Keifer POV
The aftermath of the confrontation was a heavy, suffocating silence that followed us from the conference room to the private wing of the building.
Jay hadn't said a word. She moved like a ghost, her heels still clicking with that same lethal precision, but the "armor" of her white dress now looked like a weight she was struggling to carry.
We reached her room. She didn't look at me, but she didn't close the door on me either. That was my invitation.
I stood by the window, watching her. She didn't sit. She didn't cry. She just stood in the center of the room, her hands trembling slightly before she balled them into fists. I didn't ask questions. I didn't push. I knew that if I spoke, the fragile glass wall she'd built around herself would shatter before she was ready to handle the shards.
Without a word, she turned and grabbed a pack of beer from the small fridge in the corner. She didn't look back as she headed for the stairs leading to the private rooftop.
------------------------------
The night air was biting, but Jay didn't seem to feel it. She sat on the edge of the ledge, the city lights reflecting in her eyes like distant, cold stars.
One bottle. Two. Four. By the time the fifth bottle was halfway empty, the rigid line of her shoulders finally slumped. The "CEO" was gone, replaced by a girl who looked smaller than I'd ever seen her.
She finally turned her head, her eyes glassy and unfocused from the alcohol, but burning with a raw, jagged pain.
"You don't want to ask me anything?" she asked, her voice slurred but sharp. "You're just going to stand there like a statue, Keifer? I just threatened to bury my own grandfather. I just called my cousin a useless gambler. Ask me. Demand to know why I'm a monster."
I walked over and sat on the cold concrete beside her, keeping enough distance to give her space but close enough that she could reach me if she fell.
"I want to ask," I said softly, my voice steady. "I have a thousand questions. But I only want the answers when you're ready to give them. Not because I demand them."
Jay exhaled, a long, shaky breath that turned into a bitter laugh. She looked back at the skyline. "I was seven," she started, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Seven years old. My parents, Percy, and Jane... they had to go on this massive business trip across Europe. It was supposed to be a month. They thought I was too young for the travel, so they left me with August and Luna."
She tilted the bottle back, draining the last of it.
"I thought it would be fun. I thought I'd get to eat sweets and hear stories about the family 'legacy.' I was so wrong. The moment the car carrying my parents pulled out of the driveway, the masks came off."
She began to shake—a fine, violent tremor.
"They called it 'taming.' They said I was a
Mariano, and a Mariano woman had to be a perfect heiress and an even more perfect wife. If I didn't stand straight for hours? I didn't eat. If I failed a single lesson in etiquette or finance? They beat me. Not where people could see—the backs of my legs, my torso. Places a dress would hide."
My blood went cold. I felt a roar of static in my ears, my hands gripping the ledge so hard the stone bit into my palms.
"And if I made a mistake?" Jay's voice broke, a small, choked sob escaping. "If I dropped a fork or spoke out of turn... August would lock me in the dog house in the garden. Overnight. In the rain. He'd tell me that animals who can't follow rules belong with the other animals."
She turned to me, her face pale. "But that wasn't the worst part, Keifer. The worst part was when he decided I needed to learn 'composure.' He made me watch a couple... having sex. Right in front of me. I was a child. He said he wanted to see my reaction, to make sure I knew how to be 'indifferent' to the touch of a man so I could never be manipulated by my own desires. He wanted to break my soul before it even had a chance to grow."
"Jay, stop," I choked out. I couldn't breathe. The image of a seven-year-old Jay, alone in that house of horrors, was tearing me apart.
I didn't wait for her permission this time.
I pulled her into my arms, dragging her into my lap and holding her so tightly I felt her heart hammering against my chest like a trapped bird.
"Don't say it. Don't say another word," I whispered into her hair, my own eyes stinging. "I'm here. I've got you. I swear on my life, they will never touch you again. I will make them pay for every second of pain they gave you. I will burn their world down if I have to."
She sobbed then—real, gut-wrenching sobs that shook her entire frame. She clung to my shirt, her fingers digging into my skin as if she were afraid I'd disappear.
After a long time, the sobbing subsided into hiccups. I brushed the hair from her face, my heart aching. "There's one more thing," I said quietly. "Who is Lucas? Truly?"
Jay wiped her eyes, her gaze hardening at the name. "Lucas is the illegitimate child of my grandfather. A secret he kept for years. His mother belongs to the Sterling family—that's why August is so obsessed with him. He sees Lucas as the 'pure' male heir he never had with my father."
She took a shaky breath. "When I was young, August took me to the Sterling estate to meet him. He wanted us to 'bond.' But Lucas... he was already like August. He started to misbehave, to put his hands on me, trying to show me he was the boss. I was terrified.
But then Kuya Kyle... he saw it. He stepped in and saved me. He nearly broke Lucas's arm. From that day on, Kyle wasn't just a cousin or a friend. He became my brother. He was the only one who protected me."
I squeezed her tighter. "Why didn't you tell your parents, Jay? Why didn't you tell Jane or Percy?"
"I was seven, Keifer," she whispered. "I was scared they were in on it. And by the time I was old enough to realize they weren't... I didn't want their pity. I've spent my whole life building this empire so I'd never have to be that little girl in the dog house again. If I told them, they wouldn't see the CEO. They'd see a victim. I can't handle being a victim."
"Then why tell me?" I asked.
Jay looked up at me, her eyes searching mine. "Because I know you know who I am. You've seen me at my strongest and my weakest. And I know... I know you won't pity me. You'll just love me."
I didn't say anything. I just leaned down and kissed her forehead, holding her in the silence of the night until her breathing evened out and she fell into a heavy, alcohol-induced sleep in my arms. I stayed there, staring at the door to the rooftop, my mind racing with a cold, calculated fury.
------------------------------
Author's POV
What Jay didn't know—what neither of us knew—was that the heavy metal door to the rooftop was slightly ajar.
Standing in the shadows of the stairwell were Percy, Jane, Keifer's Parents,Jay's parents, Section e ,Aries, girls and Angelo.
They had be their for fresh air, but they had stopped the moment they heard Jay's voice break.
They had heard everything.They had all exit the rooftop—all of them looking like they had aged twenty years in a single hour.
When the group finally reached the lobby where the others were waiting, the air felt thick with a new, dark gravity.
Jay's mother was slumped against the wall, her hand pressed over her mouth to stifle her screams, tears streaming down her face in a silent torrent of agony.
Jay's father stood rigid, his face a mask of such pure, unadulterated rage that he looked unrecognizable.
Percy and Jane were trembling, their knuckles white as they gripped the railing. The guilt was a physical weight in the air—the realization that while they were building their lives, the girl they loved had been living in a nightmare they had handed her over to.
Keifer's father looked at Jay's father, seeing the shattered shell of a man who had just realized he'd left his lamb with wolves.
"We heard," Percy whispered, his voice cracking. He looked at Section E and the others. "We heard everything."
Aries leaned against the marble pillar, his usual cocky smirk replaced by a grim, hard line. He looked toward the ceiling, as if he could see through the floors to the rooftop where Jay was currently sleeping in Keifer's arms.
"She's been carrying that?" Aries asked, his voice uncharacteristically low. "Since she was seven? While we were out here complaining about trivial things, she was building an empire to bury the people who broke her?"
Angelo shook his head slowly, his eyes shimmering with a mix of fury and profound respect.
He looked at Keifer's parents. "Most people would have turned that pain into a reason to destroy the world. Jay turned it into a reason to protect everyone else. She's not just a CEO. She's a miracle."
Section E stepped forward, their hand trembling .
"She still smiles," someone whispered. "That's the part that kills me. After all that—the beatings, the dog house, the Sterling estate—she still looks at us and makes sure we're okay. She spreads light while she's standing in a shadow we couldn't even imagine.",Freya said.
Keifer's mother looked at Jay's mother, who was being held up by her husband. "She is the strongest person I have ever known," she said softly. "But she shouldn't have to be strong anymore. Not alone."
"She isn't alone," Angelo growled, his hands balling into fists. "The Marianos think they're dealing with a 'broken' girl. They don't realize they just gave a reason for all of us to go to war."
Aries nodded, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "She's been the shield for this entire family for years. It's time we became hers."
Upstairs, the wind continued to howl against the rooftop, but inside the circle of Keifer's arms, the "Monster" the Marianos had tried to create was finally just a girl, safe enough to finally close her eyes.
A/n
Guys excited for next chapter...
Let me know in comment
See you soon 💕