KESTER.
I closed the door as carefully as possible so as not to wake Kasmine up. She was still sound asleep, her body curled beneath the covers, lost in the kind of deep rest only I could give her. I wasn’t about to disturb that.
We were supposed to go scuba diving today, but after last night, I wasn’t sure she’d have the energy for it. Maybe we’d take the day off and stick to something easier-like the bonfire at the villa tonight. She’d love that.
For now, I had other things to deal with.
I strode to my room, my mind already shifting into work mode. A shower first-then emails. I knew there’d be a flood of them waiting for me, along with the hundreds of messages from my father that I’d purposely ignored yesterday.
I’d deal with him later.
The moment the hot water hit my skin, tension melted from my muscles. I let it run over me, closing my eyes for just a second longer than necessary, letting my mind drift. It had been a long time since I felt this-contentment.
Not peace. Not exactly. But something close. Something I only ever felt when Kasmine was with me.
After my bath, I stepped out, letting the cool air hit my skin. I toweled off, applied lotion, and pulled on my usual-sweatpants and a black singlet, an easy go-to.
As I reached for my laptop, my gaze caught on the tattoo on my arm.
A slow smile stretched across my lips.
Mine.
Every time I looked at it, it reminded me of her-of what she meant to me, of how deeply she was etched into me. Even when she wasn’t physically by my side, she was here.
Getting these tattoos was the best decision I’d made in a long time.
For a brief moment, I stood by the window, soaking in the warmth of the morning sun. The air was fresh, the ocean breeze slipping through. The day promised calm.
Then I opened my laptop.
And just like that, the calm was gone.
Thirty-four emails.
My jaw tensed.
I grabbed my phone, unlocking it with a flick of my thumb. Twenty-one texts. Forty-eight voicemails.
What the fuck?
Was my pack on fire? Had the world ended overnight?
A muscle feathered in my jaw as I stared at my screen, irritation curling in my gut.
I decided to look at my emails first. They were all from the office.
I clicked on the first email, and Ryhs’s name flashed at the top. My eyes skimmed through the message, irritation shifting into something else. Worry.
It came in as URGENT.
—-
Ryhs: “I don’t know what the fuck is happening, but our suppliers in Scotland have practically shut us out. We were already struggling with Belinzo prioritizing Valor Lante’s shipments, but now even our backup suppliers are pulling back.
I’ve spoken with Mellors Holdings-or tried to. They won’t return my calls. Neither will Bexley Shipping. That’s not a coincidence. Someone is leaning on them hard.
Our latest shipment of semiconductors, scheduled for this week, has been rerouted. It was supposed to be ours. Instead, it’s been redirected to Valor Lante. Again.
If we don’t act fast, our Scotland branch will go under. We’re already bleeding money trying to keep things afloat. Another quarter like this, and we’ll be forced to cut operations.
We need leverage. We need a way to make Belinzo hurt for this. Tell me how you want to proceed.”
—-
I felt my heart pick up speed.
Fuck!
Alpha Kex was biting more than he could chew.
I exhaled slowly, my jaw tightening. They were cutting us off completely. No suppliers, no shipments. No fucking product.
The next email was from Logan Drake, my Legal Advisor.
—
Subject: Re: Belinzo-Valor Lante Contract Review
Kester,
I went over the contract between Belinzo and Valor Lante again, and there’s no easy way in. The exclusivity clause is airtight. Belinzo legally has the right to prioritize Valor Lante for the next two years.
Even if we wanted to challenge it, it would take months-maybe a year-before we could get a ruling. That’s time we don’t have.
But-I did find something interesting. The clause only applies to direct competitors in our sector. If we shift part of our supply needs through a third-party shell company, we might be able to work around the exclusivity agreement. It’s risky as hell, but it’s a move.
Let me know if you want me to dig deeper.
Logan.
—-
I closed my eyes briefly. A workaround. A risky one. If Belinzo caught wind of it, they could rewrite their agreement and block us out entirely.
But if we didn’t act, we were done.
The next email was from Maya Lorne, Head of Finance.
—
“We have a serious problem.
Our financial models project that if Wescor pulls out of Zamford and reinvests in Valor Lante, we’ll lose nearly 40% of our stock value overnight.
That’s overnight, Kester.
Long term? It gets worse. Wescor holds 28% of our market shares. If they pull out and others follow-which they will-our board will start looking for alternatives. You already know what that means.
They’ll vote you out.”
—
More emails came in:
“Valor Lante just secured two new government contracts-both of which we were also bidding for.”
“We have a PR nightmare brewing. Journalists are sniffing around our Scotland branch situation.”
Every email, every fucking message, was like a hand tightening around my throat… Another shove toward the edge of a cliff I couldn’t afford to fall from.
Wescor pulling out.
Belinzo shutting us out.
Valor Lante taking everything.
My fingers curled into fists, my temples pulsing as I ground my teeth together. This wasn’t just competition. This was war. A well-calculated attempt to gut me from the inside out.
Why?
Because I didn’t let him get my sister’s pussy?
And the board-those spineless fucks-if the numbers took a sharp enough dip, they’d turn on me without hesitation. They’d vote me out and hand over everything I built to some corporate puppet willing to play nice.
I exhaled slowly, pushing away from the bed where I sat. The very air I was breathing was thick with barely restrained fury.
I walked over to the table by the window, my fingers trailing over the flowers sitting in the glass vase perched at the edge.
It shouldn’t be there. Not so close to falling off the edge of the table.
But I didn’t move it. Neither did I steady it. Instead, I watched it, waiting to see if it would tip over on its own.
I was just like that vase-balanced on the edge, one wrong move away from crashing. If nothing changed, if nothing was done, I’d fall and shatter. Just like it would.
But I left it there, letting it sit and decide.
Just like I was about to.
My jaw clenched as I reached for my phone, preparing to call Rhys in order to start tearing through this mess, when the door slammed open with a violent crack.
I didn’t even have time to look before it was shoved closed with the same force, the sharp bang ricocheting through the room like a gunshot.
“What the actual fuck, Kester?”
June.
Her voice grated on my nerves, adding gasoline to the flames of fury already brewing inside me.
Besides, when did June learn to be this angry?
She stood there, hair tangled, makeup smudged from the night before, still wearing yesterday’s dress. Her arms were crossed tight over her chest, nails digging into her skin as she glared at me like I was the lowest piece of shit in existence.
And for a second-a single second-I didn’t give a fuck.
“You left me in the goddamn car all night!” She said, and for another second, I still didn’t give a shit. No wonder she still looked like yesterday.
I barely looked up from my phone. “You were asleep.”
“I fucking know that,” she snapped. “And when I woke up, I was still in the car! Alone! Do you have any idea how cold it got? How stiff my whole body feels?”
Silence.
“You don’t care, huh? You only care about whatever it is that’s on that phone, isn’t it?” She scoffed.
I forced my jaw to stay locked, to keep my voice level. “You’re fine, aren’t you?”
She let out a humorless laugh. “That’s all you have to say?”
I was quiet.
“Answer me, Kester!” She yelled, a sob escaping her.
“Go and freshen up, June,” I said calmly, doing all I could to keep the storm away. But she was hell-bent on drawing it out.
“You are so unbelievable. You don’t have a heart, Kester… You…” She stepped closer, shaking her head in disbelief, “You don’t even feel guilty, do you? About anything? About how you treat people? About how you treat me?”
She moved closer, her perfume too strong, her presence too loud, her accusations too much.
Everything was just too much!
“I should’ve known. You’re incapable of caring about anyone but your goddamn selfish self-”
The snap was instant. Explosive. Shattering.
My arm moved before I even realized it-my fingers curled around the vase in a blind, vicious surge of motion.
It lifted from the table in a single, fluid arc-
And then it was flying.
A glinting blur of white lilies and glass filled the space before it slammed into the wall beside her.
Shattered.
The impact sent shards exploding in every direction, fine slivers of glass slicing through skin, embedding into soft flesh.
June gasped, stumbling back as thin, red lines bloomed across her cheek, her arm, and her neck.
Silence rang louder than the impact.
For a moment, she just stared at me wide-eyed as if she hadn’t realized that the side of her face was now covered in blood.
My chest rose and fell in jagged, uneven breaths. My fists clenched so tight that my nails dug into my palms. “The next time to speak to me like that ever again, I swear to fuck, your face wouldn’t be the only thing I’d ruin.” I bit out ever so coldly, my eyes narrowing to slits.
Then-her fingers lifted, trembling slightly as they brushed over the fresh cuts on her face. A few pieces of glass clung to her skin, catching the light. Blood beaded at the edges, slipping down in thin, red trails.
She looked at her hand.
Then at me.
The terror in her eyes satisfied the fuck out of me.
Good.
I let her see it. I let her see the monster she was so desperately trying to end up with.