Last night Lena had brought dinner to Mariam’s room and found her sleeping soundly on the floor.
She internally debated whether to wake her.
In the end, she decided not to.
The marble floor was cold enough that Lena had been certain Mariam would wake up on her own sooner or later.
When that happened, she could eat the meal and move to the bed.
Apparently, that assumption had been wrong.
Mariam had slept through the entire night without stirring once, remaining on the cold floor until morning.
Without getting a response Lena softly sighed.
“What would you like for breakfast today?” She had come to ask Mariam what she would prefer to have.
All of a sudden Mariam grabbed the plate from the table and hurled it across the room.
The plate shattered at Lena’s feet.
“I don’t want anything!” Mariam snapped.
“Just get out!”
Her concern was genuine.
Before leaving for work, Jackson had given strict instructions that Mariam was not to be mistreated in any way.
Lena had no intention of provoking her.
Mariam laughed bitterly.
“Then tell Jackson that I’m not eating a single bite if he plans on treating me like a prisoner!” Her voice rose with every word.
“I want to leave! Tell him to let me go!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“Then where is he?” Mariam demanded.
“Bring him here. Right now.”
Lena hesitated.
This woman clearly had no idea how dangerous it was to challenge Jackson Walsh so openly.
Still, she answered politely.
“Master is at the company.”
Mariam clenched her fists.
“When will he come back?”
“At 11 pm…And if you don’t wish to eat,” Lena continued, “that is your decision.”
She knelt down and cleaned the broken plate and spilled food from the floor.
Once everything was spotless again, she gathered the tray and stood.
“I think it’s time you accepted reality. Escaping the master isn’t possible, and the sooner you make peace with that, the better…I’ll return later.”
The door opened briefly before closing once again behind Lena.
The lock clicked once more.
And just like that, Mariam was alone again.
It was a painful reminder that a cage was a cage.
***
Walsh Group, Denver, Colorado
Jackson Walsh sat behind the vast mahogany desk in the executive office on the top floor of Walsh Group Headquarters.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the Denver city skyline, but his attention remained fixed on the report spread before him.
“What do you want, Adrian?” Jackson asked coldly. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Adrian Hayes strolled into the office as though he owned the place.
As the Vice President of Walsh Group, he possessed almost as much authority as Jackson himself.
Unlike most people who feared Jackson, Adrian had long since grown immune to his intimidating presence.
A smirk tugged at Adrian’s lips.
“I heard you’ve locked up a woman in your villa in the mountains.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Sheikh who was standing behind Jackson immediately stiffened.
He wanted nothing more than to throw himself out the nearest window.
Why couldn’t he keep his mouth shut?
Adrian was Jackson’s closest ally, but that didn’t mean he should have been discussing Jackson’s private affairs.
He really had a talent for creating his own problems.
Slowly, Jackson turned to direct an icy glare at Sheikh made the bodyguard feel as though he had already been sentenced to death.
Only after sufficiently terrifying him did Jackson shift his attention back to Adrian.
“Nonsense.”
“Nonsense?” Adrian barked out a laugh before dropping into one of the rotating chairs across from the desk, spinning lazily in it.
“You know, most people would try harder to lie.”
Jackson returned his attention to the report.
Adrian balanced a pen between his fingers and twirled it effortlessly before continuing, “Aren’t you worried the kidnapping news might hit the media?”
A faint snort escaped Sheikh.
Media?
Walsh Group practically controlled half the country’s media and communications industry.
If any news surfaced, Jackson would likely know about it before the journalists did.
Jackson didn’t even glance up.
“Looks like you have too much free time on your hands.”
Adrian ignored his words.
He tossed the pen into the air and caught it again.
“You know you shouldn’t have done this…That man from Turner family is searching her everywhere…And trust me, you don’t want the Kang family involved either.”
Adrian was referring to Ronan Turner and Minghao Kang.
Minghao wasn’t a concern.
Jackson had never viewed him as a threat and barely spared him a second thought.
Ronan, however, was a different matter entirely.
The moment Ronan’s name was mentioned, Jackson’s grip on the document in his hand tightened.
The paper crumpled slightly beneath his fingers.
Ronan was planning to marry Mariam.
Even the thought left a bitter taste in Jackson’s mouth.
“I can deal with both of them,” he said coldly.
Adrian studied him from across the desk.
Officially, Jackson was his boss, but they considered each other friends.
However, Jackson didn’t believe in friendship.
In his vocabulary, Adrian was merely a “close acquaintance.” It was the closest thing to friendship Jackson would ever admit.
“But she is literally the only woman who has ever sparked your feelings…”
Jackson’s expression darkened as he leaned back in his chair and briefly closed his eyes.
How could he hate Mariam?
Jackson had fallen in love with Mariam the very first time he saw her.
From that moment on, no other woman ever captured his attention.
Eventually, the two of them started dating.
But everything changed when Mariam ended their relationship and left to study abroad, cutting off all contact with him.
Jackson never tried to stop her.
The reason was simple—before leaving, Mariam had told him that she had always loved Ronan and that she had never truly loved him.
Those words were enough to make him let her go, even though it was the last thing he wanted.
But had he truly ever let her go?
When he finally opened his eyes again, his voice was flat.
“Let her think that.”
Adrian frowned.
“What exactly happened between you two?”
Jackson said nothing.
“She believes you’re the one behind this marriage. She has no idea that her father was the one who forced it on you. And the only reason you agreed was because the Doyle family is in serious trouble,” Adrian continued deliberately.
“The people responsible for the Doyle family’s downfall want them completely destroyed. Mariam is a target as well. If her safety weren’t at risk, you never would have gotten involved in the first place.”
Adrian shot Jackson a pointed look.
“You should tell her the truth. Once she understands everything you’ve done for her, she might actually be moved by it.” A faint grin appeared on his face.
“Who knows? She might even start to like you.”
Jackson’s jaw tightened.
“It’s not safe…If she knows the truth, she’ll become a target.”
Adrian leaned back in his chair.
“And who exactly hates the Doyle family enough to destroy them?”
The Walshs may have hated the Doyles, but they were not responsible for the family’s bankruptcy.
The truth was far more complicated.
Someone else had orchestrated the Doyle family’s downfall from the shadows—someone powerful, influential and capable of pulling strings without ever stepping into the spotlight.
“I’m still looking into it,” Jackson said.
Whoever it was had gone to extraordinary lengths to destroy the Doyles and wipe them from existence.
He was determined to find them.
“And I will protect her at all costs.”
Adrian knew exactly where Jackson’s bottom line lay.
It was Mariam.
Mariam was the butterfly in spring that had captured Jackson’s attention long ago.
Rare and beautiful, she was something he had wanted to hold onto for years.
The problem was that some things were too delicate to be caged.
The tighter you tried to hold them, the more likely they were to break.