Chapter 79 Regret 1
The air in the entire café seemed to have vanished.
“Maverick…” Heaven whispered, barely audible.
Adrian straightened slowly, confusion tightening his brows as he looked between Heaven and the man who’d appeared like a violent shadow. His hand hovered near Heaven’s arm, as if he could shield her.
That was his first mistake.
Maverick’s eyes dropped to the hand touching Heaven…his Heaven.
The woman he had just realized he loved. A muscle ticked in his jaw, like something inside him snapped. Heaven’s breath stuttered.
“Maverick, it’s not…”
“Sit. Down.”
The command was calm. The kind of calm that comes before cities burn.
Heaven sat on instinct, her knees weak.
Adrian, trying to be brave, kept a protective hold on her. “What’s up, dude? Who the fuck are you to talk to her like that?”
In a blink, Maverick was in front of him.
No one in the café saw him move.
He yanked Adrian by the collar and slammed him into the wall. The man’s head hit with a hard thud. Glasses rattled. A woman shrieked. People scrambled; phones came out.
“How dare you touch her?” Maverick snarled, grabbing the very hand that had touched Heaven as if he meant to break every bone in it.
Adrian’s breath shook.
“Maverick! Stop!” Heaven rushed forward, grabbing Maverick’s arm.
He froze.
Because Heaven defended the boy.
His head turned slowly toward her. Controlled. Lethal.
He released Adrian like he weighed nothing. Dumbstruck.
Heaven’s voice trembled.
“I’m sorry, Adrian… he’s my brother-in-law…”
Adrian staggered to his feet, trying to mask the fear in his eyes.
“Oh. Right. Okay. Nice to meet you, man. I mean no harm…I was just protecting her. We’re friends. We just reconnected…”
“Reconnected,” Maverick repeated, voice dropping,
“by asking her to run away with you?”
Heaven froze.
Her legs nearly buckled.
He’d heard them.
Maverick moved before anyone could react… his fist connecting with Adrian’s jaw.
“She isn’t yours to protect!”
Adrian groaned, clutching his face.
“Neither is she yours either!”
Maverick’s body snapped tight with fury. He grabbed Adrian’s wrist..the one that had touched her and twisted. A crack sound echoed. Adrian choked on a scream.
“Maverick, stop!” Heaven wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, trembling. “Please, please let’s leave…”
Maverick didn’t look at her.
He took her wrist, firm, possessive, claiming.
Heaven shook her head desperately.
“Maverick, please… he’s just a friend. Nothing more.”
“A friend,” he repeated.
His jaw clenched.
“Who plans to smuggle you out of the country?”
Her breath hitched. She couldn’t speak.
Behind them, Adrian groaned, “Heaven, you don’t have to go with him…”
Maverick didn’t turn around.
“You speak again,” he said so quietly it chilled the room, and I will drag you out of here unconscious.”
Adrian shut up instantly.
He pulled her toward the exit firm, unshakeable, unstoppable.
Heaven didn’t resist.
She couldn’t.
Because what she saw in his eyes was more than rage.
Maverick’s hands clamped around the steering wheel so hard the leather groaned a warning cry before it snapped under his grip.
His jaw was locked, teeth grinding.
His breath came in tight, explosive bursts.
Then he pressed harder on the accelerator.
The car shot forward, slicing through the road like a bullet with no intention of slowing or sparing anything in its path.
Heaven trembled in her seat. Her fingers dug into the seatbelt, knuckles bone-white. Her breath came in sharp, broken drags as she cried silently.. the kind of crying that had no tears, just pain.
She didn’t speak.
She didn’t dare.
He was too quiet. Too close to snapping.
Maverick’s vision blurred with rage as he sped through the city.
He had spent the entire day preparing the Avalon estate apartment, the one he bought for her, to soothe her, protect her, give her a life outside the Richard estate’s suffocating cruelty, to fix what has been happening between them for the last few weeks.
Yet she was planning to leave him.
He was planning a life for her. A future for her. He had even made arrangements to bring her grandmother from the adult home because he refused to let Heaven feel alone when he wasn’t there.
But first… he wanted to show her the place. A place that belonged to her. A place that was meant for them. So he checked her location from the phone he’d given her last night
He had cloned the phone. And linked it to his. And put a tiny chip sewn under the speaker letting him hear whatever conversation happened near her.
He followed the blinking dot on the map. Then he heard the voices.Her voice.Adrian’s voice.Every word.Heaven didn’t shut him down.She didn’t reject the idea of leaving. She didn’t deny it.
His chest twisted, something ugly and raw tearing inside him.
He had forgiven her past affair. He had given her grace once.
And she dared..She dared to do it again?
The silence in the car thickened until Heaven felt like she was drowning in it.
Maverick jerked the steering wheel violently and pulled into a private driveway, a quiet, gated street lined with modern luxury apartments, untouched and serene.
The car skidded slightly before halting.
Heaven’s stomach rolled.
She thought she might throw up from the speed, the fear, the cold pit in her chest.
His chest rose and fell too fast, his fingers trembling from force and fury.
“GET OUT,” he roared.
The sound cracked the air.
He stepped out first, slamming the door hard enough the frame shuddered.
Heaven opened her door slowly.
The moment she stepped out, she turned and threw up by the side.
Her body shook violently.
Maverick didn’t wait.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her inside the apartment he bought for her, fury radiating off him like heat.
“You defended him,” he spat, dragging her through the hallway.
“In my presence..IN MY FUCKING FACE..you let him touch what is mine!”
His voice breaking like a storm.
“Do I have to lock you away from every living thing so you stop whoring yourself around?!”
The words hit her like a slap.
Heaven froze, breath trembling, eyes stinging though no tears fell.
She couldn’t do this anymore.
She was tired.
Tired of explaining.
Tired of being doubted.
Tired of being punished for what she didn’t do.
“There’s no point explaining,” she whispered.
“You’ll never believe me.”
Maverick stopped.
He turned slowly, dangerously.
“What exactly do you have to say, Heaven? What lie do you want to tell me? I heard you agree to eloping with another man. I HEARD YOU.”
Heaven lifted her hollow eyes to his.She pulled her hand from his grip.
“I can’t do this anymore, Maverick.”
His entire body went cold.
“What?”
“For one tiny moment…” she whispered, voice shaking, “I considered what he said running away.”
Maverick’s breath stopped.
“I want out,” she said, the words slicing both of them.
Silence.Heavy.Explosive.
“You want me to stop whoring around?” Heaven continued, voice broken. “Fine. I’ll start with you…we are both married and this shouldn’t have ever happened..I’m done..”
Her words shattered the last piece of him.