Chapter 122 #40: Any Last Words?
Maya closes the door behind her with a soft click that feels louder than it should in the small, airless room. The hallway light catches the side of her face for a second before the door seals us in darkness again, leaving only the faint glow from that single recessed bulb overhead. She doesn’t move right away. She just stands there, arms loose at her sides, watching me like she’s waiting for me to catch up to something she already figured out months ago.
I push myself off the wall slowly, my wrists still throbbing from the zip ties, and meet her gaze without blinking. “I should have known.”
She tilts her head slightly. “Should you?”
“Yes.” I take one careful step toward her, testing how much space she’ll let me have. “You always knew too much. Every time we talked, every time you showed up exactly when things were falling apart, you had the perfect piece of information. The perfect timing. I told myself it was coincidence and that you were just really good at your job.”
Maya smiles then – not the usual polite smile she used to wear in boardrooms, but something smaller, sharper, almost fond. “I actually was good at my job. But I was good at a lot of other things too.”
She takes a single step forward, closing half the distance between us. The room feels smaller instantly. I can smell her perfume – the same scent she wore the night of the gala when she hung on David’s arm like she belonged there.
“Do you love him?” I ask quietly.
“More than you ever did.” Her voice stays conversational, like we’re discussing quarterly projections instead of the wreckage of three lives. “I loved him enough to wait. I loved him enough to watch him choose you over and over again. I loved him enough to stand in that café eight years ago and listen to him talk about leaving everything behind for you, about the house in Santorini, about the life he was going to give you. And I smiled and congratulated him because that’s what friends do.”
She stops a foot away from me now. Close enough that I can see the faint lines around her eyes and the tension in her jaw she’s trying to hide.
“And when you left him,” she continues. “I was overjoyed. I thought he’d finally snap out of it and realise you’re nothing but a gold-digging whore. I tried to be there for him during the grief, but all he could talk about was you, you and fucking YOU!”
I don’t interrupt. I just watch her, letting her talk, because the longer she talks the more pieces fall into place.
“And so when I saw that he was a lost cause, I decided to change strategy,” she says, “He had already sold almost half his shares before you left, and I saw my opening. I took the information he gave me – every board member’s weakness, every offshore account, every quiet deal – and I used it to take control. With Vincent as my partner, we made a deal to reach out to you.”
She reaches into her coat pocket slowly, deliberately giving me time to see the movement. When her hand comes out, it’s holding a small black pistol with a matte finish and no silencer. She doesn’t point it at me yet. She just holds it loosely at her side.
“The plan was simple, really,” she says conversationally, “Vincent would marry you long enough to pretend that bastard you were carrying was his, then he’d kill you and run off with Lucy and the inheritance money. Meanwhile, I’d have sole ownership of Reid Global or Calder Investments, or whatever it’s called right now, and maybe... just maybe... David would come back to me so we could run the company together." She shrugs, "And even if he didn’t, I’d still be CEO of New York’s most successful company. It was a no lose situation, really.”
I keep my voice steady. “But David came back.”
“Yes, David fucking came back.” She said with a dark chuckle. “So I had to recalibrate. He wanted to win you back, so I agreed to play the fiancée because it kept me close to him. It let me watch you unravel every time David looked at you the way he used to look at me in my dreams. I told myself I could win him back. I told myself if you disappeared – if you died – he’d need someone and we could use Malcolm's ledger to resurrect his mafia empire together."
A surprised gasp slips from my lips. She smiles when she notices.
"Surprise..." she says singsongly. "Big bad Shadow was a woman afterall. And the only reason I even put up with your annoying ass was to get my hands on that ledger."
She takes another step closer. The barrel is inches from my chest now.
“But then I found out Vincent had the ledger the whole time.” Her laugh is soft, almost fond. “That fucking idiot didn’t even know what he had... he only wanted the will. I scoured the entire state looking for the damn thing and it was in your house the entire time!”
She pauses to take a deep calming breath, then smiles and continues. “But now that I know where it is, I don’t need you anymore. I don’t need him anymore. I don’t need anyone.”
The gun comes up slowly until the barrel rests against my forehead.
“If you’re dead,” she says quietly, “David will need a shoulder to cry on. And who better than the woman who’s been with him through it all? The woman who never left. The woman who waited.”
I don’t move. I don’t blink. I just look at her.
“You think he’ll choose you?” I ask.
“I think he’ll have no choice left.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.” I let a small smile curve my lips. “Because David never loved you. He tolerated you. He used you when it suited him. And the second he realizes what you’ve done, he’ll burn your entire empire to the ground just to watch you choke on the ashes.”
Her finger tightens on the trigger.
I keep going. “You think killing me fixes anything? It doesn’t. It just makes him hate you more. It makes him remember every moment he chose me over you. Every kiss. Every night. Every promise. You’ll be the woman who took the last thing he had left. And he will never forgive you for it.”
Maya tilts her head with a smirk. “You make the mistake of thinking he'll ever find out what happened to you.”
“Maybe not,”I smile sweetly. “But best case scenario, he wakes up from the coma and I’ve disappeared... you’ll spend the rest of your life watching him chase down my ghost. Or he finds my body and you have to watch the man you love spend the rest of his days hunting down the monster who killed me... you.”
Her hand trembles just a fraction, but I see it.
“You’re bluffing,” she says.
“Am I?”
She leans in closer until her breath brushes my cheek. “You’re going to die in this room, Nora. As much as you try to talk your way out of it... no one is coming to save you. No one.”
She leans back, cocks the gun’s safety off, and presses it to my forehead.
“Any last words?” she asks.
I don’t reply. I don’t beg. I don’t close my eyes. I just keep my eyes locked on hers as I wait to die.
Just as her finger curls tighter around the trigger, the door explodes inward, and the room explodes into chaos.