Out of the Game: The Billionaire's Lost Obsession

"So, you're really never coming back?" His gaze pinned me in place, a dark storm brewing in his eyes.

Two years ago, he humiliated me in front of a room full of people. "Do I need a reason to drop a woman?" Seven years of devotion, reduced to ash.

I turned my back and erased myself from his world. Now, this arrogant heir was cornering me like a madman.

I stared straight into his bloodshot, unhinged eyes and slowly raised my left hand. The custommade diamond ring on my ring finger caught the light, refracting a blinding glare.

I curled my lips. "Sorry, Gideon. You're out of the game." Chapter 1 The next time I saw Gideon was at a charity auction.

To win the antique emerald bracelet, Zhiyi—the last symbol of my family's former glory—I didn't hesitate to push the bids straight to the ceiling.

Just as the auctioneer's gavel was about to drop, an arrogant, overpowering male voice drifted from the VIP box. "Ten million. Dollars." The breath was punched out of my lungs.

I snapped my head to the side. The sea of guests separated us, but I caught a glimpse of his sharp profile.

The harsh lighting cast a shadow along his jawline, highlighting the aggressive jut of his Adam's apple in the dimness. Two years apart, and he looked exactly the same.

Yet, somehow, completely different. He still had that same careless smirk, that lazy drawl.

But the aura surrounding him felt freezing, suffocatingly dark. "What's Gideon's deal?" My best friend, Kendall, leaned in, her voice tight. "He's doing this on purpose, isn't he?" I pulled my gaze away. "Doubt it." Dropping ten million for a fleeting moment of entertainment was just another Tuesday for him. "But he knows how much that bracelet means to you." Yeah, he knew. "Keep bidding.

Don't let him walk all over you!" Kendall's grip tightened around her champagne flute.

She ground her teeth. "Even if I have to max out my dad's black card, I'm winning this back for you." A dry laugh escaped my throat. "Forget it." When a guy like him set his sights on something, he took it.

Going up against him was a losing game. At the postauction gala, a girl approached me with a champagne glass.

She wore a dress straight off the current runway, but the desperate need to show it off made her look like she was trying way too hard. She looked a lot like I did at twenty.

Even the tiny teardrop mole under her left eye was an exact match. "Lilia, I've been a huge fan since I was a kid.

I never expected to see you at an event of this level." She deliberately dragged out the last two words. My eyes landed on her raised hand.

Clasping her thin wrist was the rich, luminous emerald. It was Zhiyi. The bracelet Gideon just bought.

Catching my stare, she faked a bashful smile. "My boyfriend bought it for me." She made a point of turning her head and pointing across the room. I followed her finger.

Through the crowd of glittering elites, the man in question seemed to sense it. Gideon turned his gaze toward her. The girl flushed, locking eyes with him from across the floor.

The whole scene left a bad taste in my mouth. "Lilia, I saw you bidding earlier.

Is this bracelet, like, super important to you?" Her bright smile carried a fake apology. "I told him to let you have it, but he insisted on getting it for me.

It's so embarrassing." I swept my gaze down, staring coldly at the priceless antique wrapped around a wrist that completely lacked the grace to carry it.

A sharp scoff slipped past my lips. She bit her lip, feigning concern. "Are you upset?" "Mind your own business," Kendall snapped, stepping up. "Do you even know her?

Stop being a tryhard." Clearly not expecting Kendall to bite back so ruthlessly, the girl gnawed on her lower lip, playing the victim. From a distance, Gideon saw it.

A dark shadow crossed his eyes. A sudden tightness gripped my chest. "Your boyfriend is waiting." I had zero interest in playing her little games.

She didn't say another word, hurrying through the crowd to latch onto Gideon's arm. From start to finish, he never gave me a second glance.

His eyes dropped to the bracelet on her wrist. Then, for whatever reason, he abruptly shoved her hand away. Face like stone, he turned and stalked out of the gala.

Chapter 2 "That absolute bastard." Kendall ground her teeth. "You gave him years, and he kept you in the shadows." "Now he's parading Paige around for everyone to see!

And outbidding you for the one thing you wanted just to stroke her ego? It's repulsive." I took a slow sip of my champagne, forcing the cold liquid past the knot in my throat.

Dropping millions to make a woman smile? Gideon had done it for me plenty of times.

Watching him do it for someone else was just the new reality. "It is what it is." "Bullshit." Kendall scoffed. "Can't you see it?" "She came over here just to rub it in your face.

She reeks of cheap desperation, playing the innocent little victim." I drained the rest of my glass. "Let it go, Kendall. She isn't worth the energy." "I can't.

You gave him so much time, and he intentionally digs up a cheap knockoff of you just to twist the knife. He's garbage." I had spent the last two years burying it.

But Kendall's words ripped the stitches right out of the wound. The first blizzard of the year.

I stepped out of the freezing hospital sliding doors and headed straight for Gideon's private club.

I pushed open the heavy mahogany doors to his VIP suite, drowning in the heavy scent of alcohol and loud music.

Just in time to hear a voice cutting through the noise, asking Gideon, "Where's Lilia? Trading up?" A young girl with raw ambition plastered across her face was leaning into him.

Her fingers, tipped in fireengine red polish, traced provocatively along his jaw. The movement was clumsy, yet desperate to mark her territory in front of the entire room.

As the smoke drifted from his lips, he raised an eyebrow and shot a careless glance toward the door. His eyes slid over me without catching.

Then, with that signature arrogant drawl, he dropped the bomb. "Do I need a reason to drop a woman?" I blacked out the walk to the exit.

Suddenly I was just standing on the freezing pavement. The blizzard tore through the midnight streets, the wind slicing straight to the bone.

It felt like someone had dragged me out into the snow and slapped me clean across the face. A violent wave of nausea roiled in my gut.

Cole, Gideon's righthand man, bolted out the door after me. "Lilia, wait. Don't take it personally." "He's had too much to drink.

It's just a joke." My voice came out dead flat. "Is it?" "I swear." He studied my face, treading carefully. "She's just some nobody model. Clueless.

Gideon didn't even touch her." "Right." "Lilia, come on…" My terrifying calm was making him visibly sweat. "Just step back inside.

You're freezing." I stared blankly across the empty street. I didn't move a muscle.

As the suffocating grip on my throat finally loosened, I felt something tear loose inside my chest and drift away. "Pass a message to Gideon for me." I pulled my trench coat tighter against the freezing wind, refusing to spare a single glance back at the club doors. "He isn't worth another second of my time." He was the golden boy of the city's most untouchable dynasty.

A reckless heir raised on a pedestal, so blindingly privileged that mere mortals didn't dare look him in the eye.

A man like Gideon held the ultimate capital to look down on the rest of the world. He spent his youth running through women like spare change.

They could bleed themselves dry proving their love, and he wouldn't flinch. He picked women up. He threw them away.

And he never owed anyone a damn reason. "I'm out." The blizzard was picking up. I pulled open my car door and climbed in.

Cole lunged forward, grabbing the edge of the door. "Lilia!" I waved a hand, never once turning my head. "Goodbye." A goodbye to Cole. A goodbye to Gideon.

The car tore into the whiteout. The heater was blasting at max, but violent shivers still wrecked my frame.

I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face in my arms, desperate to hold onto any shred of body heat.

Chapter 3 I remembered how, in the very beginning, I avoided Gideon like the plague.

I walked away with my pride intact, cutting myself out of his world without a single scream or tear. I didn't even bother memorizing the face of the girl next to him.

Later, hiding out in a foreign country, pieces of news still managed to find me. Rumor had it the girl he kept around was a dead ringer for me. Her name was Paige.

Gideon spoiled her rotten. Chauffeurs, mansions, sports cars—he poured endless resources into paving her way through the entertainment industry.

The two years I vanished without a trace were the exact same two years Paige's career skyrocketed.

With her uncanny resemblance to me and a mountain of backing, she mirrored my exact career trajectory.

The media even slapped her with the nickname "Little Lilia." Everyone in the industry was watching me like a walking punchline, waiting for the expensive canary to finally lose her mind after being dumped by her sugar daddy.

Inside and outside the circle, the consensus was clear: it wouldn't be long before Paige completely replaced me in the industry. A bitter laugh bubbled up in my throat.

She wasn't just replacing me in the industry. She replaced me in his bed, too. "Lilia, where did you go?" Kendall waved a hand in front of my face.

I snapped back to reality. "Nowhere. Just had a little too much to drink. Head's spinning." "Come on, let's go home." After parting ways with Kendall, I stood outside my front door.

I dragged in a deep breath before finally pushing it open. The house was pitch black and dead silent. I was just about to exhale when the harsh overhead lights snapped on.

My mother, sitting in her wheelchair like an enraged addict, saw me walk in and instantly hurled a sharp crystal ashtray at my feet. "Where's the bracelet?!" The glass shattered, sending shards flying.

My fingernails dug so hard into my palms they almost broke skin. "I didn't get it, Mom." A second of stunned silence passed before absolute fury twisted her face. "Useless trash!" The next second, she grabbed whatever was on the table and launched it at me.

A heavy thermos slammed into my collarbone with a sickening thud. A dull, throbbing pain flared out.

I stood there, perfectly still, letting her scream tear through the quiet house. "I told you to get it back no matter the cost! Were you too cheap to spend the money?

Or do you just not give a damn about your own mother?!" "It's neither." How was I supposed to explain? Tell her I got outbid by Gideon? I couldn't say it, and I didn't want to.

She slammed her fists frantically against the armrests of her wheelchair. "Then why?!" "Mom, can we just let it go?" "Shut your mouth!" She thrashed violently in her chair, practically convulsing. "If you can't bring me that bracelet, then you might as well go die." My impulse to step forward and calm her down instantly died.

She kept screaming insults for a long time. I didn't say another word. It wasn't until her bedroom door slammed shut that the world finally went quiet.

I dragged my leaden feet up to the third floor and slumped down in front of the dark floortoceiling windows.

Miles of city lights stretched out in the distance, burning like a sea of stars against the black sky. I thought about the emerald wrapped around Paige's wrist.

Then I thought about Gideon. I stared coldly at the creeping purple bruise on my collarbone reflected in the glass. I wiped a smear of blood from the corner of my mouth.

The very last shred of hope I held for my family completely shattered. The sharp ring of my phone sliced through the silence. I answered it, but the line stayed dead.

Only the vicious howl of the wind tore through the speaker, masking the heavy, ragged breathing of the person on the other end. Chapter 4 A sudden jolt seized my chest.

Gideon's face flashed in my mind. It had to be him. The dead silence on the line was a calculated game. He was waiting for me to crack first. Waiting for me to beg.

After seven years of being tangled up together, we knew exactly how to push each other's buttons.

But for an arrogant prick like Gideon to actually make this call, he had to be losing his mind with frustration. If I kept ignoring him, he was going to snap.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and tossed it onto the couch. Let him snap. Good. With slow, deliberate patience, I pulled out a cigarette.

The metallic clink of my lighter echoed in the dark room as I lit it and took a long drag. That sharp sound must have struck a nerve, because a second later, the line went dead.

I bet Gideon realized it too. The tighter we used to be, the more pathetic this looked now. I didn't beg him. But a few days later, a delivery arrived.

Inside was the emerald bracelet, Zhiyi. "Is he actually insane?" Kendall stared at the velvet box, completely baffled. "He outbids you just to hand it to his little side piece, and now he's sending it to you?

He's just doing this to be a toxic asshole." I was too exhausted to dissect Gideon's twisted power trips.

I snapped the box shut and sent it straight back to the sender. "You're really returning it?" Kendall looked surprisingly reluctant to let the multimilliondollar antique go. "Yeah." She stayed quiet for a beat before adding, "I think this is his messedup way of throwing up a white flag.

If you reject it, he's going to lose his shit." I let out a dry laugh. "The words 'white flag' don't exist in Gideon's vocabulary." "I wouldn't be so sure." Kendall shrugged. "Yeah, Gideon has pulled some seriously unhinged stunts, but I really don't think he wants to cut ties.

He's just too damn proud." My thumb brushed over my empty ring finger, right where a plain band used to sit. "We cut ties two years ago," I said, my voice cold and completely detached.

A few nights later, we wrapped filming late. I dozed off in the back of the car on the way back, only waking up when we pulled up to my place.

The late autumn wind carried a sharp bite. I stepped out, raising my head just in time to spot a ridiculously expensive supercar parked outside.

A tall silhouette stood leaning against the driver's side door in the dark. There was no telling how long he had been waiting.

He was slouched forward slightly, his thumb flicking a silver lighter open and shut in a slow, rhythmic click. The flickering orange flame danced across his sharp brow.

His usual reckless arrogance was gone, replaced by something freezing and heavy. Something dangerous. My footsteps faltered.

Right at that second, he lifted his heavy gaze and locked eyes with me.

The night was too thick to read whatever storm was brewing in his eyes, but just being under his stare made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Gideon casually reached back into the passenger seat and dragged out the velvet box holding Zhiyi.

He flipped the lid open and snapped it shut with one hand, waiting with predatory patience for me to come to him. He knew exactly what that bracelet meant to me.

My father was deeply superstitious. Even after he built his massive empire, that heirloom—passed down through generations—was always his prized possession.

He used to say Zhiyi held the spirit of our bloodline; losing it meant the total collapse of our family dynasty.

Chapter 5 When my family went bankrupt, every last asset was auctioned off to pay down our debts. Losing Zhiyi had always been a festering wound for my mother.

I tracked it for years, but every lead went cold. Finally, the socialite who bought it put it up for auction.

I rushed back to the country just to bid on it, only to have Gideon snatch it right out from under me. "What's this supposed to mean?" His heavy eyelids lowered, his voice a lazy drawl.

Two years without a single word between us, and this was his opening line. But I knew him down to his bones.

The calmer he sounded, the more violent the storm brewing just beneath the surface. "I don't want it anymore," I stated coldly.

Seeing Zhiyi wrapped around Paige's wrist that night had stung. We used to be too close; Gideon knew exactly which knife to twist to hit my vitals. Gideon's hand paused.

A long second ticked by before a sharp scoff broke the silence. "Alright. Keep up the backbone." The night wind picked up, carrying the static of an incoming storm.

He arrogantly opened his hand, letting the priceless antique slip from his fingers. The emerald slammed against the concrete with a sickening crack, shattering into pieces.

I didn't even blink.

I just stepped over the milliondollar wreckage in my heels. "Lilia." Gideon's tone was dead flat, completely locking down whatever fury he was holding back. "Don't push my limits." The roar of his engine ripped through the quiet night as he tore away.

I stood there for a beat before turning to the front door. Why couldn't Gideon get it through his head? I wasn't playing hard to get. I wasn't throwing a tantrum. I was done.

Early the next morning, my manager, Rhonda, picked me up for an audition. "You've been off the radar for two years. This is your shot to claw your way back to the top.

Do not mess this up," she lectured, dead serious. Felix, a genius director fresh back from overseas, had taken the industry by storm.

In just three years, he swept the highest cinematic awards internationally with only two films.

The moment news broke that he was producing and directing For Her, the hype was instant. Alisters and rookies alike were drawing blood just to land a supporting role.

I let out a selfdeprecating laugh. "With every big name in the industry fighting over the lead, why would he pick a washedup actress like me?" For an actress at her peak, vanishing for two years was career suicide.

A perfectionist like Felix would never look twice at a liability like me. "Washed up or not, you've still got a Best Actress trophy on your shelf," Rhonda said, aggressively optimistic. "Plus, I read the script.

That role was practically written for you." I brushed it off. This industry existed on a food chain.

No matter how much of an artistic purist Felix was, capital always had the final say. I had zero expectations for this role.

Especially when I saw Paige marching into the waiting room, flanked by an entourage of assistants.

Rhonda had stepped out to talk to production, leaving just me and my assistant, Lexi. "Look at that parade for a rookie," Lexi muttered under her breath.

I snapped my script shut. "Keep your voice down." Lexi pouted, clearly not a fan of Paige. "Lilia!" Paige sauntered over with a bright, plastic smile. "What a coincidence, running into you again." I gave a curt nod. "Small world." Paige's smile stiffened, the corner of her eye twitching before she caught herself.

She quickly plastered the smile back on and snatched a coffee cup from her assistant's hand, offering it to me. Politeness dictated I stand up to decline.

The second I did, her hand violently jerked forward. The coffee slashed across my chest, soaking into my dress.

I was wearing a pristine white gown tailored specifically for the audition. The dark stain spread instantly. The scalding liquid seared through the fabric, burning my skin.

Chapter 6 She slapped a hand over her mouth, letting out a dramatic gasp. Raw malice practically dripped from her eyes. "Oh my god, I am so sorry, Lilia.

This is the limitededition latte my boyfriend just bought me.

My hand slipped." She grabbed a tissue, faking a frantic attempt to wipe the stain, though her sugary smile never faltered. "If I were you, Lilia, I wouldn't have even bothered showing up.

You probably don't know, but my boyfriend is the primary investor for this film.

He already promised me the lead role." I pulled out a tissue and methodically wiped my hands, watching her little clown show with deadeyed precision. "Are you done?" Interesting.

Back at the auction, Paige had played the composed little darling so well. How did she crack so fast? My absolute zero reaction was clearly getting to her.

The corners of her plastic smile started to twitch. "I'm not trying to steal anything from you," she cooed, her voice sickeningly sweet. "But you've been around forever, Lilia.

Shouldn't you step aside and let the younger generation have a turn?" The subtext wasn't exactly subtle: You're old news. Back off from my career, and back off from my man.

I stared at the tiny teardrop mole beneath her left eye, and a sharp laugh slipped out. "What's so funny?" "If I were you, I wouldn't pull stupid stunts like this." I meticulously wiped the last drop of coffee from my knuckles, tilting my head. "Do you even know who you're dealing with?" An heir like Gideon gave and took without blinking.

Every ounce of his indulgence was laced with pure cruelty. He'd spoil a woman blind as long as she kept him entertained.

The second he got bored, you could bleed out on his doorstep and he wouldn't even blink.

Over the years, I knew about the revolving door of women trying to climb into Gideon's bed, but not a single one ever dared to bark in my face.

Paige was by far the dumbest of the bunch. "Since you're so hung up on calling me your senior, let me give you a free piece of advice." I locked onto her eyes, my smile turning razorsharp. "Stay out of my way." Paige dropped the innocent act completely.

Her voice pitched up, turning shrill and nasty. "Lilia, you were nothing but his dirty little secret, a kept woman for a few years!

What gives you the right to act so high and mighty?" Kept woman? A dirty secret? A dry chuckle scraped my throat. So that was how Gideon defined our seven years together.

Before I could fire back, Rhonda's voice cracked like a whip from the doorway. "Paige, what the hell is coming out of your mouth?" Lexi must have slipped out to grab her. "Drop it." Playing these high school jealousy games was exhausting.

I grabbed my bag. "She was just giving me a friendly headsup that the role is already rigged.

Let's go." "Rigged for who?" Rhonda pointed a lethal finger at Paige. "You?" Paige lifted her chin, practically glowing with arrogance. "My boyfriend is the lead investor.

Don't tell me you didn't know." Rhonda fell silent. She turned her head toward the hallway. "Is that true, Felix?" I followed her gaze.

A young man was leaning against the doorframe; I hadn't even heard him walk up.

The hallway window was open, the lush green leaves rustling outside, casting fragmented shadows over his strikingly cold, sculpted face. He carried an air of absolute isolation.

Despite his age, he oozed the heavy, grounded presence of an oldschool artist. Felix. The name fit him perfectly. "Yes.

It's rigged." His voice was low, the cadence slow and deliberate. Rhonda's face instantly darkened.

Paige, on the other hand, preened, jutting her chin out like a peacock. "I promise I won't let you down, Director." My heart didn't even skip a beat.

I turned on my heel to leave. "Hold on." Felix raised a hand, his tone carrying a perfectly measured, gentlemanly dry wit. "Do you have a problem with me rigging the role for you, Lilia?" My head snapped up.

I definitely didn't miss the way all the blood instantly drained from Paige's face. She shrieked, "That's not fair!" Felix dropped his hand, blatantly unapologetic. "Sorry.

I don't care about fair." Chapter 7 The next day, Felix's contract arrived.

Rhonda was ecstatic. "With this role, your comeback is a guaranteed slam dunk." I knew exactly how crucial this opportunity was. But my stomach still twisted. "Rhonda.

At the audition, Paige dropped a bomb.

The lead investor for this film is Gideon." Rhonda's smile vanished. "You think he'll…" She didn't finish the sentence, but the reality hung heavy in the air.

Gideon backed For Her to pave Paige's way to the Alist.

Felix kicking Paige to the curb for me meant one of two things: Gideon would either pull his funding to avenge his little pet, or do it just to spite me.

Either way, Felix was about to take a massive financial hit. A heavy knot formed in my chest. "Don't overthink it," Rhonda reassured me. "Felix made the call.

He knows the risks." "Besides, you gave Gideon years. Surely he has a shred of decency left. He wouldn't…" "He would." A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

I flashed back to the sickening crunch of the emerald shattering under his boot. He was furious.

And when a spoiled heir like him threw a tantrum, he made sure everyone else burned with him. Right on cue, Lexi let out a sharp gasp, her eyes glued to her phone. "Look at Twitter!

The funding for For Her just got pulled." "What?" Rhonda snatched the phone from her hand. She stared at the screen, dead silent. I leaned back, perfectly calm.

I wasn't even surprised. "Lilia, is Director Felix going to drop you over this?" Lexi bit her lip, panicked.

Rhonda shot her a dark look but couldn't argue. "It's highly likely," I said, my voice completely flat. Getting swapped out by capital was standard industry procedure.

Lexi slammed her hand against her leg. "How can Gideon do this?! Backing Paige is one thing, but completely sabotaging you?" "It isn't sabotage. It's just the game.

Anyone standing in Paige's way gets crushed," I stated calmly. There was no point in playing the victim.

Rhonda paced the room like a caged animal. "You aren't just 'anyone'!" she fumed. "After everything you two had, does he even have a pulse?" I looked down at my blank phone screen, zoning out.

That evening, Kendall dropped by my place. Lexi immediately went on a rant about Paige, spilling every detail about the coffee incident.

Kendall's grip on the counter tightened until her knuckles turned white. "She actually had the nerve?" "She knows she's got absolute backing," Lexi fueled the fire.

I shot Lexi a hard glare. She immediately mimed zipping her lips and shrank back. "That cheap little bitch.

I'll show her who she's messing with." Kendall snatched her car keys off the counter and stormed for the door. "Kendall, wait!" My stomach dropped. I chased after her.

By the time I hit the front porch, her red Porsche was already tearing down the driveway, leaving nothing but burning rubber and fading taillights.

A harsh memory flashed in my mind. When I was sixteen and my family's empire collapsed, I became the ultimate punchline of the elite circle.

A fake socialite tried to kick me while I was down.

Kendall had pinned that trash to the carpet, ruthlessly teaching her a lesson until her own hands were coated in blood, leaving the girl shrieking and begging for mercy.

Because of that stunt, Kendall's family exiled her abroad, making her suffer for years. My mother always called me a walking curse.

Staring at the empty driveway, I realized she wasn't entirely wrong. Chapter 8 Kendall wasn't answering her phone.

I had no idea where she went, but if she was hunting down Paige, she was probably going straight to Gideon to demand answers. Gideon.

Two years apart, and we hadn't exchanged a single phone call. He had called a few days ago, but left nothing but dead air.

My thumb hovered over his contact name for a long time before I finally hit dial. The ringing echoed in my ear, every second dragging like glass. Finally, the line clicked open.

But my throat instantly seized up. He didn't speak either. Through the speaker, I could clearly hear a woman's shrill screaming in the background.

My stomach dropped. "Is Kendall with you?" Gideon seemed to step away from the noise.

His voice came through, a cold, mocking drawl. "Who is this?" I knew he was playing games, but it still felt like a punch to the gut. "It's Lilia." "Oh." He dragged out the syllable, dripping with lazy arrogance. "You need something?" Playing dumb.

I forced my voice to stay dead level. "Where are you? I'm coming over." Silence stretched over the line. Then, a dark, breathy chuckle. "Looking for me?" Looking for Kendall.

Catching the bite in his tone, I swallowed the correction. "Yes." "Heh." His mockery was razorsharp. "Such a loyal friend." "For her, you'll actually make your first call in two years.

You'll even endure seeing my face." Typical arrogant bastard. I ground my teeth and repeated, "Where are you?" "Save your breath.

Don't do me any favors." His patience snapped, leaving behind nothing but freezing courtesy. Click. He hung up on me. I listened to the dead dial tone.

His message was loud and clear. He didn't want to see me. Two years later, I was back, standing in front of his ultraexclusive VIP suite.

Gideon owned half the city's nightlife, but he only ever haunted this specific club.

Back when we were still tangled up, whenever he threw a fit and went M.I.A., I always knew exactly where to find him.

His buddies used to joke with me: "He's just throwing a tantrum. He doesn't even bother changing his hiding spot." "He's literally just waiting for you to come coax him out.

Don't indulge him." Eventually, I stopped indulging him. The last time this heavy door closed, it locked me out for good.

I dragged in a lungful of air and pushed the heavy door open. The massive VIP suite looked like a disaster zone. The suffocating stench of alcohol hit me like a wall.

Gideon sat sprawled on the sofa, his eyes bloodshot and lethal. His ridiculously expensive custom suit was a wrecked, wrinkled mess.

Fresh blood coated his knuckles from smashing glass bottles barehanded, thick crimson drops hitting the wreckage on the floor with heavy, sickening thuds. I swept the room.

No sign of Kendall.

In the middle of the absolute carnage, Gideon just kept his head down, lazily scrolling through his phone like the blood dripping from his hand didn't even exist.

The overhead lights cast a harsh shadow over his brow, making the freezing, oppressive aura radiating off him even heavier. Cole was standing nearby, muttering something to him.

At the sound of my heels, his head snapped up. "Lilia." The old nickname slipped out of his mouth on instinct. The sound of it threw me off.

Seven years was a long time; old habits died hard.

I brushed it off, pulling up a polite, completely detached smile. "It's been a while." "Yeah, two whole years." He studied me carefully. "Where have you been hiding all this time?" "Northern Europe," I answered vaguely. "Oh." He paused, a knowing smirk playing on his lips. "Small world.

Gideon flew out there a few times himself." Gideon didn't react. He acted completely dead to the conversation, not even bothering to lift an eyelid.

Chapter 9 "Have you been doing okay?" Cole pressed.

I had zero interest in dissecting the last two years of my life. "I've been fine," I deflected smoothly. "Was Kendall here?" Looking at the apocalyptic state of the VIP room, there was a ninetynine percent chance this was Kendall's masterpiece.

Still, I held onto a sliver of hope. "Oh, she was here." Cole fought back a smirk. "Said she was hunting for Paige." "When she couldn't find her, she turned into a pissedoff little lion, smashing bottles and cursing up a storm." He shot a sideways glance at Gideon. "Someone definitely has a lot to answer for." A vein throbbed at my temple, but the knot in my chest loosened just a fraction.

Thank god she didn't actually find Paige. "Where is she now?" Before Cole could open his mouth, Gideon dropped his first words of the night, his voice freezing the air in the room. "Where do you think?" My head snapped toward him on instinct.

His eyes were still glued to his screen, his expression completely blank.

But the sharp, whiteknuckled grip on his phone and the tight, rigid line of his jaw practically bled hostility. My pulse spiked.

Gideon grew up as the golden boy of an untouchable dynasty. His word was absolute law. Anyone who dared to make the young heir uncomfortable usually paid in blood.

As he got older, he masked that reckless, lethal arrogance behind a lazy, playboy facade, but it was nothing but a smokescreen.

Kendall's family had ties with his, so he wouldn't actually destroy her. But even a "minor" punishment from a guy like Gideon wasn't something a normal person could endure.

I met his gaze, keeping my spine straight and my voice completely level. "Kendall lost her mind because of me. I apologize.

Whatever she wrecked tonight, I'll pay for it." "Pay for it?" Gideon scoffed, like he had just heard the joke of the century.

He lunged forward, crossing the room to crowd me against the heavy mahogany doorframe.

The overpowering stench of hard liquor and the horrifying sight of his bloodcrusted knuckles formed a wall of pure, suffocating aggression. "Do you really think I need your damn money