Chapter 158: Unexpected Intruder. [FIXED!]
Liam sat in the car outside the now-emptied building, letting the reality of the last hour settle properly. Three floors, prime location, fully his — and if the rebate system kept trending the way it had been, this wasn’t going to stay a modest operation for long. He’d need actual people around him if he wanted this thing to become what he was already picturing in his head. A real firm. Something built from the ground up on his terms this time.
He pulled up his contacts, scrolling until he landed on the name he needed.
Vanessa.
He hit call before he could second-guess the timing.
It rang twice before she picked up.
["Well, look who’s finally calling like a normal person instead of leaving me on read."]
"I don’t leave people on read."
["You absolutely do."]
Liam smiled despite himself, leaning back against the headrest. "Fair. I’ve been busy."
["Sure you have."] Her tone carried the familiar teasing edge, but there was genuine warmth underneath it too.
["So what’s this call actually about? You don’t usually call just to chat."]
"I’ve got something I want to run by you. In person, though. Not over the phone."
There was a brief pause on her end, just long enough for Liam to wonder if he’d read the moment wrong.
["In person? Is this a date, Liam, or a business thing dressed up as one?"] Vanessa repeated slowly.
"Little bit of both, honestly."
Another pause, shorter this time. ["...Okay. I’m listening."]
"Dinner. Tomorrow night, if you’re free. I’ve got something I want your read on."
He’d half expected some pushback given how things had ended the last time — the canceled plans, the excuse about his parents that she’d seen through immediately, the awkward tension that followed. He’d been bracing for at least a token amount of resistance, some playful hesitation before she agreed just to make him work for it. Instead, her response came fast and easy.
["I’m free. What time?"]
Liam blinked, genuinely a little caught off guard by how smoothly that had gone. "7 work for you?"
["7 is perfect."]
"Great. I’ll text you the location once I lock it in."
["Looking forward to it."] A brief pause, then, quieter, more genuine.
["Honestly, I wasn’t sure you’d actually call again after last time."]
Liam felt something shift slightly in his chest at that — not guilt exactly, but something close to it. "Yeah. Sorry about that, by the way. Wasn’t my finest moment."
["You don’t have to apologize. I get it. Life happens."]
"Still. I mean it."
["Noted. So, this business thing. Should I be nervous?"]
Vanessa said, and he could hear the smile creeping into her voice even through the phone.
"Excited, more like."
["That’s not reassuring."]
"You’ll see tomorrow."
["Cryptic. I like it."] A pause.
["Alright, I’ve got a meeting starting in five, so I actually have to go. But Liam?"]
"Yeah?"
["Don’t stand me up this time."]
"Wouldn’t dream of it."
She hung up, and Liam sat there for a moment longer, staring at the empty building through his windshield, already running through what tomorrow’s pitch would need to look like. Vanessa had sharp instincts, genuine ambition buried underneath the polish — exactly the kind of person worth pulling into something at this early a stage, assuming he could actually convince her the opportunity was real.
He started the car, already mapping out the evening ahead in his head, satisfaction settling comfortably alongside the adrenaline still buzzing from the building’s deed sitting folded in his glove compartment.
Liam dropped his phone into the cupholder and pulled out of the lot, finally letting himself exhale properly for the first time in what felt like hours. The building, Vanessa, the rebate notifications — all of it sat processed now, filed away for tomorrow, and all he wanted at this point was his own bed and a few hours where nothing demanded anything else from him.
He hadn’t been home in days. Between the hotel, Sophia’s place, and everywhere else this stretch had pulled him, his actual apartment had sat empty long enough that he half expected a layer of dust settling over everything by the time he walked back in. Nothing dramatic, just the quiet neglect of a space nobody had occupied in a while.
The drive home passed in a blur, his mind still cycling through logistics — Vanessa’s dinner tomorrow, the building’s furniture clearance, whatever else needed his attention before this all actually started moving. By the time he pulled into his building’s lot, exhaustion had fully caught up with him, heavy and welcome in the way it only got after a day this packed.
He climbed the stairs slower than usual, keys already in hand, mentally halfway into the shower he planned to take the second he got inside.
Then he reached the door and stopped.
Something felt off.
He couldn’t immediately place what — the door looked the same, no obvious signs of forced entry, nothing visibly disturbed from the hallway. But something in the air around the apartment felt different, a faint shift in the atmosphere that his instincts picked up on before his conscious mind fully caught up.
He pressed his palm lightly against the door. Unlocked already, the latch not fully seated the way it should’ve been if the place had genuinely sat empty this whole time.
Someone had been here. Recently, maybe. Or still was.
Liam’s grip tightened slightly around his keys, mind running through the short list of people who actually had access to this place. Darren, obviously — but Darren was still at the gym, last he’d heard, and wouldn’t have had reason to swing by here without mentioning it first.
Which left a much shorter, much less comfortable list of possibilities.
He stood there for a moment longer, weighing his options. Calling out — announcing himself, demanding whoever was inside show themselves — felt like the kind of move that solved nothing and only telegraphed his own unease. If someone genuinely didn’t belong here, alerting them before he even had eyes on the situation was the last thing he wanted to do.
Better to go in quiet. Assess first, react second.
He turned the handle slowly, easing the door open just enough to slip through without announcing his presence, senses fully alert now, exhaustion momentarily forgotten beneath the sharper, more immediate pull of whatever was waiting for him inside.
-
Liam stepped fully inside and the scent hit him almost immediately — faint, but unmistakable, a specific blend of perfume that lodged itself instantly in his memory the second it registered. Sara’s perfume. He’d know it anywhere, even years removed from the relationship, even after everything that had happened since.
He stood still for a moment, letting the thought settle before dismissing it just as quickly. There was no version of reality where Sara had the audacity to actually let herself into his apartment after everything — the silence, the humiliation, the way she’d vanished from his life the moment his career imploded. Reaching out through a text was one thing. Physically showing up here was an entirely different level of boldness that didn’t track, even for someone as calculated as her.
He flipped the light switch, and the apartment lit up around him, unremarkable and quiet, exactly as he’d left it days ago. He made his way toward the kitchen, and by the time he reached it, the scent had already faded almost entirely — strong enough near the entrance to register clearly, but nowhere else in the space. Nothing lingering in the kitchen air, nothing carried through toward the hallway.
That eased his mind slightly. Just residue, probably, some lingering trace from before he’d left, or maybe his brain playing tricks on him after a day this long and strange. He laughed quietly to himself, shaking his head at how quickly his mind had jumped to something so specific.
"Getting paranoid," he muttered, dropping his keys onto the counter.
He grabbed a glass of water, drank it standing at the sink, and finally allowed himself to relax into the quiet of being home. He wandered into the living room, dropped onto the couch with a tired groan, and grabbed the remote, flipping the TV on to whatever came up first — some late-night rerun, background noise more than anything he actually intended to watch.
He let his head fall back against the cushion, eyes closing briefly, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up in full now that there was nothing left demanding his immediate attention.
He had no idea that, just down the hallway, behind the closed door of his own bedroom, Sara sat perfectly still in the dark, listening to every sound drifting through the apartment — the click of the light switch, his footsteps toward the kitchen, the faint hum of the television now playing in the next room.
She’d let herself in hours earlier, using the spare key she’d never returned, and had simply waited, patient and unbothered by the passage of time, exactly the way she always operated when she wanted something to land with maximum effect.
She smiled faintly in the darkness, listening to him settle in, entirely unaware.