Always Into You

Beneath the obsession - Chapter 18

(Maico’s POV)

The night was colder than it should have been. Or maybe that was just the fury burning inside me, making everything else feel ice cold in comparison.

I found Christopher standing outside the bar, his hands clenched into fists, his jaw tight like he was trying to hold himself together.

I wasn’t in the mood for restraint.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” My voice came out sharp, cutting through the silence.

Christopher barely turned to face me, but I saw it the tension in his shoulders, the weight in his expression.

“This isn’t your business, Maico.”

I let out a harsh laugh, stepping closer. “You’re making it my business.

You think you can just show up out of nowhere and pull Tanya back into whatever twisted mess you’ve got going on?”

His eyes flickered with something guilt, frustration, maybe even pain.

But I didn’t care. Not when Tanya was the one stuck in the middle of this.

“She’s not your damn lifeline, Christopher.” My voice dropped, but the anger in it didn’t fade. “You barely even know her.”

That was when he finally looked at me. Really looked at me. And there was something different in his eyes now something dark, something hollow.

“You think this is about time?” His voice was quiet but sharp enough to cut through my skin. “You think because I didn’t spend years with her that I don’t know her?”

I clenched my fists. “That’s exactly what I think.”

Christopher exhaled sharply, shaking his head. Then, for the first time, he wasn’t just the arrogant rich boy. He wasn’t just the son of Ambessa Hightower.

He was just a man.

A man who had lost something.

“You don’t get it,” he said. “You don’t understand what it’s like to live under someone like her.”

I frowned, but he wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was staring past me, lost in something only he could see.

“My mother controls everything,” Christopher said, his voice heavy with something I couldn’t quite name. “Every decision, every move. Everyday, It doesn’t matter what I want, what I feel. I exist for her expectations. For her vision of who I’m supposed to be.”

I swallowed, but he wasn’t done.

“Tanya was the first person who made me feel like me.” His voice almost broke on that last word.

“She didn’t care about my last name, didn’t care about the weight of it. She saw me when I was at my worst, when mother humiliated me, when I felt like I was nothing. And she made me laugh. She made me happy, she took my sadness away.”

I scoffed, shaking my head. “Happy? You barely knew her.”

Christopher’s breath shuddered as he exhaled. Then, he looked at me with an expression so raw it made my stomach twist.

“You think I barely knew her?” His voice cracked. “You have no idea.”

He swallowed hard, and then he whispered, “She saved my life.”

I frowned. “What?”

Christopher let out a shaky breath. Then, like it physically hurt him, he spoke.

“I was going to jump.”

The words stopped me cold.

He didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch.

“I was standing on the roof of Blaze Magazine building,” Christopher continued, voice hollow, “looking down at the city, thinking about how easy it would be to just... let go.”

A lump formed in my throat, but I didn’t say anything.

He swallowed. “Mother had just ripped me apart in front of the entire staff. Called me an embarrassment called me a lap dog when i denied her request to be with Gwen, her favourite woman for money. Told me I’d never be enough. I felt like I was suffocating under her control, like nothing I ever did would be mine.” His fingers trembled. “And for the first time, I thought I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be this person anymore.”

I stared at him, my heartbeat thudding in my ears.

“And then she came.” His voice cracked. “Tanya.”

Christopher let out a ragged breath, looking up as if he could still see it.

“She wasn’t supposed to be there. She was crying. Ambessa had torn her apart, too. She didn’t even see me at first.” He let out a bitter laugh. “She was cursing under her breath, kicking at the rooftop floor like she wanted to fight the whole world. And then…”

His eyes glistened.

“She saw me"

(Christopher’s Flashback – Rooftop of Blaze Magazine Tower)

I was standing at the edge, the city stretched out beneath me like a sea of distant lights, my heart pounding in time with the wind.

I heard footsteps.

At first, I ignored them.

Then...

"Christopher?"

I turned, barely breathing. And there she was.

Tanya Brixton, mascara smudged, eyes red, fists clenched like she had been holding back a storm.

She wasn’t supposed to be here.

"Tanya," I said hoarsely. "Go."

She didn’t.

Instead, she stepped forward, her eyes scanning my face, my stance, the ledge beneath my feet.

She knew.

“Don’t,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Don’t do this.”

I laughed, but it came out bitter. "Why not? Give me one reason, Tanya. One damn reason why I shouldn’t just end this."

Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t flinch. Instead, she did something I never expected.

She sat down. Right there, on the cold rooftop floor, like she had nowhere else to be.

"If you jump," she said, voice trembling, "I’m jumping too."

My heart stopped. "What?"

She looked up at me, eyes fierce despite the tears. "I don’t want to live in a world where people like us get crushed. Where people like you get told they’re not enough when I know damn well that you are." She swallowed hard. "So if you go, I go."

I clenched my fists. "You don’t understand, Tanya."

"Then make me understand!" she shouted, her voice exploded with concern, desperate. "Tell me why you think this is the only way out please Christopher! please!"

And for the first time in my life, I let it out.

Everything.

How my mother controlled me, how I was nothing more than a pawn in her game, how I had no real power, no real choice. How I had spent my entire life suffocating under her expectations, drowning in a world that was never mine.

By the time I stopped talking, I was shaking.

Tanya reached forward, took my hand, and whispered, "Then screw her screw everything that she'd done."

I blinked.

"You hear me, Christopher?" Her grip tightened. "Screw Ambessa. Screw what she thinks. You deserve to be happy. And if she doesn’t want to give you that happiness then take it."

A tear slipped down my cheek.

"I don’t know how," I admitted.

She squeezed my hand. "Then we’ll figure it out together."

And just like that..

I stepped back from the ledge.

Back toward her.

Back toward life.

(Back to reality Maico's POV)

"I hated my mother maico if you could only know, my mother always treated me like a game for her riches, but now i could leave the riches, the power and the influence of the Hightower name" Christopher said it with full emotion. "Just for tanya who saved my life"

I see Christopher a sad man with all the riches to him, he could let that go for one woman.

But i have feelings too

I couldn't let go like that.

No.