The night after the gala was one of those quiet moments that Maddox had come to dread. It was late, the city skyline visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows of his penthouse, the lights of Manhattan twinkling like a thousand tiny stars. Inside, the room felt colder than the harsh winter wind outside. There was a chill that had settled in the air, a discomfort that Maddox couldn't quite shake.
He hadn't expected the evening to unfold like it had. Victor's sudden appearance had thrown him off guard. And then, there was Cambria standing so still, so calm, as though she had been the one pulling all the strings all along.
She had walked into his life again as if nothing had changed. As if the years between them had never existed. And for a moment, Maddox had almost believed it. That was until she spoke.
Her words, the ones she had left hanging in the air, challenging him, questioning him, kept playing over and over in his mind.
"You've been too focused on me," she had said, her voice laced with something that almost sounded like pity. "On your pride, on the past. And now it's falling apart. You've ignored everything else."
The harsh truth in those words cut deeper than any blow he had received in the last three years. But Maddox wasn't sure what hurt more, the fact that she was right or the fact that he still cared.
He stood now in his private office, his gaze fixed on the glass of whiskey in his hand, the amber liquid swirling in the glass as if trying to tempt him into surrendering to the bitterness of the moment.
His mind wandered back to the early days before everything fell apart. To the nights spent in his family's mansion, when Cambria had been his everything. The way her laugh filled the halls, the way she looked at him like he was the only man in the world. Those were the memories he tried so hard to suppress, but they had a way of creeping back in when he least expected it.
The soft knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts.
"Come in," he called, his voice hoarse.
The door opened, and there she was. Cambria.
But tonight, she wasn't the poised, untouchable woman he had come to know over the last week. No, tonight, she was something else. Her face was drawn, her eyes darker than usual, and her posture… it was different. Slumped, almost, as if the weight of the world was pressing on her shoulders.
She looked at him, and for the first time, Maddox saw something in her eyes that he hadn't seen before: vulnerability.
"I need to talk to you," she said quietly, her voice low, almost hesitant.
Maddox set the glass down with a soft clink, his gaze never leaving her. There was something in the way she stood there, her hands clenched at her sides, that told him this wasn't just another business conversation.
"What is it?" he asked, trying to sound more composed than he felt.
"I know you don't trust me," she began, her voice faltering for the briefest of moments. "And I know you don't want to be in this situation. But the truth is, I'm not doing this just to hurt you. I'm doing it because I have to. Because if I don't, I'll never be free."
The words hit him harder than he expected. He had always thought of Cambria as someone who had been powerless in their relationship, someone who had just gone along with whatever he dictated. But now, looking at her, he saw something different a woman who had fought for her survival. A woman who had built something from nothing, only to have it all taken away by him.
"I didn't ask for any of this," he said, his voice thick with the weight of his guilt. "But here we are. And I don't know how to fix this."
Her lips curled into a bitter smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You can't fix it, Maddox. This isn't something that can be fixed. Not anymore. The damage is done."
He took a step forward, the distance between them suddenly feeling too large. "What are you saying, Cambria? What do you want from me?"
Her gaze flicked toward the window, her fingers brushing against the glass as if seeking solace from the city outside. "I want you to understand why I left. Why I disappeared. Why I couldn't stay. You need to know the truth, Maddox. The whole truth."
The room seemed to grow colder as she spoke, the air thick with the tension between them. He knew she was getting to something something that had been buried for so long that neither of them had dared to face it. The truth.
"Go on," he said, his voice barely a whisper. He was afraid to hear it, but more afraid to not.
She turned back to him, her eyes searching his, as though trying to gauge whether he was ready to hear what she was about to say. "You think I left because of the scandal. Because of what happened with the press. But it wasn't just that. It was you, Maddox. You pushed me away. You used me to save your own damn reputation. And I… I couldn't stay with someone who didn't care enough to protect me."
The words were a punch to the gut, each one landing with more force than the last.
"Cambria…" He struggled to find his voice. "I didn't want to hurt you."
She shook her head, the motion almost imperceptible. "You didn't want to hurt me. But you did. And I walked away because I had to. Because I couldn't let myself be part of your world anymore. Not the way it was. Not when I was nothing more than a pawn."
Maddox opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a hand, stopping him.
"You don't get it, do you?" Her voice cracked. "You don't get how hard it was for me. To leave everything I knew. To let go of the man I loved. And the worst part is, you never even apologized. You just moved on. And now, here you are, asking me to help you fix everything you've broken."
Maddox's chest tightened, the realization of his own selfishness crashing over him. "I'm sorry, Cambria. I… I never understood. I was trying to protect my family, my empire. But I didn't see you. I didn't see how much you were hurting."
She lowered her head, her shoulders shaking as she took a deep breath. "You were so focused on keeping everything intact, Maddox, that you lost everything that really mattered."
Her words hung in the air like an anchor, weighing him down with the full weight of his mistakes. He wanted to reach out, to say something that could make it right, but the words wouldn't come.
As he opened his mouth, there was a sudden knock at the door.
"Mr. Raye, there's an urgent matter," his assistant, Lily, called from the other side.
But it wasn't just any urgent matter.
Maddox's phone buzzed on his desk. He glanced at it quickly his heart stopped when he saw the name on the screen. Victor Harrington.
Cambria's eyes narrowed as she saw the name flash on his phone. Without a word, she turned and walked out of the office, leaving Maddox alone, with the weight of everything hanging in the balance.