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I step closer, forcing a tight smile. My breath quickens, but I keep myself in check.

“Weren’t you dreaming about a safe, boring life? About someone to give you a family?” I ask, sarcasm sharp. “Something stable, normal?” I close the distance, my shadow falling over hers. “How the fuck is what you did safe?”

Her glare hits me like a punch. She steps forward and slaps her palm against my chest.

“I never said I wanted a boring or monotonous life, Ethan.”

I laugh bitterly. “My bad.”

I seize her hand again, pulling her until her chest hits me. The warmth of her body against me is both infuriating and distracting.

“What were you thinking, Thalia?” I demand, voice tighter now. “What if something had happened to you?”

She shoves me with both hands, stepping back. Fire burns in her eyes—defiance, pure and unfiltered—and it only frustrates me more.

“What do you care, Ethan?” She shouts, throwing her hands up. “Why don’t you go to Antonia instead?”

Her voice cracks at the edges with jealousy. Exactly what I expected.

“What does Antonia have to do with this?” I ask, forcing control into my tone.

“Nothing,” she fires back immediately. “Just go to her and leave me alone.”

She tries to slip past me, but I catch her wrist. Firm. Unyielding.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home,” she mutters, not meeting my eyes.

Then she grabs my phone from my pocket and presses it hard against my chest. “Here. Call your girlfriend so you can finish what you started earlier,” she hisses, venom packed into every word.

“Are you jealous, Thalia?” I ask, teasing her.

I wait, expecting sarcasm, a bite, anything—but instead she stills, closing her eyes, and drawing in a shaky breath.

The tension in the room changes instantly.

When she opens her eyes again, there’s nothing soft in them.

“What does it matter, Ethan?” she asks. “What difference does it make if I’m jealous or not?” she continues, her voice trembling now. “One day you fuck me, the next day you call Irina into your office and activate the privacy system, then another day you kiss Antonia in front of everyone.”

She swallows hard, blinking fast, fighting herself. “I knew what I was getting into when I started sleeping with you,” she whispers, almost defeated. “So it’s only my fault for not knowing to stop in time.”

She looks away, toward the window, swallowed by the darkness outside, a tear threatening to fall.

I take her chin gently between my fingers and turn her back to me. She resists at first—subtle, instinctive—like she doesn’t want me to see her break.

I brought her here ready to scold her for tonight’s reckless decisions, but I wasn’t expecting this. Not her silence. Not the way she isn’t fighting back like she usually does.

“For someone who lives so close to me, you’ve got a pretty terrible opinion about me, Thalia,” I say, tension coiling in my veins. “And completely wrong,” I add, firmer this time.

She lets out a bitter sound and steps away from my hold.

“Wrong?” she snaps. “Wrong how, Ethan?”

Stopping near the wall, she wraps her arms around herself—small, instinctive, like she’s trying to keep herself from falling apart.

“What exactly is wrong with what I said?” she asks quieter now, somewhere between exhaustion and hurt.