THE CEO's REGRET

CHAPTER 10: CRACKS IN THE WALL

Sixteen years old and sharp in a way that missed nothing, Isla had stood at that window and watched Sebastian outside our building. The moment that truth settled in, something inside me tightened.

The clock on my secret, the one I had kept locked away for sixteen years had started ticking, loud and impossible to ignore.

I looked at her standing there in the hallway, still in her pajamas, eyes fixed on me in that quiet, searching way that had always made lying to her feel worse than it should.

I made a decision at that moment, not the brave one, not the right one, just the only one I had the strength for at nine-thirty at night, after everything had already drained me dry.

“It was a work thing,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “Someone from the Hale account. It couldn’t wait.”

Isla didn’t respond immediately. She just looked at me, those grey eyes holding mine with a calm kind of focus that had never let a half-truth pass easily in sixteen years.

“At this hour?” she asked, her tone even, but not convinced.

“You know how clients get,” I said, adding a small shrug, like it was nothing.

She paused, and I felt it, the way she weighed things, the way she always decided how far to push and when to let something go. I held her gaze, willing her to drop it tonight, because I didn’t have anything left in me to fight her on it.

After a moment, she nodded. “Okay,” she said softly, though there was still something in her voice that didn’t quite settle. Then, quieter, “You alright?”

“I’m fine, baby. Go to bed.”

She turned and walked back down the hallway, but slower than usual. Thoughtful. She paused once and glanced back at me, like she was trying to read something I hadn’t said. I stayed where I was, forcing myself not to move, not to call her back, not to c***k, until her door finally closed with a soft click.

Only then did my shoulders drop.

I hated lying to my daughter. I had done it her entire life about this one thing, and somehow it never got easier. If anything, it felt worse, now heavier, more fragile, like the truth was sitting just beneath the surface, waiting for the smallest c***k.

—

I called Jade at ten-fifteen. By then, I had made tea I hadn’t touched and spent long enough staring at the same spot on the wall to know I wasn’t going to figure this out alone.

She picked up on the first ring.

“Talk,” she said.

“He showed up at my building tonight,” I said, leaning back into the couch, one hand pressing lightly against my forehead. “Sebastian. He was just… standing there when I got home.”

There was a brief pause, barely half a second, and then Jade let out a string of curses so fast and so vivid it caught me off guard. A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it…short, sharp, but real. It surprised me how good it felt, like something in my chest loosened for the first time all day.

“Are you kidding me?” she said. “He just showed up at your door like that?”

“Yeah,” I exhaled. “He admitted the flowers. Said he needed me to know he remembers.”

“He needed—” I could hear her moving around, the restless energy in her voice building. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him not to come back or send anything to my office.”

“Good.” A beat passed. “Then what?”

“Then I came inside.”

Her tone shifted after that, the heat softening into something steadier. “Naomi,” she said, and I knew that voice. “What do you actually want here? Not the business plan or the revenge angle. You. What do you want?”

I stared at the cup of tea on the table, the surface gone cold.

“I want the contract to work,” I said slowly. “I want the company to grow. I want—”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Jade.”

“I’m serious. You walked back into that man’s world. You’re sitting in meetings with the same man who broke you, and now he’s showing up outside your home with flowers, and you’re still talking about contracts.” She paused just long enough for it to land. “Under all of that, what do you want?”

I didn’t answer right away. The silence stretched until it pressed in on me.

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted.

She didn’t push. “Okay,” she said quietly. “That’s real. I’ll take it.”

We talked until midnight after that, about the plan, the company, where the contract fit. About Isla, and how much harder it was getting to keep things from her, and how she deserved better than half-truths. About Sebastian, standing out there saying he remembered, like two words could carry the weight of sixteen years.

Jade didn’t push again. She said she’d drop it for now.

I knew “for now” meant she’d come back to it.

---

The morning meeting at Hale Tower was all business. Vendor contracts, floor plans, catering adjustments. I ran it the way I always did, sharp, focused, prepared. The most composed person in the room. No one would have guessed I’d spent half the night on my couch pulling my life apart with my sister.

Sebastian sat at the head of the table, exactly where he belonged. He didn’t mention last night. Not a word about standing outside my building, or the flowers, or anything else. He stayed professional, calm, and controlled.

But his eyes kept finding me. Not constantly, he was too careful for that. But every time I spoke, every time I turned toward the screen or addressed the room, I felt it. His gaze landing on me, steady and heavy, like he wasn’t pretending anymore.

It made the room feel smaller. Patricia was wrapping up the revised timeline when my phone lit up on the table. A message from an unknown number. Different from the others. No name attached.

I didn’t open it. I flipped the phone face down and kept going. I finished the meeting clean and strong.

By the time I stepped into the elevator alone, the doors sliding shut behind me, the silence felt too loud. My thumb hovered for a second before I picked up the phone and turned it over.

The message was short.

“Victor Hale knows you’re back. He’s already making calls. Ask yourself who benefits from you staying.”

My hand started shaking so badly the phone nearly slipped. The words hit like ice water, sharp and immediate, flooding my chest with cold panic.

Victor, Sebastian’s father. The name alone was enough to send my pulse racing, old memories rising before I could stop them. Someone inside these walls was talking and feeding him information.

And whoever it was didn’t just want me aware, they wanted me off balance. Maybe even afraid. Or worse… maybe they wanted me right here.

My knees weakened, and I reached for the handrail, gripping the cool metal to steady myself. If Victor was already circling, it wouldn’t take much for him to start digging. And if he dug deep enough…

Isla.

The thought hit hard enough to knock the breath out of me. One wrong move, one thread pulled too far, and everything I had built to protect her could unravel.

The elevator chimed as it reached the ground floor, and the doors slid open.

I didn’t move. My legs felt unsteady, like they might give out if I tried. I just stood there, staring at the glowing screen in my hand, my pulse loud in my ears. Because this wasn’t just about Sebastian anymore, someone was watching me and playing a much bigger game.

And I had no idea what they really wanted… or how far were they willing to go to get it?