Chapter 54: The Weight of Want

Chapter 54: The Weight of Want
MARCUS'S POV

The glass doors of Sterling Architecture whispered shut behind me, silencing the thrum of traffic and the heat of the city. The soothing quiet of the office wrapped around me… the muted murmur of voices, the low rumble of printers, the soft clack of keyboards. My gaze, sharpened through years of habit and something far more instinctual, swept the room.

There.

Ava.

She was moving between the drafting tables with a kind of quiet focus, eyes fixed on whatever she was doing. A thread of hair had escaped from the tidy knot at the nape of her neck, sparkling in the light whenever she shifted position. Her forehead was furrowed in concentration, lips pressed tightly together in a way that made me want to ease out the tension on my thumb.

That feeling… the one I tried to push down… flared up within me fast and hard. A stepfather's trained protectiveness, certainly… but all tangled up with something more sinister, hungrier. A man's craving.

There she is. Mine. Ours.

I let my eyes linger on the line of her neck, the line of her back, the determined set of her shoulders. She had not yet sensed me. Good. Let her feel me later… that ping in the air between us when I decide to fill it. The thought of it constricted my chest.

For a moment, guilt gnawed at me… Isabelle… but Ava’s presence drowned it before it could take root.

I move toward the executive wing, only for a voice I’d know anywhere to slice through the low hum of the room.

Victoria.

She stood near the coffee stand, surrounded by a half-circle of young architects who looked trapped and anxious. Her tone was syrupy, close to saccharine in tone, but I could sense the bite beneath.

“…quite the meteoric rise, wouldn’t you say?” she said, stirring the coffee in her cup like stirring it alone was an art part of the act. "From intern to project lead architect on the Aris legacy project? Almost overnight." She made the silence hang, enjoying it. "Some people must have just very good mentors. or maybe they just have very powerful connections."

Her eyes sliced towards Ava's retreating back, sharp and intentional.

I stood stock-still. The warmth of before cooled, to be replaced by something frigid… an anger so icy it was like glass running through my veins. She thinks she's clever. She isn't. I had a clear idea the way she played the game… slow poison, insidious whispers, wearing down reputation grain by grain until there was nothing left.

How dare she aim it at Ava. How dare she try to chip away at what’s mine… what's ours.

I regulated my breathing to be even and changed direction, cutting across to Ava's station. I grabbed an unrelated folder from a vacant desk along the way… board reports, not relevant… and entered her line of vision just as she turned around. The movement was loose on the surface, but deliberate underneath. A block.

"Ava," I said, voice even, level, with the gravitas of my name. "Just in time."

I held out the folder. "The finished board notes on the Aris project. Just left the meeting. I thought you'd want to see them right away… especially the budget approvals on the Level 3 East integrations. Your plan was approved."

She blinked, clearly surprised, before she took the folder. Her fingers brushed against mine, and the shock traveled through me like a live cable. As she spoke softly, "Oh," and "Thanks, Marcus. That's. really useful. Saves me going after them later," I saw it, not only the anticipated reserve, but something else below the surface. Awareness.

I took a step in, just close enough to block out the rest of the room. The scent of her, fresh and clean, washed over me, something I'd memorized without even realizing it. My voice deepened, reserved for her ears alone. "Anything for you, Ava." I allowed the words to linger, allowed her to read what I wasn't speaking. "Always."

The air between us became thick. My mind flashed with remembrance… candlelit chapel, the heat of her skin, the moment that all between us had simplified into something irreparable.

She's taking her place at the center. The fixed point in my circle. The storm and the anchor.

Her lips parted a little, and I saw the same bewilderment, the same draw, reflected in her eyes. Going back was like tearing something apart, but I forced myself to step away.

"I. I have to get to this," she whispered, holding the folder close to her as if it might shield her.

“Of course," I said, though my gaze lingered on the flush creeping into her cheeks. "If you need clarification on anything, you know where to find me."


The moment stayed under my skin, intensifying a more piercing type of focus. I walked straight to Julian's office, not waiting for Flinch's questioning glance beyond the door. I did not knock.

Julian looked up at me from the glow of multiple screens, his face creased into that familiar mask of control. But I'd known him too long. There was strain there… in the tension of his shoulders, in the stillness of his hands.

The door slide shut behind me. "The perimeter breach," I said, my tone curt. "Anything new?"

Julian leaned back in his chair, fingers entwined. "No," he replied. "The shadow is still a shadow." He jabbed a key, scrolling through hazy security feeds. "My sources are not registering anything. Whoever this dude is…" His jaw tightened. "he's careful. Professional. Like a ghost."

I started walking, the fury brewing too close to the surface to conceal. "A ghost with a high-definition camera focused on us, Julian. On Ava. On your land." My voice crept up. "What guarantee do we have that those… private moments aren't going to resurface online for all the world to see?"

Julian's eyes narrowed. "All of my tools are on this. Quietly. With force. My people are looking where others wouldn't even think to dig." He paused, eyes locked on mine. "Think about it… if the intention was to destroy us instantly, why wait? If they had the worst, why not already use it?" 

I stopped pacing. Why wait?

So, what?" I asked. "They want leverage? Money? What in the world is there possibly worth this danger, attacking you?"

Julian's face turned colder, a small predator's smile curling around his lips. "That's the question. They think we have something… or that we'll do something. When they finally come out." The smile expanded a bit. "that's when they'll be visible. That's when they'll be reachable.".

The words stuck with me, but didn't lift the burden that was crushing me. The danger still lingered, unknown, aimed directly at her. And until we knew what they were after, every waiting moment was another turn of the screw.