Chapter 170 Chapter 170

Chapter 170 Chapter 170
The next morning the house moved earlier than usual. Kai was already dressed when Mia came downstairs dark training gear, hair still damp from a quick shower, he didn't look tired like he did from the medication. He stood at the kitchen counter packing a small bag with a water bottle, a protein bar, and his gloves for the simulator. The boot on Mia’s foot made a soft sound against the floor as she entered. She watched him for a second before speaking.
“I’m coming with you.”
Kai didn’t look up from the bag. “No.”
“I’m not asking.”
“And I’m not negotiating.” He zipped the bag closed and finally turned to face her. “You just got back yesterday. Your leg is in a boot. You spent days stuck in a storm, dealing with my offline status, and then walking into this house while I was still half under. You’re staying here and resting.”
Mia crossed her arms. “I rested yesterday, I slept and I ate. I’m not planning to run laps around the facility. I can sit in the observation room the same way Victoria does.”
“Victoria doesn’t have a broken leg.”
“Victoria also wasn’t the one who spent the last several days wondering if you were going to fully wake up.” She held his gaze. “I’m coming, I’ll stay off my feet. I’ll let the medical staff look at the swelling if it makes you feel better. But I’m not sitting in this house alone while you go back to the track like nothing happened.”
Kai exhaled through his nose and leaned both hands on the counter. “Mia.”
“Kai.”
“You’re stubborn.”
“You like that about me when it isn’t inconvenient for you.”

Before he could answer, the front door opened and Victoria’s heels clicked across the entryway. She appeared in the kitchen a moment later with her tablet under one arm and the expression she wore when she was already managing three problems at once.
“Oh, you’re both up,” she said. “We need to talk before you leave for the simulator.”
Kai straightened. “If this is about me going today, Lang has already cleared the limited session.”
“It’s not about the simulator.” Victoria set the tablet on the island and looked between them. “Your father called and he wants dinner, as soon as possible. As in, he expects it on the calendar within the next few days.”
Mia’s posture shifted slightly. “Dinner.”
“Yes.” Victoria’s tone stayed even, but there was an undercurrent of irritation she didn’t bother hiding. “He’s also not pleased. He only found out after the fact that Mia left for a break with her family. He feels he should have been informed before the arrangements were made, not after. And he’s under the impression the storm was used as an excuse to extend the stay beyond what was necessary that the plan was always to come back after a few days, and the weather simply provided cover to remain longer and… in his words… wander around with her family instead of being present here.”
The kitchen went quiet.
Mia stared at Victoria. “Wander.”
“That’s the word he used.”
“I broke my leg on a hike. The roads were closed under flood warnings. Victoria herself told me not to attempt the drive until it was safe. And he thinks I faked a storm so I could ‘wander’ with my parents?”
Victoria held up a hand. “I’m relaying, not agreeing. He’s angry he wasn’t in the loop.

He sees the break as something that should have been shorter, more controlled, and fully reported to him in advance. The fact that he found out after the arrangements were already in motion is what set him off.”
Kai’s expression had gone flat. “He doesn’t get to decide the length of her time with her own family.”
“He believes anything that affects your public stability and schedule is his business,” Victoria replied. “Including where your partner is and for how long.”
Mia’s voice sharpened. “I didn’t ask his permission to visit my parents. I don’t need his permission, I left because I needed space after weeks of pressure, cameras, Veronica, and his own behavior at that lunch. The storm trapped us and the leg made travel stupid. None of that was a performance for his benefit.”
“I know that,” Victoria said. “I’m telling you how he’s framing it.”
“Then you can tell him his framing is wrong.” Mia’s hands had curled into loose fists at her sides. “I don’t exist to keep his preferred version of the schedule tidy. I went home, and I got hurt. I came back when it was safe and that’s the entire story.”
Kai moved around the island and stopped beside her, one hand settling lightly at her back. The contact was steadying without being restrictive.
“Hey,” he said quietly. “Breathe.”
“I’m breathing.”
“You’re getting ready to fight a man who isn’t even in the room.” His voice stayed low, calm, meant only for her. “He’s not here and he doesn’t control this house. And he doesn’t get to rewrite what your time with your family was.”
Mia looked up at him, still angry. “He called it wandering.”
“I heard.” Kai’s jaw tightened. “Tell him to fuck off.”
Victoria’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
Kai didn’t look away from Mia. “I’m serious. He doesn’t make the rules for your life or for this relationship. He can want dinner and he can be annoyed he wasn’t informed. He doesn’t get to decide that your need for space was some kind of strategy against him. If he wants to say that to my face, he can. Until then, he can take the version of events he’s invented and sit with it.”
Mia’s shoulders dropped a fraction. The heat in her chest was still there, but the sharpest edge of it dulled under the certainty in his voice.
Victoria cleared her throat. “I’ll handle the conversation with him. I’ll explain the medical reality of the leg, the official road closures, and the fact that the extension was weather-and-injury driven, not a personal slight. I’ll also make it clear that surprise inspections of Mia’s family time are not going to become a habit.”
Kai finally looked at her. “Make it very clear.”
“I will.” Victoria picked up her tablet again. “In the meantime, the dinner request stands. I’ll push it by a few days so you’re both actually steady before sitting across a table from him. And Kai the simulator session is still on but limited. Medical staff would be be present. If you’re going, leave soon.”
Mia turned back to him. “I’m still coming.”
Kai studied her face for a long moment. The refusal was still sitting in his expression, but it had weakened under the weight of the conversation about his father.
“You’ll stay in the observation area,” he said. “You’re gonna stay put, and no standing for long stretches. If the leg starts complaining, we would leave, no arguments.”
“No arguments,” Mia agreed.
Victoria watched them both, then exhaled. “I’ll have the car brought around. And I’ll call your father from the office so neither of you has to hear the first round of his opinions this morning.”
She left the kitchen with the tablet under her arm, already shifting into the version of herself that managed difficult men for a living.
Kai looked down at Mia. The quiet returned, thicker now that Victoria was gone.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m angry.”
“I know.”
“He doesn’t get to reduce my family to a problem on his calendar.”
“He doesn’t,” Kai said. “And I’m not going to let him.”
Mia nodded once, still tense but no longer vibrating with it. She reached for her own small bag on the counter the one she had packed the night before with the quiet assumption that she would win the argument about going with him.
“Then let’s go,” she said. “Before I change my mind and call him myself.”

Kai almost smiled. He picked up his bag, checked that she was steady on the boot, and walked with her toward the front door.