Verona straightened instantly, shifting into something softer, almost careful. “Darius, she assaulted me without reason! I was just doing my job, trying to stop her from causing a scene in your building—”
“Shut your mouth,” he snapped without even glancing at her properly.
His eyes found me immediately, and the entire intensity of him changed in a way that was almost disorienting.
“Marianne,” he said, stepping closer, "Tell me what happened. Did she touch you, did she say anything to you, are you hurt anywhere at all?”
His hand lifted slightly like he wanted to check for injuries, but I didn’t move toward him. My eyes had already locked into the faint red mark on his neck.
His brow tightened when he noticed my stare. “What are you looking at like that? Talk to me, Marianne. Why do you look like I just became someone you don’t recognize?”
I almost laughed.
“I’m fine. You should go handle your meeting. Don’t worry about me, just do what you came here to do.”
For a moment, he looked caught off guard, like I had stepped out of a version of myself he had gotten used to controlling.
“Marianne,” he said again, softer now, “I have a partner meeting upstairs. Go ahead first, wait in my office like usual. I will join you after I’m done, alright?”
Wait again.
That word landed heavier than it should have.
How many times had I been told to wait, to understand, to stay patient while he disappeared into rooms I was never invited into?
I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat and gave a small nod. “Alright. I’ll wait.”
Something in him relaxed immediately. He even gave me a faint smile before turning away.
“Good girl.”
The elevator doors closed between us, and the sound felt final in a way I wasn’t ready to name.
I stood there for a moment, then pressed the elevator button, realizing I didn’t even have access anymore. Of course I didn’t. I let out a slow breath and pulled out my phone to ask the secretary to escort me upstairs instead.
My hands didn’t shake.
That was the part that unsettled me most.
As I turned to leave, voices drifted from the emergency exit hallway. Darius’s voice first, low and irritated, followed by Verona’s softer tone, and almost amused.
“What were you thinking pulling something like that in front of her?” he said sharply. “I told you not to make things messy when she’s around. Lara just died because of our son, Carson. Stop messing around with her!”
“Relax,” Verona replied, her voice carrying a teasing edge. “She hit me first, so I just returned the favor in my own way. Besides, you’re not really going to act like this is a big deal, are you? So tell me, how exactly are you going to make it up to me?”
There was a pause before he answered, voice dropping into something looser, less controlled. “Make it up to you? Fine. I’ll give you what you want, my time, my attention, even my name if that’s what you’re after. Just stop making this more complicated than it needs to be.”
Verona gave a soft laugh. “That still doesn’t sound like enough.”
His voice turned rougher at the edges. “Damn fine! I’ll give you everything if that’s what it takes. My entire life if you really want it. We can even build whatever future you’re imagining, I don’t care anymore.”
A soft giggle followed, and I heard the faint shift of movement between them, too close, too familiar.
I stood frozen in the hallway shadow, unable to step forward or back, like my body had forgotten how to belong anywhere.
Because I had heard those words before.
I remembered him once kneeling in front of me, blood on his hands, his voice breaking as he held a ring.
“I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” he had said back then, staring at me like I was the only thing holding him together. “Marianne, I swear on everything I am, I will give you my whole life. Just stay with me, don’t walk away from me.”
I had believed him.
I had thought that kind of devotion only broke or built empires.
Now I wasn’t sure what I had actually married.
Because the same man who once spoke like I was his entire universe was now laughing softly in a stairwell, offering the same life to someone else like it had no weight at all.
I stepped back slowly, one step at a time, until the sound of them faded.
My chest felt tight, like something inside me had finally reached its limit but didn’t know how to collapse yet.
So this is what I am now?
A place he returns to when nothing else is interesting enough?
...
The secretary led me up without much conversation, like I was just another file being moved through his world. By the time I reached Darius’s office, my hands had gone cold and my chest felt strangely empty.
He looked up the second I entered.
His face softened instantly, that switch in him I used to mistake for tenderness.
“What’s that?” he asked, nodding toward the folder in my hands. He stepped closer, took it from me without waiting, already opening it.
“For whatever you need, just take it to my study, get it stamped,” he said, flipping the pages without real focus. “Don’t come to me for small things. You know I’ve got enough shit to deal with.”
My throat tightened, but I forced my voice out anyway. “It’s not something you can just stamp and forget.”
That made him pause for half a second. Before he could respond, the door behind him opened.
A secretary stepped in, “Mr. Davenport, the rooftop setup is ready. Verona said everything’s prepared. We can go up now.”
Darius didn’t even turn fully.
“Yeah,” he muttered, already distracted by the papers. “Give me a minute.”
He signed the last page without reading it properly, a quick scratch of ink that meant nothing to him in that moment.
My words got stuck in my throat again.
I tried anyway. “Darius, this is a di—”
“Later,” he cut in, already putting the folder down. “Whatever it is, just leave it. I’ll handle it after this.”
After.
Always after.
I stopped fighting for the sentence and just held the folder tighter. “Go ahead,” I said quietly. “I’m leaving too.”
I turned toward the door but his hand caught my wrist.
