Nine Months of Deception: The CEO's Hidden Heir

Chapter 5

Sebastian's Point of View

The ice clinked against the cut crystal of the whiskey glass. It was a solitary, fragile sound that seemed to echo off the immense walls of my office.

It was three in the morning. Manhattan slept under a thick blanket of rain, but on the fiftieth floor of the Volkov Tower, time seemed to have stopped. Only the dull, unbearable echo of its absence existed.

I hadn't slept for three days. My impeccable dark suit lay forgotten on the leather sofa, my tie had disappeared hours ago, and my shirt sleeves were rolled up.

I ran a tired hand through my hair, ruining the perfect hairstyle that was my trademark, and took a long swig. I wanted the fire of the alcohol to numb me, even if just for a second, this constant oppression that was suffocating my chest.

Across the desk from me, Elias swallowed. The twenty-six-year-old computer prodigy, who usually stalked through the most secure servers in the country as if he were playing a video game, didn't dare look me in the eye.

"Say it again," I asked. My voice wasn't a shout, but a low, almost lethal whisper.

Elias nervously adjusted his glasses and looked at his tablet.

"Like I said, sir... we traced the route. The bus went north and stopped in a small coastal town in Maine called Blackwood. But..."

"But?"

"A severe thunderstorm hit the coast that same night." Elias instinctively took a step back. "The camera systems at those rural stations are fifteen-year-old technology. There was a massive outage on the local servers. We have a fourteen-hour blind spot. Since Miss Rossi paid in cash and destroyed her phone... we lost track of her when she crossed the state line."

I slowly closed my eyes. A blind spot? Was a mere summer storm preventing me from recovering the only thing I cared about? A dry, graceless laugh escaped my lips. Gianna wasn't just smart; she had damn luck on her side.

"Find another way, Elias," I murmured, resting my fingertips on the heavy wood of the desk. "Send physical teams. Buy hotel records, talk to hostel owners, check every ATM within a hundred kilometers. If she rented a room, if she bought a damn coffee, I want to know. Don't stop until you find her."

"Yes, sir."

As soon as the double doors closed behind him, the silence once again engulfed me.

I slumped into my executive chair and exhaled a shaky sigh. I closed my eyes, but the darkness behind my eyelids only served as a canvas for her image to assault me ​​mercilessly. The office air seemed thick with her memory.

I could still detect that unmistakable trace of hers: sweet vanilla with a hint of cinnamon. A subtle perfume that had seeped into my skin for three years, becoming a silent addiction.

I ran my hand across the polished surface of my mahogany desk. Beneath my fingers, the wood still seemed to hold the warmth of that night. The night my defenses crumbled.

It had been a perfect storm.

I had just lost a multi-million dollar merger due to an absurd leak and was on the brink of collapse, furious with the world.

And then, she walked through the door. Her blouse buttoned up to the neck, clutching a folder to her chest. Anyone else would have fled at the sight of me, but she took a step toward me. She whispered my name, Sebastian, with that velvety voice that managed to extinguish the hell in my head for a split second.

And in that second, my sanity slipped through my fingers.

The memory of our bodies colliding struck me, stealing my breath.

I remembered how I closed the distance, how I swept aside the million-dollar reports to lift her and sit her on this very desk.

Her gasp of surprise was stifled the moment my mouth found hers. It wasn't an assault; it was a desperate hunger, suppressed for years. I wanted to melt into her until I forgot my own name.

My fingers trembled as I unbuttoned her blouse, revealing the black silk hidden beneath her gray armor.

And she, my efficient and invisible secretary, returned the kiss with a devotion so ardent it almost made me faint. Her hands tangled in my hair, pulling me closer, begging for more.

I made her mine with a desperation that terrified me. I sank into her warmth, eliciting sighs that reverberated in the depths of my empty soul.

In that fleeting moment on the dark wood, she wasn't my employee. She was my refuge.

And the next morning, terrified by the immense power she had just gained over me, I did the only thing I knew how to do: destroy. I rebuilt my wall of ice. I donned my Armani armor and pushed her away with the coldest words I could find, handing her that envelope of money. I wanted to reduce what I felt to ashes, because the idea of ​​loving, of starting a family, of needing someone, filled me with paralyzing panic.

But my plan backfired. She picked up the pieces of her dignity and left, leaving me surrounded by luxury, but completely empty.

I opened my eyes in the dim light, feeling a burning lump in my throat.

My body was tense, consumed by the mere memory of her skin.

I got up slowly and walked to her small workspace, just outside my office. I sat in her chair. Everything was neatly arranged, as if she were going to walk through the door at eight o'clock sharp with my coffee.

I opened the first drawer. It was empty. But at the bottom, my fingers brushed against something small and metallic.

I carefully took it out. It was a simple black bobby pin, one of those she used to make the strict buns that I secretly hated because they hid the dark cascade of her hair.

I clenched the bobby pin in my fist until I felt the pressure against my skin. I closed my eyes, using that small ache to anchor myself to reality.

She could hide in the snow, in the woods of Maine, or at the ends of the earth.

She could change her name and pretend it meant nothing, that she hated me. But she was wrong if she thought she could rip out my heart and simply disappear.

I would find her. I no longer cared about my wounded pride or the rules of the game. I only wanted her. Back in my life, back in my arms. It was a matter of survival. And I wasn't going to stop until I saw her again.