Dear reader, please read the next chapter first. Its chapter 3.
The night air was a sharp contrast to the suffocating luxury of the gala. Cool, crisp, and scented with the faint aroma of rain, it wrapped around Lily as she stepped onto the mansion's grand terrace, her hands trembling at her sides.
She needed to breathe. To think. To convince herself that the last ten minutes hadn't just happened.
Behind her, the gala carried on, the hum of conversation and clinking glasses a distant melody. Inside, women in glittering gowns draped themselves over men who had the power to shape entire industries. Deals were made with nothing but a glance, fortunes changed with a whispered word.
And somewhere in that gilded room, **Anthony Calloway** was still watching her.
Lily didn't have to turn around to know it.
She felt his presence before he even stepped outside.
The shift in the air. The quiet command in the way the laughter inside softened, as if the room itself responded to him.
She inhaled sharply when his deep voice cut through the silence behind her.
"You ran."
Lily closed her eyes for a brief second, then turned. "I stepped out for air."
Anthony leaned against the stone railing, looking infuriatingly composed. His suit, perfectly tailored to his broad frame, was a masterpiece of Italian craftsmanship—midnight black with subtle embroidery at the cuffs. The crisp white shirt beneath stretched against his chest, and the open collar exposed a hint of tanned skin, a sharp contrast to the cold ruthlessness in his gaze.
A billionaire in every sense of the word—refined, dangerous, and completely in control.
"Air?" His lips quirked in amusement. "Or an escape?"
Lily swallowed hard. "You think too highly of yourself."
He chuckled, the sound low and rich. "I think just enough."
Silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken challenges.
She should have been used to men like him—men who wielded power like a weapon and expected the world to bow. But Anthony Calloway was different. He wasn't just wealthy. He wasn't just arrogant.
He was **dangerously** perceptive.
"You don't belong in there." His voice softened, but the weight of his words wrapped around her like a chain. "You don't like their games."
Lily exhaled slowly, staring out at the sprawling city lights beyond the terrace. "And you do?"
Anthony studied her. "I don't play games, sweetheart." He took a slow step toward her, his presence overwhelming, intoxicating. "I set the rules."
Her fingers curled against the stone railing. "And if I don't agree to this… deal?"
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
"Then I walk away," he said, voice smooth but laced with something darker. "And so do your dreams."
Her breath hitched.
He wouldn't.
He couldn't.
But looking into his unreadable gaze, she knew the truth. Anthony Calloway was not a man who made empty threats.
Lily's heart pounded as she faced the impossible choice in front of her.
Her freedom.
Or her dreams.
And she had less than twenty-four hours to decide.
Dear reader, go to the next chapter first, its chapter 3