BOUND BY OBSESSION

chapter 5

CHAPTER 5: THE EAST WING

Maya pov

I didn't sleep that night

Like, at all. I just laid there in the dark for like six hours straight thinking about the folder. Thinking about how he'd been watching me for years. Actual years. Like, longer than we probably even knew each other. And nobody told me. My dad just handed me over like I was a package he needed to get rid of and didn't care what happened to it.

Around four in the morning I got up because I couldn't take it anymore. The bed was too soft. The dark was too dark. Everything felt like it was suffocating me so I just got up.

I wasn't planning on doing anything specific. I was just going to walk around. Maybe get some water. Maybe just move my body so I wouldn't feel like the walls were literally closing in on me and crushing me. But then I found myself in the hallway. The hallway that led to the east wing. The locked door that he said I couldn't go near. The door that had been locked the whole time I'd been here and he'd basically told me if I asked about it, I was an i***t for wanting to know.

My hands were shaking when I got there. Like actually shaking. I could see them trembling and I tried to grip them together to make it stop but it didn't work.

The door was still locked, obviously. But I pressed my ear against it anyway like maybe this time something would be different. Like maybe I'd actually hear something that made sense. Something that explained why he had to keep an entire wing of his apartment locked away from me like I was dangerous or like whatever was in there was dangerous.

Nothing. Just silence and my own heartbeat going crazy.

I was turning to leave, I was literally about to walk away, when I heard it. A key. Someone was unlocking the door from the inside.

I froze.

My whole body just froze in place.

The door opened just a c***k. Just enough for me to see light spilling out. And then a face appeared. A woman. Maybe fifty. Dark hair. Really tired eyes. And when she saw me standing there, her whole expression changed. Like she'd just seen a ghost or something.

"Who are you?" I asked. My voice sounded weird. Shaky.

She didn't answer. She Justin stared at me like I was something she couldn't believe was real.

"I'm Maya," I said. "I'm. I live here. In the apartment."

The woman's eyes got so wide. Like actually huge. Like I'd just told her something completely impossible.

"Maya," she whispered. And she said it like she knew the name. Like she'd heard it before. "He called you Maya."

"Do you know me? Have we like... met before or something?"

"No," she said really fast. Too fast. Like she was lying or scared or both. "No, I didn't know he would actually..."

She didn't finish the sentence. She just closed the door. Right in my face. I heard the lock click back into place.

I stood there for like five minutes just staring at that door.

Who the f**k was that? And why did she look like she already knew who I was? Why did she look shocked to see me? Like genuinely shocked. Like I wasn't supposed to exist or something.

I went to his room.

I don't even know why I did it. I just did. He wasn't going to be there anyway. He was out doing whatever he did. But I needed to find something. Anything. Anything that made sense of what I'd just seen.

His room was huge. Like obscenely huge. Bigger than my entire apartment used to be. The bed was massive. Everything was black and grey like his office. Cold. Empty. No pictures. No like, personal stuff. Nothing that made it feel like a person actually lived there.

I went through his drawers like some psycho. I know how that sounds but I didn't care. I was looking for something. Another folder maybe. More photos. Something that explained what the hell was happening in this apartment.

And then I found it.

A safe.

It was hidden behind a painting. Like an actual safe built into the wall behind a really expensive looking painting. And I just stood there looking at it because obviously I couldn't get it open. But the fact that it existed. The fact that he had a safe hidden in his bedroom wall. That meant he was hiding something. Something he thought was important enough to lock away.

I was still standing there staring at it when I heard the front door open.

Dominic was home.

My heart literally jumped into my throat. Like physically jumping. I shoved the painting back as fast as I could and basically ran out of his room like I hadn't just been snooping through his s**t. Which I had been. Obviously.

He was in the kitchen making coffee when I got there. Like he'd just had a normal day. Like he was just some regular guy making coffee in his kitchen instead of a person who apparently had secrets locked away in his bedroom.

"You're home early," I said. I was trying to sound normal but my hands were shaking and I could hear it in my voice.

He looked at me Like he was trying to figure out if I'd done something.

"I have some things to take care of," he said.

"Okay," I said. That was it. Just okay. But inside I was freaking out. I was thinking about the safe and the woman and the locked door and my stomach felt like it was doing cartwheels.

I could tell he didn't believe me. I could see it in his face. Something in his expression changed like he knew I was lying about something. But he didn't push it. He just turned back to his coffee.

"There's someone I need you to meet tonight," he said after a minute.

"Who?" I asked. And my voice came out like a whisper.

"My mother," he said. "She wants to meet you."

My blood went cold. Literally felt cold moving through my veins.

"Your mother?" I said. "I didn't know you even had a

There was a knock on the door.

Not a normal knock. An urgent knock. The kind that made everything in the apartment feel like it was suddenly on alert. Like something bad was happening.

Dominic's entire expression changed. Like he'd shifted into a different person. He went to the door and opened it and there was one of his guys standing there. The scarred one from that first night when he showed up at my dad's apartment.

"We have a problem," the guy said. And he looked stressed. Actually stressed.

"Not now," Dominic said, but his voice was different. Sharp. Dangerous.

"It's urgent," the guy said. And he looked at me when he said it. Like I was the problem. Like whatever the problem was, it had something to do with me.

"Outside," Dominic said.

He just left me standing in the kitchen. I walked out without saying anything.

I waited like two seconds and then I went to the door and pressed my ear against it because obviously I did. I had to know what was happening.

"The rival group knows about her," the guy said. I could hear them but not see them. "They know about the marriage. They're asking questions."

My stomach dropped. Rival group? What rival group?

"How do they know?" Dominic's voice was ice. Like literally cold.

"We don't know yet. But they're moving. They're planning something."

"And her father?" Dominic asked.

My whole body went rigid.

"He's been talking to them," the guy said. "We're not sure what he's telling them but

"Find him," Dominic said. "Now."

The guy left. I heard footsteps going down the hallway.

Dominic came back inside and he looked different. Dangerous in a way I hadn't seen before. Like he was shifting into something darker.

"Pack a bag," he said.

"What?" I said. "Pack a bag for what?"

"Pack a bag. We're leaving tonight."

"Where are we going?"

"My mother's," he said. "It's safer."

"Safer from what? Dominic, what the hell is actually going on? What rival group? What was that about my father?"

He grabbed my face. Not rough. Just held it in his hands. His palms were warm and I could feel him shaking or maybe that was me shaking. I don't even know.

"Your father made a deal," he said quietly. Really quietly like he was telling me a secret. "With people who want to hurt you."

"What? No. My father wouldn't do that. He wouldn't just"

"He would," Dominic said. "He already has."

"You're lying. You have to be lying to me. You lie about everything."

"Pack," he said. "Right now. We don't have much time."

I packed. I don't even really remember what I put in the bag. Clothes. My phone. Whatever I could grab in like two minutes. And the whole time I was thinking about that woman in the east wing. I was thinking about the safe hidden in his bedroom. I was thinking about my father and what he'd done. I was thinking about rival groups and what that even meant.

When I was done, Dominic was waiting by the door with a bag of his own. He looked stressed. Actually looked worried which somehow made everything feel more real. More dangerous.

"We need to tell you something before we leave," he said.

"What?" I asked. "What else? What else haven't you told me?"

"The reason I brought you here isn't just because of your father's debt," he said. "It's because

There was an explosion.

Not a huge one. But enough to shake the entire apartment. Enough to make everything rattle. Pictures on the wall shook. The floor moved under my feet.

I screamed.

Dominic grabbed me and pulled me toward the elevator hard.

"Go," he said into his phone. "Now. We're moving."

The elevator doors opened and we got in and as they were closing, I saw it. Smoke. Coming from the direction of the east wing. smoke pouring out into the hallway.

"What's in there?"

He didn't answer. He just held me as the elevator started dropping and his phone kept buzzing and I could hear men yelling from somewhere and I didn't know if we were running toward safety or running toward something way worse. Something that would hurt us.

"Who was that woman?" I asked My whole body was shaking. "The one in the locked room? Who is she?"

He finally looked at me. And his face was different. Like he was about to tell me something that would change everything.

"My daughter," he said.

The words just hung there in the air.

His daughter. He had a daughter. daughter locked in the east wing. A daughter who apparently just got blown up or was in danger or something I didn't even understand the elevator kept falling and I couldn't breathe and suddenly nothing made sense anymore. I didn't know who this man was. I didn't know what I'd gotten myself into. I didn't know anything.

The elevator doors opened to the parking garage and Dominic pulled me toward a black car and that's when I heard it. Gunshots. Real. Loud.

"Get in," he yelled.

He was dragging me now.

I got in so fast headlights. Multiple cars. Chasing us.

My phone buzzed.

I looked at it and my heart stopped.

A text from an unknown number.

"We have your father. If you want to see him alive again, you're going to make a choice. Him or Dominic. You can't have both."

I showed it to Dominic.

He didn't say anything. He just drove faster. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel and I realized he was scared. And if he was scared, then I should be absolutely terrified.

Because I had no idea what was actually happening. I had no idea who that woman was or why she was locked away. I had no idea why my father would betray me to people who wanted to hurt me. I had no idea where we were going or what came next or if we were going to survive this.

And the only person who could explain it was the man who'd been lying to me since the very beginning.

And now people were trying to kill us both.