HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Bianca

“It affects me,” Max said. “In every way that still concerns me.”

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I looked at him for a long moment, the way you look at something you cannot believe you are still dealing with. Then I shifted my box to the side, set it down by a door, and turned to face him fully.

“Okay, Max.” My voice came out quieter than I expected, which was fine. Quiet meant I was not going to waste energy. “I will say this once and I am never going to say it again.” I held up one finger. “Once. Are you listening?”

He opened his mouth. “Don’t answer that, just listen.” I clasped my hands in front of me. “We do not have any business anymore. None. Whatever we were, whatever you think we still are, it ended. It is done. So what the actual fuck are you doing at my front door?”

He did not say anything, which I took as permission to continue.

“You have no property here. You have no reason to be here. You have never had a key, you have never paid a single bill inside this apartment, and if you do not leave right now I will call the police and I will not feel one single thing about it.”

I waited for him to say something or move away but Max smiled. “Bianca.” His voice dropped into the one he used when he wanted to sound reasonable. “Baby girl, I know you just needed time to cool off. That is all this is.”

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“Don’t you dare call me that.” I felt disgusted.

“Do not call me that.”

He raised both hands, placating. “Okay. Okay, fine. I was wrong.” He said it easily, like it cost him absolutely nothing. “I was wrong, alright? But who doesn’t make mistakes? I mean, we are all human here, Bianca. You have made mistakes too.”

“Get out of this place, Max.”

“You want to be stubborn right?” The patient smile he was acting with shifted, his jaw tightened. He looked at me with something new in his eyes. “Because you could pay your sister’s surgery fee? Because you moved her into the VIP ward?”

I was very shocked to hear that from him but I did not let it show on my face, I was very deliberate about that, but inside something had seized up completely.

I had not told anyone about that, had not mentioned it in passing to mutual friends, had not even talked to my sister about the specifics because she was still recovering and I did not want her worrying about money, the only people who knew were the hospital and me.

“Have you been stalking me?” I asked. My voice was steady. I was proud of myself for that. “How did you know that?”

“The better question,” Max said, and he was already leaning into it, I could see the calculation settling behind his eyes like he had been waiting all evening to get to this part, “is how were you able to afford all of that?”

There it was, recognized it immediately, that angle of approach, the particular way he was watching my face for a reaction. He was not asking because he did not know. He was asking because he wanted me to understand that he knew, and that he was choosing to frame it as a question, which was infinitely more threatening than just saying it outright.

Leave Max

11:54 Wed, Jul 22 JT.

Chapter 31

“I am just asking a simple question.” He smiled.

“Leave.”

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“Bianca.” He took one step forward. “Unlike every other person in your life, I know what kind of life you live outside the corporate world.” He let that sit for exactly one second. “Are you sure you need more of an audience? Or are you going to be a good girl and stop all of this?”

“Oh.” I laughed. It came out before I could decide whether it was the right response and then I decided it was exactly the right response, because the look on his face when I laughed was genuinely something. Confusion first, then irritation, then the careful mask sliding back into place.

“Are you threatening me,” I said, still smiling, “with a job that I did? A job you ate from? A job that kept the lights on in your apartment for almost two years while you figured out what you actually wanted to do with your life?”

“That is not the point.”

“That is literally the only point.” I tilted my head. “You want to go and tell people? Tell them what exactly? That I worked? That I made money? Go ahead, Max. Go talk.” I spread my hands open. “Walk out of here right now and go tell every single person you know. I will wait.”

“You think this is a joke.”

“I think you came here thinking you had something on me and you are now realizing you do not, and that is making you very upset.” I bent down, picked up my bag, and tucked it under one arm. “But more than that, I think you have forgotten. something important.”

He was watching me.

“If you open your mouth,” I said, very calmly. “I will dismantle the last thing you have left. And I know exactly what that last thing is.” I held his gaze for one moment, long enough for him to feel it. “Do not test me on this one.”

I did not wait for him to find something to say, I turned, gripped my box, and started walking toward my door without looking back. I found my keys in my jacket pocket, got the door open on the first try which was honestly a small miracle because my hands were not as steady as I needed them to be, and I pushed through it..

I closed it behind me quietly, set the box down in my entryway, and stood there in the dark of my own apartment for a moment, listening to the sound of my own breathing.

Then I turned on the lights, dropped my keys on the counter, and went to find something to eat because I had not had dinner and I was not about to let Max ruin that for me too.

I ordered food, changed out of my clothes, and sat on my couch with my phone face down on the cushion beside me. I did not want to look at it. I was not ready to deal with whatever was waiting in it or whoever might call next or whatever other piece of the last few days was still outstanding.

I ate when the food arrived and I started to watch something I knew I wasn’t going to remember tomorrow.

“Should I have been calmer about the whole situation?” I thought and I quickly shook my head.

“He didn’t deserve it.” I said as I picked up my phone.

I set my phone down again, I would think about it tomorrow. Tonight I had done everything I could and I was tired, genuinely deeply tired. I turned off the television, rinsed my takeaway container, and went to wash my face.

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