bChapter /bb216 /b

    The dining room was quiet. Alex just told them about meeting Zoe

    “She wants you to give her a job and a ce to stay?” Esther finally asked, breaking the silence.

    Her tone wasn’t judgmental, it was more curious, cautious even.

    Everything is bing weird, so weird…

    38

    Across from her, Jullian raised his brows. “What even happened to them? How bad did they fall?” he asked, his fork in one hand, his knife in the other. He sliced into his beef, popped it into his mouth, and chewed loudly.

    Alex didn’t answer right away. He just hummed, still chewing his own food.

    Esther was watching him carefully. She always did. She had raised that boy. She knows his moods, his tics, the way his jaw tightened when something bothered him.

    Tonight, she was noticing something different from his son’s reaction from the girl he dated in Willowcrest.

    When he was talking about Zoe, his bodynguage didn’t change. He sat there, calm, collected, his face smooth, his voice steady. It was so clear that Zoe didn’t mean a thing to him anymore. Nonchnt. Empty.

    But if it’s Mia’s name?

    That would be a different story altogether.

    Every time the subject of Mia Turner came up. Alex would tense. His shoulders would stiffen, his hands would curl into fists on the table. He would get

    angry.

    Sometimes he would pace the room, sometimes his voice would shake, not from fear, but from the kind of rage that came when someone had dug deep into your chest and ripped your heart out

    Even yearster, even after all his business sesses and the empire he had built, Mia Turner’s name had the power to light him on fire.

    Why?

    Esther wasn’t blind. She knew her son. She knew anger often hid something deeper. He is still in love with that Turner girl, even a blind man could see it

    of …..

    Or maybe his anger is because he never got closure with her.

    She can’t stop thinking about these things…

    Their unfinished story, those unanswered questions, had carved a wound so deep in him that it never really healed. And every time her name came up, it ripped open all over again.

    Mia Turner. That sweet–faced, innocent looking girl. It was almost funny, if it weren’t so tragic, how much power she held over a man like Alex.

    Alex…..who can crush his rivals in a blink, who can walk into a room and silence everyone without saying a word, who had built his life around control and strength.

    Yet the moment her name slips into the air, he loses it. He bes someone else, totally different from the emotionless robot that he is now

    She has no idea whether to be happy that someone, a bname/b, can still remind him that he’s human.

    Esther pressed her lips together, her heart heavy. Her son was the kind of man people whispered about, respected. And yet, in private, she has watched him fall apart at the mention of one woman.

    AU

    .48%)

    And now Zoe is here?

    It was almostughable. His two exes in the same town? At the same time? What the hell was going on?

    The universe had a twisted sense of humor.

    “Is there any open spot we can fix her?” Alex asked casually.

    “I think the clearance department needs a secretary. I’ll look into it tomorrow.” Jullian says with a nod

    Alex nodded, his eyes still on his te.

    Esther picked up her food and chewed slowly, her eyes never leaving Alex. Every day, she prayed he would find that spark again.

    Piece by piece, year by year, Alex has be colder. Harder. Almost an emotionless soul.

    And that terrified her.

    Maybe that’s why she held on to Mia Turner. Maybe the person who made him like this, can heal him. Maybe they can have a closure and finally move on.

    Because no matter how powerful, how untouchable he seemed. She knows what being empty can do to a person. It could destroy them from the inside

    out.

    Maybe, just maybe, Zoe could bring something back into him.

    Even if Alex didn’t love her anymore, even if his heart was buried too deep, maybe she could still remind him what it was like to feel something again.

    “Will you be bringing her here?” Esther asked carefully, her tone soft, as though the wrong push might make him shut downpletely.

    Alex’s eyes flicked to her, empty and unreadable. He shook his head once. “Mr. James will be looking for a nice apartment for her,” he said simply, his

    voice t.

    Lost cause then. Esther’s heart sank. If he wasn’t even willing to tet Zoe near this house, then he truly didn’t feel anything for her anymore.

    Esther stabbed her fork into her food and chewed slowly, fighting the sting in her chest. She wanted her son back. Not the powerful man everyone else saw, but the boy she had raised, the one who had told her happily that he was in love..

    And she prayed–prayed with every fiber of her being–that somehow, someway, something or someone would bring him back before it was toote.

    “I just thought since you guys were together for so long, and end up as friends now, you would want her to stay here instead of renting a ce for her?” Esther says, trying to get words out of his son.

    “It’s best this way” Alex says. “How about the Johnson’s contract? How much progress have you made?” Alex asked smoothly, changing the topic.

    Esther meets eyes with him.

    She stares at him watching every one of his actions.

    “Already scheduled for next week.” Esther paused. “Mia will be going with me”

    As expected… Alex goespletely still.