Chapter 9
I remember the night I lost everything–my family, my name, the money I was born with. My old man told me if I stayed with Savannah, I was done. “She’s beneath you,” he spat. “Just a pretty face with no pedigree.”
I remember looking him in the eye and saying, “Then I’ll build my own fucking name.”
He laughed. Told me I’d come crawling back. I never did.
Savannah was waiting for me on the curb outside.
‘Ready to be poor with me?” she asked, grinning.
I kissed her forehead. “As long as I’m poor with you.”
We moved into a roach–infested apartment in Rosewater Heights. The ceiling leaked, the neighbors screamed through the walls, and the heat barely worked. But Savannah made it feel like heaven.
She painted the cracked walls peach and cream, put sticky notes of encouragement on the fridge, sang while doing dishes like we were living in a damn musical.
She worked three jobs while I hustled in backrooms, making shady deals and planning my rise. She’d come home at 1 a.m., tired as hell, but still made me tea and rubbed my shoulders.
‘We’re gonna make it,” she’d whisper into my neck.
‘We?” I teased.
‘We’re a unit,” she said. “No matter how high you climb, I’m right there beside you. And if you fall, I fall too.”
I remember when we opened our first office. Just a single room above a bakery. Savannah bought a secondhand desk and a broken coffee machine. We stayed up until sunrise setting it up. She scribbled our names on the whiteboard and drew a crown above mine.
‘CEO,” she grinned.
‘You don’t even like titles,” I said.
‘I like yours,” she replied. “Because I know what it cost you.”
I remember the night the money started rolling in. We signed our first million–dollar deal. I was drunk on adrenaline and champagne. Everyone celebrated, but all I saw was her across the room -glowing, proud, teary–eyed. When we got home, I pulled her into the shower with all our clothes
- on.
“We did it,” I whispered.
She laughed against my chest. “Told you. Just needed one woman who believed in you.”
“You were always more than that,” I told her. “You’re my whole goddamn world.”
And I remember the last time she held me like that–years later–after I came home from that ambush. Bullet graze on my side, blood soaking through my shirt. She screamed when she saw me stumble through the door.
“Zeus!”
I collapsed in the entryway. She caught me before I hit the ground.
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“You’re okay,” she sobbed, clutching my face. “You’re okay. Stay with me, please. Please dont
- go.
She stayed up all night, pressing towels to the wound, making soup, humming lullabies like it could keep Death away.
I remember thinking, how could one woman love this much? And now she’s gone. Because I turmed my back. Because I let Zoraya steal her place, her peace, her pride.
I stared at the journal and whispered it one more time, so low it was barely a sound
“What the fuck have I done….”
Zexst
I didn’t hear her at first.
Zoraya
She walked in quiet, barefoot. Wearing my shirt. Her bump barely showing but she walked like it made her queen of the camn world. She came over and knet beside me
Told you she was unstable‘ she whispered. “You did the right thing. She would’ve ruined us
I looked at her. Her fucking eyes.
Empty
“You don’t get to talk about her I growled
She birked, lips parting. Tm canying your child, Zeus‘
I stood. Slowly. My hand bleeding. My shin soaked from my own quilt. You need to get out
Shetited her head. “Excuse me?”
I pointed to the door “You heard me. Get Out”
Her expression cracked. All that fake softness dropped in an instant. “You hit her for me ste snapped. “You let her crawl in the fucking rain like a dog. For me. Dorit act brand new now
I stepped forward. Close enough for her to see the tears in my eyes. The fury. The regret. “And I’ll never forgive myself for it‘ I said cold. “You think that makes you special? You think that eams you my love?”
‘She’s dead” Zoraya screamed, her face twisting Dead, Zevs! I word I’m the one who’s still here Mel So either stop mourning your little corpse and come back to reality–or I swear to God, ril abort this child and disappea
just stared at her
Didn’t Birk
Dight finch
let the silence answer for me.
Because I couldn’t say what I was really thinking that I wish it were her in the grave. Not Savannah.
Zoraya backed up like she felt it
1 mean it, Zeus, she snapped, her voice shaking now. “Choose. Her ghost or me”
I laughed. Bitter, Dry. Then I sat on the edge of Savannah’s ruined bed, held her journal in my
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hands like it was holy.
And I cried. For real. No pride left. No image. Just a man who murdered the only thing good in his world by loving the wrong woman.
Zoraya didn’t leave.
She just stood there. Watching me fall apart like it was a movie she already knew the ending to.
But I didn’t care.
Let her watch.
Because from now on, every room in this penthouse belongs to Savannars ghost
And I hope she haunts me for the rest of my fucking life.
The elevator ride down to the morgue felt like it lasted a fucking lifetime. Every floor that passed felt like another nail in the coffin I put her in. And the worst part? She didn’t even fight me. StE just… broke quiet. Took every hit. Every cold word. Every betrayal Like it was her job to suffer fr my sins.
That was Savannah. Loyal even when I didn’t deserve it.
The doors slid open to that sterile, cold hallway. Smelled like bleach and old air. Two doctors were already waiting by the morgue door. Eyes low, faces tight. One of them wouldn’t even meet my fucking gaze. And I knew then. They knew. They all knew I didn’t deserve to be down here. “Everything’s prepared, the older one said. “We’ve… kept the body as per protocol
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