Chapter 75 The Discussion.
Heaven sat rigidly, hands clenched tightly on her lap, nails digging into her own skin. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest, the kind of rhythm that felt like it was bruising her from the inside.
General Richard’s study felt colder than any room she’d been in, silent and unforgiving.
The man himself sat across from her, posture rigid, eyes fixed on her face unblinking, unreadable.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low and deliberate.
“You chose the right punishment, Heaven,”
“You can go.”
Heaven stood immediately, her legs weak beneath her. She bowed deeply, respectful, quiet, obedient.
Then she walked toward the door each step measured, careful.
But when she opened it..She froze.
Maverick. His imposing frame filled the doorway. His eyes locked onto her immediately. Heaven’s breath caught. Did he hear anything?
She bowed her head and swallowed hard, refusing to meet his eyes. She couldn’t handle the weight behind them.
Outside, Maverick had been tense. He’d been waiting outside his father’s study, irritation and unease building with each passing minute.
What was his father saying to her for so long? Why was she taking so long?
“Maverick,” General Richard’s voice interrupted. “You can come in.” Heaven slipped past him silently, her steps light, almost ghostlike, as though she was trying to disappear.
Maverick didn’t move at first.
His gaze followed her watching the way she walked away with her shoulders hunched, energy drained, face blank.
Then he stepped into the study, closing the door behind him.
Heaven sat in her room staring blankly into the mirror, her reflection barely recognizable.
Her hands trembled as she fidgeted with the hem of her clothes, her eyes darting across the room like a trapped animal searching for exits.
General Richard’s words looped in her mind every sentence, every pause, every cold stare.
The punishment she’d agreed to.
The expectations.
The warning beneath his calm tone. The line she was expected never to cross again. She swallowed hard. A part of her replayed Eva’s face.
Her smirk. Her tears. Her accusations.
If she were the one… maybe she would feel betrayed too. She felt like a terrible person.
Hours passed, she now laid on her bed, she hadn’t gone to light any candles for Boyle. Her body ached and her mind throbbed with dread. Then the door opened. Maverick stepped in.
Heaven’s breath hitched violently. Her palms went slick with sweat.She sat up quickly on the bed, clutching her duvet like a shield. Silence pressed against the walls until it felt suffocating. He walked closer.
Heaven’s heartbeat thundered in her ears wild, panicked, trembling. Her grip on the duvet tightened so hard her knuckles turned white.
Maverick grabbed the duvet and pulled it away.
Heaven flinched, “I..m sorry..”she apologized for nothing, her hands flying to her ears on instinct, expecting him to flare up again.
His jaw flexed at the sight. He lifted her skirt slightly. He stopped exactly on the Purplish-red bruises covering her knees. He stared up to the ones on her hand from banging the door, the marks he caused.
Without speaking, he pulled a tube of cream from his pocket and began applying it gently… so gently it felt like another person’s hands.
Heaven watched him, confused by the softness. As if he wasn’t the one who caused the bruises. As if he wasn’t the one who had shattered the lights and pushed her into darkness.
His voice cut through the silence, low and controlled:
“What did my father say to you?”
He didn’t stop applying the cream. To Maverick, whatever his father spoke with her in private bothered him. His father was quick witted.
Heaven stiffened, words jammed in her throat she was a bad liar and she had to give him an answer. She couldn’t tell him.She couldn’t tell the truth. Her fingers twisted anxiously in the sheets.
“A… a… about my punishment…” she whispered, forcing steadiness.
Maverick looked up at her sharply, down at her fingers and how her eyes didn’t meet his.
“What punishment is that?”
Heaven’s mind scrambled.
“…I… I will…”
She swallowed.
“Join… the servants. In the kitchen. For a month. And… apologize to Eva.”
She braced for his suspicion. But he didn’t question it. The one time she lied, he believed her.
“I get it,” he said quietly. “Mourning Boyle… my mother’s pressure… loneliness. I was gone for a month. You found… an outlet somewhere.”
Her heart cracked. She didn’t argue. She was exhausted from defending herself against crimes she never committed.
“So… I will let it slide… I’ll take you away from here,” Maverick added. “You won’t have to do any punishments.”
Heaven stared at him, her eyes gave nothing away.
He leaned closer, closing the space, brushing his lips against her neck.
He pushed her back gently onto the bed, wanting,needing,to lose himself in her. To erase everything that had happened in the last few weeks, to reduce the unease he felt in his chest. To reassure himself she was here, his.
His lips moved to hers but she didn’t kiss him back. She didn’t resist him either,she just became still. Rigid. Cold.
Maverick felt the tension around her body like a shield.
He hated how she recoiled from him, the silence in her breath and how she stilled because of him.
Hated that she looked at him like he was something that lived under the bed dark, cruel, and waiting to hurt her.
Maverick , the man who could break bones without blinking,who stared death in the eyes without fear, felt something sharp stab him from the inside.
Because he knew he caused it. And he didn’t know if he should be furious at her fear…or furious at himself for putting it there.
He remembered when she used to melt under him. When she whispered his name like a secret. When she clung to him and trembled with desire.
He pulled away abruptly.
Heaven opened her eyes, startled he wasn’t hovering above her anymore.
He stood there, jaw tight, chest rising with uneven breaths. She couldn’t even open her eyes to look at him again. A lot of emotions swirling in his eyes, one he didn’t even understand “Heaven…” he started but stopped. Raking a hand over his hair, he tossed something onto the bed.
A phone.
A replacement for the one he smashed.
“I’ll reach you with that,” he said, voice clipped.
He turned and walked out, shutting the door behind him.
The moment he left Heaven exhaled a shaky, suffocating breath of relief.
Her entire body collapsed back into the bed, trembling not from fear anymore…but from the crushing exhaustion of surviving him.