I drank. The liquid burned my throat on the way down. Good. I wanted to burn. I wanted to feel something other than failure.

I ordered another.

And another.

The room started to blur at the edges. The music got louder. The shadows got longer. I leaned against the bar and stared into my glass, watching the amber liquid catch the light.

I didn't notice him at first.

But he was there.

In the corner.

Watching.