Maya's POV
"Do you still love Derek, or do you just want revenge?"
Ethan's question echoes in the examination room. Outside, police sirens grow louder. Patricia is being arrested. Vanessa sobs in the hallway. Derek's press conference plays on repeat on every news channel.
And I'm standing here, pregnant and confused, staring at a man who wants to know if my heart still belongs to someone else.
"I don't know," I finally admit. "How can I still love someone who hurt me so badly?"
"Love doesn't follow logic," Ethan says quietly. "You can hate someone and love them at the same time."
"Is that how you feel about me?" I ask. "Because of my mother and your father?"
His eyes widen slightly. "What?"
"You blame my family for your father's death. Detective Marcus told me everything. My mother broke your father's heart. He killed himself because of her." I force myself to look directly at him. "So do you hate me, Ethan? Is that why you're really helping me? To make me pay for what my mother did?"
"No." His voice is firm. "I did blame your family at first. When I started planning this revenge, you were just a name on my investigation board. Richard Chen's daughter. A way to get close to the people who destroyed my father."
"And now?"
"Now you're the woman who's been sick in my bathroom every morning for a week. The woman who cries in her sleep. The woman who's braver than she knows." He steps closer. "Now you're Maya. Not Richard's daughter. Not Derek's ex. Just Maya. And I don't hate you."
Tears sting my eyes. "But you're still using me for revenge."
"Yes," he admits. "But that doesn't mean I want to see you hurt. It doesn't mean I don't care what happens to you."
"Even though I'm pregnant with Derek's baby?"
"Even though." Ethan touches my face gently. "That baby is innocent. It didn't ask to be born into this mess. Just like you didn't ask to be born into a family of liars and manipulators."
His honesty breaks something inside me. I start crying—really crying. All the stress and fear and confusion pour out.
Ethan pulls me into his arms and just holds me while I sob. He doesn't tell me to stop. He doesn't say everything will be okay. He just lets me fall apart.
"I'm sorry," I finally gasp. "I'm getting your shirt all wet."
"I don't care about the shirt." He hands me tissues from the examination table. "Feel better?"
"A little." I wipe my face. "Ethan, I need to be honest with you about something."
"I'm listening."
"I overheard you on the phone the other night. You said I was a weapon. You said you were using me to destroy everyone connected to your father's death."
Ethan goes very still. "You heard that conversation?"
"Yes. And I met with Detective Marcus because I wanted to know if you were lying to me about everything."
"And what did you decide?"
"I decided that everyone is using me for something. Marcus wants to arrest James Walsh and needs a witness. Derek wants forgiveness and maybe a chance to be with me again. Patricia wants to control my baby. James wants to eliminate me as a threat." I look at Ethan directly. "And you want revenge so badly you're willing to use anyone to get it."
"That's all true," Ethan admits.
"So why should I stay with you instead of going to Derek? He just destroyed his entire family on live television. He's choosing me over his father, finally. Isn't that what I always wanted?"
"Is it?" Ethan asks. "Or did you want Derek to choose you from the beginning, without needing to lose everything first?"
His words hit hard because they're true. Derek only turned against his family after his marriage was exposed as a fraud. After I was with someone else. After it was too late.
"I don't love Derek anymore," I realize as I say it out loud. "Or maybe I still do, but it's not the same. It's like loving a memory. The person he used to be."
"And how do you feel about me?" Ethan asks quietly.
I wasn't expecting that question. "I don't know. You terrify me. You're using me for revenge. You've lied to me multiple times. But you also saved me when I had nowhere to go. You're protecting me when everyone else wants to hurt me. And when I look at you, I feel—"
"Feel what?"
"Safe," I whisper. "Which is insane because you're probably the most dangerous person in my life."
Ethan smiles slightly. "Probably."
"Why are you really helping me? And don't say revenge. There has to be more to it than that."
He's quiet for a long moment. "When my father died, I was eighteen and completely alone. My mother left. My sister broke down. I had no one. I built my entire life around the idea of making the people who hurt us pay for what they did."
"That's not healthy."
"I know. But it kept me going." He looks at me with something raw in his eyes. "Then I found you sitting on those steps with your three boxes, and I saw myself. Lost. Betrayed. Broken. And I thought maybe I could stop someone else from becoming as damaged as me."
"So you're saving me to save yourself?"
"Maybe. Or maybe I'm trying to prove that not everyone in this story has to be destroyed by James Walsh's cruelty."
My phone buzzes. A text from Derek.
"Maya, please call me. I know you're angry, but we need to talk about what I just did. About us. About everything. I love you. I never stopped loving you."
I show the text to Ethan. "What do I do?"
"That's your choice. Not mine."
"If I respond, if I give Derek another chance, will you still help me?"
"Yes," Ethan says without hesitation. "Our arrangement doesn't depend on your relationship status. It depends on destroying James Walsh. Derek's press conference actually helps us. He's given the police ammunition they didn't have before."
"So you want me to use Derek too. Get information from him."
"I want you to make your own choices." Ethan's voice is firm. "If you want to be with Derek, be with Derek. If you want revenge, get revenge. If you want both, do both. But stop letting everyone else make decisions for you."
He's right. I've spent my whole life letting other people control my choices. Derek told me what to do. My family told me what to do. Even Ethan has been guiding my decisions.
"I need to think," I say. "About Derek, about the baby, about everything."
"Fair enough." Ethan helps me stand. "But first, you need to eat. Dr. Kim's orders. No stress, proper nutrition, rest."
"How am I supposed to avoid stress when my life is literally falling apart?"
"By focusing on one thing at a time. Right now, that thing is food."
We leave through the back exit to avoid the reporters swarming the front entrance. Patricia is being loaded into a police car, screaming about lawsuits. Vanessa sits on the curb, makeup ruined, looking nothing like the perfect dying bride anymore.
"Where are we going?" I ask as we get in Ethan's car.
"Shopping."
"What? No. I need to go home and process everything—"
"You need normalcy. You need to feel like a regular person doing regular things." He starts the engine. "Plus, you've been wearing the same three outfits for days. Let me buy you some actual clothes."
"I don't want your charity."
"It's not charity. It's necessity." He pulls into traffic. "Consider it part of our arrangement. I'm investing in your appearance."
"That sounds terrible."
"Fine. I'm buying you clothes because I want to and you can't stop me." He glances at me. "Better?"
Despite everything, I smile. "Slightly better."
We drive to an expensive shopping district. The kind of place I used to walk past but never enter. Ethan parks in front of a boutique with mannequins in the window wearing dresses that cost more than my monthly rent used to be.
"I can't afford anything here," I protest.
"Good thing I can." He gets out and opens my door. "Come on. Let's get you something that doesn't have coffee stains."
Inside, the boutique is all glass and marble and intimidating sales associates. A woman approaches immediately, her smile bright and professional.
"Mr. Stone! What a pleasure to see you again."
"Hello, Gabrielle. I need you to help my fiancée find everything she needs. Full wardrobe. No budget limit."
Gabrielle's eyes widen as she looks at me. I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt that's seen better days. I look completely out of place.
"Of course! Congratulations on your engagement!" She's already pulling clothes from racks. "Let's start with basics and work our way up to statement pieces."
Before I can protest, Gabrielle whisks me into a changing room with an armful of designer clothes. I try on dress after dress, each one more beautiful and expensive than the last.
When I step out in a simple blue sundress, Ethan is sitting in a chair waiting. His expression changes when he sees me.
"You look beautiful," he says quietly.
"It's just a dress."
"It's not the dress." His eyes don't leave my face. "You look happy. I haven't seen you look happy since the night I met you."
I look at myself in the mirror. He's right. Despite everything terrible happening in my life, I do look happy. The dress makes me feel pretty. Normal. Like a regular girl shopping with her boyfriend.
Except Ethan isn't my boyfriend. He's my fake fiancé who's using me for revenge.
Why does that thought make me sad?
"Maya?"
I turn and see Sophie standing in the boutique doorway, shopping bags in her hands. Her mouth drops open.
"Sophie!" I rush over to hug my best friend. "What are you doing here?"
"Getting bridesmaid dress alterations for my cousin's wedding." She looks past me to Ethan, then back to me. "Maya, what the hell is going on? I saw you at the gala with Ethan Stone, and now you're shopping together? Are the engagement rumors true?"
"It's complicated," I start.
"I'll say." Sophie pulls me to the corner, away from Ethan. "Girl, you have to tell me everything. Derek got married to Vanessa, then you show up with a billionaire, then Derek goes on TV and exposes his own father? What is happening?"
"I'm pregnant," I blurt out before I can stop myself.
Sophie's eyes go huge. "What?"
"Eight weeks. Derek's baby. But Derek doesn't know yet."
"Oh my god." Sophie grabs my hands. "Maya, this is—this is huge. Does Ethan know?"
"Yes."
"And he's okay with it?"
"Apparently."
Sophie looks over at Ethan, who's examining clothes and pretending not to listen. "Maya, I need to tell you something. Something I saw last week that's been bothering me."
"What?"
"I was at the Grand Hotel for a business lunch. I saw Ethan having a private meeting with someone." She lowers her voice. "Maya, he was having lunch with James Walsh."
My blood runs cold. "What?"
"Derek's father. Ethan was sitting at a table with him, having what looked like a very serious conversation." Sophie's face is worried. "Why would your fiancé be meeting with the man who's supposedly his enemy?"
I turn slowly to look at Ethan. He's watching us now, his expression unreadable.
He met with James Walsh. Secretly. While claiming to be helping me destroy him.
What else has Ethan been lying about?