SHARON'S POV
The next morning, my head throbbed like a drumline. My mouth was dry, my throat sore, and the sunlight filtering through the curtains felt like punishment.
I groaned softly, pressing a palm to my forehead. "Ouch…" I muttered, shifting slightly on the bed. That was when I noticed him.
Ace.
He was sitting across the bed, his arms folded, expression unreadable just watching me.
My heart skipped. "Why are you… looking at me like that?"
But there was no reply from him...
The silence stretched, heavy and unsettling. I tried to smile, forcing a nervous chuckle. "You're scaring..."
He raised a hand, stopping me mid-sentence. His voice was calm, but sharp enough to slice through my foggy thoughts.
"What happened with Victor Langley?"
The question hit me like a slap. My eyes flew wide open.
"I... what?" I stammered, sitting up too quickly. My head spun. "Nothing happened. It was just, just a meeting about the project."
I swung my legs off the bed, desperate to escape the tension. "The project with the company starts today, I should get ready ..."
Before I could finish, his hand caught my wrist, firm, unyielding. I stumbled, losing my balance, and ended up half on his lap, my breath hitching.
"Ace, let me go!"
"You're not going anywhere," he said quietly, voice steady but hard, drawing me closer to him and I felt him hard down there. "I cancelled the project already."
I froze. My head snapped up. "What?"
He didn't blink.
"Ace, you had no right to do that!" I tried to stand, but his grip only tightened.
"And no work for you today," he added. "I called in."
I gaped at him, anger bubbling through my chest. "You can't just decide that for me! You always do this, you act like you can control everything, like my job, my choices..."
My voice cracked, frustration spilling over. "I worked hard for that presentation, Ace! Do you even care how that makes me look at work? You can't just..."
I stopped, breathing heavily, waiting for him to argue back. But he didn't. He just looked at me, eyes dark, quiet.
When I finally ran out of words, he leaned forward slightly and said, almost in a whisper
"What's with my dad?"
My whole body went cold, my breath caught. His words felt like a trap I'd just stepped into without realizing.
I tried to look away, pretending to be busy fixing my tangled hair. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sharon." His voice was low now, warning. "Don't do that."
"Do what?" I forced a small laugh that sounded nothing like me. "Overthink things? Because trust me, I'm not..."
"Lying," he cut in.
The word landed sharp. My chest tightened.
I swallowed hard, still not looking at him. "Ace, it's nothing. I just... I mean your dad, he made some strange comments during the meeting, that's all. I didn't want to make it a big deal."
He shifted. I felt his eyes on me, burning through every word I said. "What kind of comments?"
My pulse spiked. I wanted to run, to disappear, anything but relive that moment. "He was just being… inappropriate."
Ace's jaw clenched. "Define inappropriate."
I rubbed my palms together. "He said he liked me. That he wanted me." The words scraped out of me like broken glass.
Silence. Thick, suffocating silence evolved the place.
When I finally dared to look at him, Ace's expression was unreadable, too calm, too still. His knuckles were white, resting on his knees.
"Ace..."
His grip on me loosen and he stood up abruptly, cutting me off. "You should've told me."
"I was going to," I whispered, "I just didn't want to start a fight between you and your family again. I thought I could handle it."
"Handle it?" he repeated slowly, turning toward me. "You think you can handle a man like him?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but the look in his eyes were cold fury barely restrained, and it stole every word from me.
He took a deep breath, pacing to the window, then back. "He crossed the line. Again."
Again...
The word hung there, twisting my gut. "What do you mean again?"
He froze for half a second just enough for me to see something flicker behind his eyes, guilt maybe, or anger.
"It doesn't matter," he muttered. "What matters is you stay away from him. From all of them."
I blinked, confused. "Ace, your family is my boss, my clients. I cannot just..."
"You can and you will," he snapped, his voice hard enough to make me flinch.
I stared at him, my throat tightening. The Ace I saw now wasn't the calm, teasing man I had grown to know recently, he looked… haunted.
When he finally looked at me again, his voice softened just a little. "Please, Sharon. Just trust me on this one."
My eyes burned, but I nodded anyway. Not because I agreed, but because I didn't have the strength to fight him anymore.
He walked to the door, hand on the knob, then paused. "I'll be gone for a while. Don't go anywhere till I get back."
And then he left.
The moment the door clicked shut, I exhaled shakily, pressing my palm to my chest.
What did he mean by again?
And where was he going with that look in his eyes?
The door shut, and the silence that followed felt too heavy for the room. I sat there for a while, staring at the space Ace had just left, trying to gather my thoughts.
Everything felt… tangled. His anger. His father. The things Victor Langley said.
And now this Ace acting like the world was falling apart.
I reached for my phone almost on reflex, scrolling until I found Maxie's name. My thumb hovered over it for a second before I hit call.
It didn't even ring twice.
"What the hell, Sharon?" Maxie's voice blasted through the speaker. "You've got to be kidding me!"
I flinched, holding the phone a little away from my ear. "Maxie, can you..."
"No, don't you Maxie me right now," she snapped. "You've been living with Ace for how long now, and you didn't think it was worth calling me, the same way you went on a trip with him without telling me?!"
I sighed, pressing my fingers against my temple. "I was going to tell you, I just..."
"Just what? Waited till I saw his car parked outside your apartment like some bodyguard, or how I heard about your little vacation from other's? Do you even realize how crazy that looked?"
"I didn't plan any of this," I said quietly. "It just… happened so fast. He came over, said I needed to follow him somewhere urgent and the other time you were present when he said it wasn't safe for me to stay alone, and before I could think straight, I was here."
There was a pause on her end, followed by a frustrated sigh. "You're unbelievable sometimes, Sharon."
"I know," I murmured. "I messed up. I should've told you."
She didn't reply right away. I could hear her breathing, fast and uneven, the sound of her pacing somewhere in the background.
Then her tone softened slightly. "Look, I'm not mad because you're with him. I'm mad because I'm your best friend, and you shut me out again. You always do this when things get messy."
Her words stung, mostly because she was right.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I didn't mean to."
Silence stretched between us for a few seconds. Then Maxie sighed again, this time quieter. "Fine. Apology halfway accepted."
I almost smiled. "Halfway?"
"That's the best you're getting right now," she said.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then her tone shifted, a hint of worry threading through. "Are you… okay over there? With him, I mean."
I hesitated, glancing at the door Ace had walked through. The tension in the air from earlier still lingered, like a ghost.
"Yeah," I said finally. "I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Positive," I lied, forcing a light tone. "Just tired. And maybe a little hungover."
Maxie chuckled softly. "You and your poor liver."
I laughed at her joke and reassured her again
"But for real B, I'm fine," I said, trying to sound convincing.
Maxie went quiet for a moment, then sighed. "Alright, no problem. Just… try not to bottle everything up again, okay?"
"I won't," I promised, my voice small.
"Good."
There was a short pause, like she was about to hang up, then her tone shifted to being casual, but a little hesitant. "Oh, and Sharon?"
"Yeah?"
"The day I went out with Tory," she said slowly, "I saw Diana and Beatrice at the wine bar."
My grip on the phone tightened. "You what?"
"Yeah. They were sitting together. Looked pretty serious too. I didn't think much of it at first, but after I passed by and I heard your name... B, you the drama now! "
"Oh my God," I whispered, sitting upright.
"Exactly." Maxie's voice sharpened. "So whatever it is you're planning to tell Ace or do next, hold it back for now, okay? Don't say a word until I get off work and we talk properly. Just… stay quiet for now."
"Okay," I breathed. "I will."
"I mean it, Sharon. Beatrice isn't as innocent as she looks. Just be careful."
The line went quiet for a moment, then the call ended with a soft beep.
I sat there, frozen, staring at my phone like it had just delivered a curse.
Beatrice and Diana… together outside office?
The thought made my stomach twist. Beatrice knew about Victor, she'd heard everything I said last night and if she was meeting Diana, then...
My pulse quickened.
No, no, no…
This wasn't just bad....
This was dangerous.