Maya POV
The conference room smelled like expensive coffee and regret.
Maya sat at a long table with Robert, her lawyer, a notebook in front of her that she hadn't written anything in. Through the glass walls, she could see the Boston skyline. She could see people walking on the streets below like it was a normal day. It wasn't. For them it was. For her, the world had stopped.
Robert kept adjusting his papers. He was nervous. That made her more nervous.
"He's here," Robert said quietly.
Maya's stomach dropped to her feet.
She didn't look up. She didn't want to see him walk in. She wanted to pretend this wasn't happening. She wanted to be home with her children. She wanted to be anywhere but here.
The door opened.
And there he was.
Isaac Hale looked exactly like she'd remembered. Except he didn't. He looked harder. Colder. Like he'd been carved from something that used to be human but wasn't anymore.
He was wearing a suit that probably cost more than her car. His hair was styled in a way that looked effortless but probably took money to maintain. His watch was the kind of watch that told you everything about a person's net worth.
But it was his face that stopped her breathing.
He looked exactly like Ethan.
The same sharp jaw. The same intense eyes that looked at you like they were reading your entire history. The same way of standing like he owned the room just by being in it.
Isaac sat down directly across from her.
He didn't say hello. He didn't shake hands. He didn't pretend this was anything other than what it was.
"You had no right," he said. His voice was quiet. Which made it worse than if he'd yelled.
Maya's hands shook. Robert put a hand on her arm.
"Mr. Hale," Robert started. "Let's keep this professional."
Isaac didn't even look at Robert. His eyes stayed on Maya.
"You hid my children from me for eight years. You made a choice that wasn't yours to make. You decided what I deserved to know about my own sons and you decided to tell me nothing."
"I told you I was pregnant," Maya said. Her voice came out smaller than she wanted. "I told you I wanted to be a mother. I asked you to choose our family."
"You asked me to choose," Isaac said. "You gave me an ultimatum. Marry you or lose you. And when I said I wasn't ready, you decided to punish me by taking my children."
The words hit like a slap.
"That's not what I did," Maya said, but her voice was shaking.
"That's exactly what you did." Isaac leaned forward slightly. "You decided you were angry. You decided I didn't deserve to be a father. You decided my children would grow up thinking I abandoned them. And you never gave me the choice to prove you wrong."
Maya wanted to defend herself. She wanted to explain that he'd told her he didn't want children. That he'd made it clear his ambitions mattered more than her. That she'd been scared and alone and doing the best she could.
Instead, she felt tears start to burn behind her eyes.
"You told me you didn't have time for a family," she said quietly.
"I told you I was afraid," Isaac said. And something in his voice cracked just slightly. "I told you I didn't know how to be what you needed. And instead of working through that with me, you left. And you took them with you."
Robert stood up. "This isn't productive. If we're going to discuss custody arrangements, we need to do this professionally."
Isaac finally looked at Robert.
"Fine. Let's talk custody. I want my sons for alternate weekends. I want them for two weeks in July. I want shared decision-making on medical and educational choices. And I want paternity confirmation done within forty-eight hours."
"That's not a reasonable request for visitation," Robert said. "The children barely know you. We're talking about overnight stays with someone they just met."
"They barely know me because their mother decided to hide them," Isaac said. "And I'm not asking permission. I'm telling you what's going to happen. And if you want to fight me on this, I have lawyers that will make sure this custody battle takes years and costs you everything."
Maya felt the room spin.
"You can't threaten her," Robert said, but his voice had changed. He knew he was dealing with someone who had resources that made normal people look like they were playing with toys.
"It's not a threat. It's a fact." Isaac looked back at Maya. "I'm going to be part of my children's lives. The question is whether we do this cooperatively or whether we do it in a way that destroys you financially."
"That's enough," Robert said. "We'll accept alternate weekends to start. Two weeks in the summer once a formal custody agreement is established. But there are conditions."
For the next hour, they negotiated. Isaac's lawyers came in. Numbers were discussed. Schedules were arranged. Visitation rights were debated and settled.
By the end, Isaac had won almost everything he wanted.
Weekends. Two weeks in July. Shared decision-making. The right to enroll the boys in activities of his choosing. The right to have them travel with him as long as he provided proper supervision.
Maya agreed to all of it because Robert told her it would look worse if she didn't. Because fighting would cost money she didn't have. Because she was terrified of what Isaac would do if she pushed back.
The meeting ended at noon.
Everyone stood up. Lawyers shook hands. Papers were signed. Agreements were made.
Isaac stood last.
He looked at Maya across the table.
"Your children will be ready for pickup this Saturday at 10 AM," he said. "Bring them to my hotel. I've arranged for activities."
Maya wanted to ask what activities. She wanted to ask where he was taking her sons. She wanted to ask a thousand questions.
Instead, she nodded.
Isaac moved toward the door. He paused.
"You know what the worst part is?" he said without turning around. "It's not that you left. It's that you spent eight years teaching my sons to be afraid of me. And I'm going to spend however long it takes teaching them that their father actually wanted them all along."
He left.
Maya sat back down in the empty chair.
Robert was saying something about how this went well, considering. How they could work with this schedule. How it was manageable.
She wasn't listening.
She was thinking about Saturday.
She was thinking about putting her children in Isaac Hale's car.
She was thinking about how he'd looked at her when he said that their father wanted them all along.
She was thinking about the fact that she'd just made a deal with the devil and now she had to tell her sons about it.
She stood up and grabbed her purse.
As she walked out of the conference room, she felt Isaac watching her from where he stood by the elevators.
He was holding the elevator door open, waiting for her to pass.
Their eyes met for just a second.
And in that second, she remembered exactly why she'd fallen in love with him.
And why she'd been right to run.
Because Isaac Hale didn't love people. He collected them. He controlled them. He owned them.
And now he owned her sons.