Chapter 9

Chloe’s POV

The silence from Drake’s end was a victory, not a defeat.

He hadn’t called. He hadn’t texted back. He hadn’t acknowledged the burner phone message that shattered his board meeting, but I knew he’d read it. I felt the ripple of chaos I had created from the safety of my own apartment. I imagined him, pacing his executive suite, furious at the weakness I had exposed both professional and personal.

A weak man would have called to rage. A controlled man would have sent his security detail. Drake did neither. He simply froze me out, expecting me to wither in his absence. He was waiting for me to break, to send a desperate plea, to confirm I was just a needy child.

I refused to give him the satisfaction.

Instead of obsessing over the burner phone, which remained silent and cold on my nightstand, I focused entirely on his world. My days became consumed by the business section of every major newspaper. I Googled Drake Humphrey, Humphrey Enterp