Chapter 9
Chapter 9
I spent the night at Kate’s, drowning memories in expensive whiskey.
I didn’t surface until noon the next day.
My phone screen was lit with Adrian’s missed calls – thirty–seven of them.
I ignored them, focusing instead on the calendar notification: [Monaco Grand Prix: 5 days remaining]
I smiled grimly, deciding to pack my things today.
I deliberately chose afternoon for my return – his usual track time.
But when I opened the penthouse door, Adrian was waiting in his favorite leather armchair, still in his racing suit,
eyes
dark as storm clouds.
“Where the fuck were you?” His voice cut through the air like a whip.
I turned toward the bedroom, but his grip locked around my wrist. He slammed the check down on the glass coffee table. “What kind of game are you playing with my mother?” The words came through clenched teeth.
My heart stuttered. His mother’s million–dollar check. I forced my face into practiced neutrality, my voice steady.
“Oh, that? Your mother’s compensation. After three years of being your caretaker, it seems fair. The Chase family won’t miss it.”
Adrian studied me with the same intensity he used to analyze race telemetry, searching for cracks in my facade.
We’d been here before, in this same penthouse, but under very different circumstances.
Last time, when the Chase family had finally tracked down their missing heir, his mother had slipped me an identical check across this very table. “For your troubles,” she’d said with an icy smile.
But before the paper had even grown warm in my hands, Rain had burst in.
His eyes had blazed with a fury I’d never seen before, hands shaking as he tore the check into confetti.
“If you make her leave, you’ll never see me again,” he’d snarled at his mother, pulling me protectively behind him. “I don’t care about the Chase name, the money, any of it. Riley is my home now. Try to buy her off again, and I’ll disappear so thoroughly you won’t find me in this lifetime.”
His mother had left in tears, and Rain had held me all night, whispering promises about forever between desperate
kisses.
Same check, different universe.
Back then, he’d chosen me over an empire.
15-42
Chapter 9
Now?
I was choosing to leave.
15:42
