Pretended to Need Quiet, Loved Another’s Chaos Chapter 05

Pretended to Need Quiet, Loved Another’s Chaos Chapter 05

The night looked peaceful, but the cold had teeth.

As I fastened my seat belt, I noticed Adrian’s BMW parked across the lot.

The month before, while my car was in the shop, I’d borrowed it once. He hadn’t driven it since.

When I asked why, he gave me a dismissive answer.

“I haven’t needed it lately.”

For weeks afterward, his driver took him everywhere in a company SUV. I’d assumed Adrian was

simply tired of driving.

Now I wondered if he’d stopped using the BMW because I’d touched it.

We’d dated for four years and been married for six. After ten years together, how had a love that was supposed to last forever turned into this?

The next morning, my assistant jumped when she walked into my office and saw me.

“Ms. Dawson, did you sleep here last night?”

I rubbed my aching temples. I’d left home without my sleeping pills, and there had been no way to get an emergency refill that late. I hadn’t slept at all.

“Start the termination process for the Pierce Cosmetics account. Let Team One know they’ll still receive their bonuses even though the campaign is over.”

I handed her the proposal for the automotive account.

“I secured this project for them, but the deadline is tight. Have Teams Two and Three send over a

few people to help.”

She took the folder but didn’t leave.

“Are you sure you don’t want to rest? You look exhausted.”

“No. I can’t sleep.”

Still worried, she poured me a glass of water before returning to work.

As I drank, I noticed the copy deck we’d fought so hard to get approved lying on my desk.

That was the first proposal Adrian had called good. It read less like ad copy and more like a love

note.

I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I fed every document connected to the campaign into

the shredder.

Across town, Adrian woke on the couch at Pierce Cosmetics.

The night before, he’d brought Faye snacks and spent a long time comforting her before she finally stopped crying. She’d asked him to spend the night, but he’d refused with a frown.

Still, he couldn’t bring himself to go home. He couldn’t face Ivy, much less answer her question.

Did he love her?

Of course he did.

Everything in Adrian’s life had always come easily. He was brilliant, wealthy, and born into privilege. Ivy was the one thing he’d never been able to control.

One pout from her had been enough to make him abandon his principles and stay up all night helping her revise her thesis.

When she complained that her dorm mattress hurt her back, he rented an apartment near campus

for her.

Their friends had teased her, asking why the heiress to the Dawson fortune couldn’t rent her own

place.

She’d only pursed her lips.

“If I have to do everything myself, what’s the point of having a boyfriend?”

Adrian had treated those words like gospel ever since.

He ordered her boba, cut up fruit for her, and even pulled her hair into a ponytail.

She hated bell peppers, so he chopped them into tiny pieces and coaxed her to eat them. If she still refused, he let it go and bought her favorite snacks instead.

He’d planned to spoil her for the rest of their lives. If she wanted to be picky forever, he would’velet

her.

Then another man came between them.

The thought of Liam Grant made Adrian’s expression harden.

He tossed aside the blanket, stood, and began straightening his tie in the mirror. Before he could finish, Faye pushed open the door with a bright smile.

“Mr. Pierce! A new karaoke lounge opened near my place, and the sound system is incredible. Let

me take you there to sleep…”

She giggled.

“I mean, to sing.”

Adrian frowned. He had clients to meet that day, along with a casting discussion for Ivy’s campaign

video.

But after another sleepless night, his head felt heavy and unfocused. In the end, he agreed.

At the karaoke lounge, Faye sang whatever she wanted, choosing one pounding dance track after

another.

Adrian turned over on the couch and remembered the first time he met Ivy at a karaoke bar near

their college.

She’d smiled until her eyes crinkled as she offered him a slice of watermelon.

“Come on, Mr. President. Do you ever stop scowling? You’re way too handsome to look that

miserable all the time.”

Adrian didn’t even like watermelon, yet he took it from her and bit into it anyway.

She gave him a triumphant wink.

\ “Everyone says you’re an emotionless robot. You seem pretty human to me.”

Ivy had beautiful eyes. Whenever she smiled at him, every problem in his life seemed to disappear.

By the time Adrian woke again, it was five in the afternoon.

He shot upright, startling Faye, who was watching a show beside him.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

She stared at him blankly. “You were sleeping. Why would I wake you?”

“I had two meetings today, and…”

There was no time to explain. He grabbed his coat and rushed for the door.

“Mr. Pierce, wait for me!”

“Get a cab.”

Adrian pushed the company SUV as hard as he could, but it still took him twenty minutes to reach

the office.

Before getting out, he took several slow breaths, trying not to look as anxious as he felt.

The conference room was empty.

His stomach tightened. He called the head of the beauty division.

“Why didn’t the creative agency come to the meeting?”

“You’re back, Mr. Pierce? I called you this morning, but Faye said you were asleep and shouldn’t be disturbed, so I…”

“I asked why Ivy Creative didn’t show up.”

The division head hesitated nervously.

“Ms. Dawson’s assistant said the partnership had been difficult from the beginning. Ms. Dawson didn’t want either company wasting more time and money, so she terminated the contract.”