Chapter 189: The Reckoning 3

Harper’s POV

"Baby, please... I will handle it!" Justin pleaded, his eyes pleading, dark with desperation.

"How, Justin?!" I stepped right up to him, tilting my head up to look directly into his eyes. "How are you going to handle them when you don’t even know what kind of evil they are capable of? You have no idea what those people will do to protect themselves!"

"I will do whatever I have to do!" he snapped back, his voice dropping into a harsh, dark promise.

"That is exactly what I am afraid of!" I wiped the hot tears off my cheeks with the back of my trembling hand. "I don’t want you fighting my battles! I never asked you to fight this for me!"

"I am not fighting your battle alone! I am standing right beside you!"

"You just made the battle ten times bigger!" I yelled, my breath hitching in my chest.

Silence crashed down between us again. Heavy, thick, and utterly suffocating. The air felt thin, like all the oxygen had been sucked straight out of the room.

Justin stared at me, his chest heaving under his dark shirt. I stared back at him, my own breathing short and shallow.

Then, his tall shoulders slumped down completely, the rigid tension leaving his frame all at once. "I’m sorry," he whispered, his voice cracking down the middle. He took a hesitant step forward and opened his arms wide. "Babe, please... come here."

I immediately took two sharp steps backward, putting distance between us, away from his reach. "Don’t."

He froze in place, his broad arms hovering awkwardly in the empty air. "Harper..."

"Don’t touch me right now," I choked out.

I turned around, unable to look at his broken expression for another single second. The sight of him hurting was ripping me apart, but the blinding terror inside me was louder. I walked straight past the living room and down the corridor into the bedroom.

"Where are you going?" he asked, his heavy, urgent footsteps following me closely down the hall.

"I need to leave."

I stepped into the bedroom, and when he caught up to the doorway, his face drained of all color. "What?"

"I need some time away," I said, my voice trembling as I refused to look at him.

"You don’t have to leave, Harper!"

I pulled my big overnight bag out of the closet and threw it onto the middle of the mattress. The heavy zip rasped loudly in the quiet room.

"Harper, please!" he begged, stepping into the room.

I ignored him, marching over to the dresser, grabbing a haphazard stack of clothes from the top drawer, and shoving them straight inside the open bag.

"Babe, it hasn’t gotten to this point! Please, just talk to me!"

"I know you wanted to help me," I said, my voice cold and shaky as I grabbed another shirt and stuffed it into the corner. "I know you thought you were doing something good. But you should have asked me first, Justin."

"I know!"

"I kept asking you what the plan was! I kept asking you how we were going to handle things, and you kept hiding things from me!"

"I was trying to shield you!" he yelled, his hands balling into tight fists at his sides.

"By putting me right in his line of sight?!" I whipped around to face him, my chest heaving. "By making sure he knows exactly where to look?! By throwing my face and my mom’s entire life onto every screen in the world?!"

Justin went completely silent, his lips pressed into a tight, pale line. He couldn’t answer that. He just stood there, looking at me with a devastation that almost made my knees give out.

I turned back to the bed, grabbing the zipper and pulling it shut with a harsh tug. "Now he is going to come for us."

"Harper, please don’t do this..."

"What if he finds where my sister lives? What if he finds my nephew and my niece? What if he finds me?!"

"He won’t!"

"You cannot promise me that!" I grabbed my laptop off the desk, shoved it roughly into the front padded pocket, and zipped it up.

Justin watched every single frantic movement, standing by the bed looking entirely helpless. "You don’t have to leave the apartment," he said softly, his tone pleading now.

"I do."

"No, you don’t."

"I need space, Justin!"

"Take space right here," he pressed, taking a slow step closer. "I’ll sleep in the guest room. I won’t bother you. I’ll stay out of your way completely."

"I can’t stay here right now," I whispered, shaking my head. The walls felt like they were closing in on me. Every corner of this apartment reminded me of the ads, of the storm he had just unleashed.

He swallowed hard, his throat working visibly as he tried to hold back the overwhelming emotion in his eyes. "Please..."

I lifted the heavy bag by its strap and slung it over my shoulder. "I just need some time away from you right now."

Those words hit him like a physical blow. I saw the raw, agony slice right through his dark eyes, shattering the quiet composure he always kept.

My heart screamed at me to stop. It screamed at me to drop the bag, throw my arms around his neck, and bury my face in his chest. But the paralyzing panic inside my brain swallowed every bit of warmth whole.

I pushed past him, my shoulder brushing his, and walked straight out of the bedroom, down the long hallway toward the front door.

Justin turned and followed closely behind my heels. "Babe, please... I’m so sorry. Just talk to me."

I reached the foyer, unlocked the heavy front door, and stepped out into the quiet, carpeted corridor. I reached out and pressed the metallic elevator button.

"Let me at least drive you to where you’re going," Justin begged, standing in the open doorway, his hair messier than I had ever seen it.

"No."

"Harper, please. It’s late. It’s dark outside."

"I said no, Justin."

The metal elevator doors slid open with a quiet, polite chime.

Justin stepped out into the hallway, stopping right at the edge of the elevator entrance, unable to cross the threshold. "Just let me take you home safely. That’s all I’m asking. Please."

"I don’t want you to drive me." I stepped inside the elevator cab and turned around to face him.

He stood right outside the frame, tall and wide-shouldered, looking at me like his entire world was falling apart right before his eyes.

I reached out with a trembling finger and pressed the button for the main lobby.

Tears were streaming freely down my face now, hot, heavy, and completely unstoppable.

Justin stood there, his hands hanging uselessly by his sides, staring at me as if he couldn’t process the fact that I was actually walking away from him. "Harper..."

I shook my head slowly, my knuckles white as I gripped the strap of my heavy bag. "I just need to be away from you right now."

The heavy elevator doors began to slide shut, slicing through the warm light of his hallway.

His eyes stayed locked on mine, filled with a desperate, unspoken plea, until the very last sliver of space vanished.

CLACK.

The mechanical lift engaged, and the elevator began its smooth, silent descent.

The second we were moving, my strength completely failed me. I leaned my back against the cold mirrored wall, slid down until my knees hit the floor, and pulled them up to my chest. I buried my face in my arms and began sobbing uncontrollably into the quiet space of the cab.

I hated this. I hated that we were screaming at each other. I hated that he had done this out of a desperate, fiercely protective love, and I hated that I was punishing him for it.

And most of all, I was terrified. Terrified that in his attempt to save me, he had just handed my father the exact weapon he needed to destroy us all.

By the time the elevator chimes signaled our arrival at the ground floor, I had managed to pull myself up, wiping my soaked face with my sleeves. I opened my phone with shaking hands and ordered a ride.

A few minutes later, the black sedan pulled up to the glass entrance of the building. I dragged my heavy bag out through the double doors, pulled open the back door, and slid onto the cold leather seat.

"Where to, miss?" the driver asked quietly.

I gave him my address, my voice barely a whisper.

As the car pulled away from the curb and merged into the quiet night traffic, I turned my head, pressing my forehead against the cool glass window. I looked back up at the high-rise, searching for the warm, glowing windows of Justin’s penthouse suite high above the city.

My heart shattered into a million jagged pieces.

But I couldn’t turn back. Not tonight.

I needed to get back to my own space. I needed to lock my door. I needed to breathe.

And I needed to figure out how we were going to survive the storm that was about to break over our heads.