Chapter 36: FIRST ARGUMENT

MIA

He was in the kitchen making coffee like nothing happened when I walked back in.

That was the thing that broke me open. Not the cancelled client, the modified contract or two hours of him sitting outside my shoot like a guard dog. It was him standing there calm and unbothered, humming to himself while my entire career was crumbling and he'd done it on purpose.

"Did you call him?"

He turned around. "Good walk?"

"Did you call David and tell him not to hire me?"

"I made coffee. Do you want some?"

"Answer the fucking question, Dante."

He set the mug down and looked at me properly then. "No. I didn't call him."

"You're lying." I was so sick of this pattern of his.

"Okay." He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. "If you've already decided I'm lying, what's the point of this conversation?"

"The point is you have done this twice now. First Alex and now David. Every time I have a male client you find a way to make them disappear and I'm done pretending I don't see it."

"I haven't done anything."

"You sat outside my shoot for two hours!"

"Because I wanted to make sure you were safe—"

"Stop saying that!" My voice cracked on the last word and I didn't care. "Stop hiding behind safety like it justifies everything. You don't trust me. Just say it."

Something shifted in his expression. "I trust you. I don't trust men who think professional interest is an excuse to get close to you."

"That's the same thing as not trusting me!"

"It's not."

"It is!" I stepped closer and I could feel my hands shaking. "If you trusted my judgment you wouldn't need to monitor who I work with. You wouldn't be calling my clients and you certainly wouldn't be sitting outside buildings watching me like I'm going to run away."

"Maybe I'm worried you'll make the same mistakes you've made before."

The room went quiet.

"What did you just say?"

He looked at me steadily. "You have a pattern, Mia. Men take advantage of you and you're too trusting to see it until it's too late. Ren did it for two years and you didn't leave. So yes, I pay attention to the men around you because you've shown me your judgment isn't always reliable."

I felt white-hot anger build up in my chest. "Don't you dare bring up Ren."

"Why not? It's relevant."

"It is not relevant. That has nothing to do with a client shoot."

"It has everything to do with it because you let that man control your life for two years and you called it love and now you're standing here accusing me of control when all I've done is try to protect you from repeating that."

"Get out."

He blinked.

"Get out of this apartment right now."

He stood there for a moment and then uncrossed his arms and walked toward the living room and I felt a rush of relief that lasted exactly until he sat down on the couch and picked up his phone.

"Dante."

"Mm."

"I said get out."

"I heard you." He didn't look up. "I live here too."

I stood in the kitchen doorway staring at him and waiting for him to move but he just scrolled through his phone like I hadn't said anything and was invisible. What the actual fuck?

"This is my apartment."

"Your name is on the lease across the hall." He looked up then and met my eyes. "This one is mine. You moved in here, remember? You were too scared to sleep alone."

The truth hit like cold water over my head because he was right and that was the trap I'd walked into with both eyes open, letting fear drive me into this place where nothing was mine. I had gotten so comfortable that I forgot that this wasn’t my space.

"I want you to leave."

"No."

Something snapped in me and I grabbed the nearest thing which was a ceramic mug and threw it at the wall beside his head. It shattered, the sound so loud in the quiet place as the shards rained down on him.

He stood up slowly and the look on his face made me take a step back.

"Do that again," he said quietly, "and I will make sure you regret it. Do you understand me?"

I didn't answer because my throat had closed.

"I asked you a question."

"Yes," I whispered.

“Good." He looked at the broken mug on the floor and then back at me. "Clean that up."

He walked to the bedroom, the door clicking shut behind him while I stood there shaking. Tears rolled down my eyes as I started to clean up the mug because I didn't know what else to do.

I slept on the couch because I couldn't make myself go into that bedroom and he didn't come out to tell me to, which somehow felt worse than if he had.

The apartment was silent while I stared at the ceiling, replaying the argument in my head over and over again. When did he change so much? He never seemed like the type to yell at me. And right now he hadn't yelled but that cold tone?

I shivered, remembering it. It made me lose my voice in fear. He also knew how much Ren hurt me and yet he brought it up. Fuck him.

I was almost asleep when I felt like I was being watched. My heart stopped because it was the same feeling I got from the stalker which I hadn't felt in weeks. My eyes snapped open and I saw him standing in the hallway in the dark.

His arms hung loosely at his sides as he watched me with an expression I couldn't read because he was in the shadows. I sat up slowly then he turned and walked back into the bedroom without a word.

Cold sweat rolled down my back. What was that?

I didn't sleep after that.