Chapter 82 Chapter Eighty- two
Lena’s POV
I wake up with my heart already racing, like my body knows something my mind hasn’t caught up to yet.
The apartment is quiet except for the low hum of the fridge and the distant sounds of traffic outside. Morning light slips through the curtains, pale and uncertain, matching the way I feel. Everything is moving forward too fast and not fast enough at the same time.
Sebastian has chosen a side.
And now the consequences are lining up, one by one.
I’m still sitting on the edge of the bed when Avery knocks lightly and pushes my door open without waiting for an answer. She’s holding her phone, hair pulled back messily, her face tight with concern in a way that tells me she’s been thinking all night too.
She studies me for a moment. Really looks.
“You didn’t sleep,” she says.
I don’t bother denying it. “Neither did you.”
She sighs and comes in, sitting on the chair across from me. For a few seconds, neither of us speaks. It’s the kind of silence that isn’t awkward—it’s heavy. Loaded.
Then Avery leans forward, elbows on her knees.
“So,” she says carefully, “is Sebastian actually going to make this public?”
The question lands harder than I expect.
Public.
The word feels dangerous. Exposed. Permanent.
“I don’t think so,” I answer slowly, choosing honesty over comfort. “Not like… not like a relationship announcement.”
Avery’s brows knit together. “But he’s already stepping into the spotlight, right? Legal stuff, statements, whatever this whole corporate war situation is.”
“Yes,” I say. “But that’s about him. Not us.”
She tilts her head. “Do you want him to?”
I open my mouth, then close it.
The truth is complicated. I want him beside me. I want the secrecy to end. But I also know what visibility costs in his world. Love doesn’t survive easily under scrutiny—it becomes leverage.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “Right now, I just want him alive.”
Avery exhales sharply. “God.”
Then her expression shifts, something else crossing her face. Hesitation.
“And… Wes?” she asks.
My stomach tightens instantly.
“What about him?” I say, though I already know.
Avery watches my reaction closely. “If he finds out you’re dating his father—how do you think that’s going to go?”
The air feels suddenly thinner.
“I don’t know if he’ll even find out,” I say, but the words sound hollow even to me.
Avery raises an eyebrow. “Come on, Lena. This isn’t exactly a secret-friendly situation.”
I swallow. “Wes is on a business trip.”
She blinks. “He is?”
“That’s what Sebastian told me,” I say. “Out of the country. Meetings, investors, something like that.”
Avery nods slowly, processing. “Okay. But trips end.”
“I know.”
“And when he does find out?”
My fingers curl into the fabric of the blanket beneath me. “I don’t know how he’ll react.”
Avery’s voice softens. “And how will you handle it?”
That question hurts the most.
Because the truth is—I already feel like I’ve crossed a line that can’t be erased.
“I never meant to get in between them,” I say quietly. “I didn’t even know… it would turn out like this.”
“I know,” Avery says quickly. “I’m not accusing you.”
“But it doesn’t change the reality,” I whisper. “I’m still… here.”
Avery leans back, studying me. “Have you thought about how Sebastian will react when he realizes this isn’t just about enemies and boardrooms anymore?”
My chest tightens.
“I think,” I say slowly, “that’s what scares me the most.”
She stands, sensing I’m retreating inward now. “I’ll give you space,” she says gently. “But Lena—don’t carry this alone. Promise me.”
“I promise,” I lie softly.
After she leaves, the apartment feels too big. Too quiet.
I close the door behind her and walk slowly to my room, every step deliberate, my thoughts spiraling despite my efforts to control them.
I sit on the bed and stare at the wall, replaying memories I didn’t even realize I’d been avoiding.
The way Sebastian’s jaw tightens when his son’s name comes up.
The invisible line between father and son that I somehow crossed without seeing it.
I never planned this.
Never wanted to be a fracture point in anyone’s family.
But now I am.
And the worst part isn’t Wes’s reaction.
It’s Sebastian’s.
Because I don’t know what he’ll do when he realizes that loving me didn’t just make him vulnerable to his enemy—
It put me right between him and his son.
And I’m terrified of what that will cost us both.