Maddox felt the cold air hit his face as he stepped out of Victor's office, a storm brewing both outside and within him. The city lights flickered in the distance, but they seemed as distant and irrelevant as the dreams he had once had of a clean, uncomplicated life.
Victor's words echoed in his mind like a constant hum, each phrase growing louder, more insistent. "The stakes are higher than you think." What did that mean? What had Victor planned for him, and why did it feel like he was walking into a trap with every step?
As he stood there, watching the bustling streets of Manhattan, his mind drifted to Cambria. The woman he had failed, the woman whose absence had carved a hole in his chest. She had spoken so many truths, and they still rang in his ears, even as the world outside seemed to move on. He had used her he had sacrificed her in the name of family, of empire, of pride.
Now, here she was, back in his life, and he couldn't figure out what to do with her, what to do with the broken pieces of their past that he had left scattered all around them.
He needed answers. He needed to understand why he had done what he did and why he had let everything slip through his fingers. And more than anything, he needed to know if there was a chance, any chance at all, of fixing what he had destroyed.
The sound of footsteps behind him broke through his thoughts.
"Mr. Raye?" The voice was soft, tentative. He turned to find Lily, his assistant, standing by the door to his car, her face pale, eyes wide with concern.
"What is it?" Maddox's tone was sharper than he intended, but his frustration was reaching its limit.
"It's about Cambria," Lily said, her voice faltering. "She... she left. She didn't tell anyone where she was going, but I think "
Maddox didn't wait for her to finish. He was already moving, his mind racing. Cambria had left. Again. And it wasn't just her absence that gripped him; it was the way she left. Quiet. Untouched by emotion. She had done it before, disappeared without a trace, only this time, it felt different.
He reached his car in record time, slamming the door behind him and instructing the driver to follow the familiar route to Cambria's office. He didn't need to be told that she wouldn't be there, not after everything they'd just said to each other. But he had to try.
As the car sped through the night, Maddox's thoughts kept circling back to Victor's cryptic warning. Was he being played again? Could Victor have something to do with Cambria's sudden disappearance? Was this all part of a bigger game, one that Maddox didn't fully understand yet?
By the time the car pulled up outside the sleek, modern building where Cambria's company was headquartered, Maddox's anxiety had turned into something else something colder, sharper. He stepped out, determined to find her, to get answers, to force her to listen to him for once.
The building was dark, the lights of the office floor long extinguished. But he knew Cambria she wasn't the kind of woman to run off without leaving a trace. She had always been strategic. Methodical. And if she was gone, it was because she had planned it that way.
Inside, Maddox moved swiftly through the empty corridors, his footsteps echoing like a warning. The silence felt suffocating, but he pushed it aside, focusing only on finding her.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out without hesitation.
It was a message from Victor. "You're playing a dangerous game, Maddox. Be careful who you trust."
The words chilled him, but he didn't have time to dwell on them. Not now.
He found his way to Cambria's office, her name still etched in bold letters on the door. It was locked. Of course, it was. She hadn't made it easy for anyone to get close. He tried the handle anyway, the urge to break through that last barrier strong enough to make his heart race.
But then, the door opened.
Inside, there was a dim light coming from the corner. A small desk lamp flickered, casting eerie shadows on the walls. And there, sitting in the chair at the far end of the room, was Cambria.
She was calm, as usual, but something about her posture seemed different. Tired, maybe. Vulnerable in a way she hadn't been before. The sharp edge of her usual poise had softened, and Maddox felt his pulse quicken as he stepped further into the room.
"I was wondering when you'd show up," she said, her voice surprisingly steady, though there was a flicker of something perhaps sadness, perhaps regret in her eyes.
"Why did you leave?" Maddox asked, the words almost coming out in a whisper. His chest tightened as he moved closer to her. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Cambria didn't answer right away. She simply looked at him, her gaze unreadable.
"I didn't leave because I wanted to, Maddox," she said, her voice low. "I left because staying was slowly killing me. I couldn't keep playing the game you wanted me to play."
"Then why come back?" His frustration bubbled to the surface. "Why put yourself back in the middle of this mess?"
"Because it's not over," she replied simply, her eyes narrowing as she stood up, crossing the room toward him. "You think that what happened before, the scandal, everything it's all in the past? It's not. And you and I... we never finished what we started."
The words hung in the air like a promise, heavy with implications that neither of them was prepared to face.
Maddox stood there, unable to speak, his mind a whirlwind of confusion and anger.
She continued, her voice steady, yet tinged with the weight of unspoken emotions. "You never really understood why I left. You never truly understood how much you hurt me, how much your actions destroyed everything we had. But that's not something you can fix. Not now."
Maddox felt something sharp stab at his chest, like an emotional knife cutting deeper with every word she spoke. He wanted to explain, to apologize, but it felt like he was drowning in his own guilt, unable to find a way back to the person he had once been the man who had loved her without reservations.
"I didn't know how much it hurt you," he said finally, his voice barely above a whisper. "But I've spent these years trying to make it right. Trying to undo the damage I did."
Cambria shook her head slowly, almost sadly. "It's too late for that. It's too late for us."
The finality in her words hit him harder than anything she could have said. He had been hoping for something anything that might give him a chance to fight for them. But Cambria had already made her decision.
"Then why are you here?" Maddox asked, his voice strained. "Why come back if it's over?"
"I'm here because it's not over," Cambria replied, her gaze now locked on his with a fiery intensity. "But you're not the one who's going to fix it. Not this time. I have my own plans now. Plans that don't involve you."
And just like that, she turned and walked away, leaving Maddox standing there, once again powerless to stop the course of events that seemed to have spiraled beyond his control.