Chapter 5 Craving

Layla stared at her phone from the edge of the bed, her back straight, her hands clenched so tightly in her lap that her fingers ached. The room felt smaller now as the walls closed in with every vibration of the device. She didn't need to look at the screen because she already knew but still, the name flashed anyway.

Liam.

Her stomach twisted-not with longing, not with regret-but with a sharp, familiar dread. The kind that settled deep in her bones and refused to leave, no matter how much time passed.

Her phone rang once more and then again.

Finally, with a breath that felt scraped raw from her lungs, she answered.

"Why aren't you here?" Liam demanded the moment the call connected.

"I'm not coming," Layla said as she closed her eyes.

The silence on the other end stretched, long and heavy, like a held breath before impact.

"What do you mean you're not coming?" he asked slowly, his voice dropping into something colder.

"What I mean by that is that I'm not coming means I'm not coming," Layla replied, forcing calm into her tone even as her pulse thundered in her ears. "I don't want to see you."

A sharp exhale crackled through the line. "You don't get to do that, Layla."

Her fingers tightened around the phone. "I do."

There was another longer pause this time.

Then his voice hardened. "Is this because of him?"

Layla didn't answer.She didn't need to.

"That's what I thought," Liam continued, his tone laced with something ugly. "You humiliated me. Do you have any idea what people are saying?"

"No,Liam. You humiliated me," she shot back, the words finally tearing free. "I saw you at the club,kissing a girl and you saw me and acted like I wasn't even standing there."

"Fuck, Layla. That didn't mean anything." Liam said as he gave out a humorless laugh.

"But it meant something to me," Layla said, her voice shaking despite her effort. "And I'm done."

The shift in him was immediate-like a switch being flipped.

"You don't walk away from me like this," he said, the warmth draining completely from his voice.

"I just did."

"You think you're safe?" he snapped. "You think hiding behind silence is going to protect you?"

Layla's heart slammed violently against her ribs.

"Layla," Liam continued, his voice dropping into something darker, more intimate, "you owe me and I don't forget."

Her throat tightened. "You don't own me."

A soft, dangerous chuckle answered her. "Careful."

She swallowed. "I'm hanging up."

"You'll regret this," he said instantly. "You think you're the first girl who thought she could walk away from my family?"

Her breath caught. "Your family?"

"You really think this is just about you and me?" Liam continued smoothly. "You think you can play games with people like us and walk away untouched?"

Layla's grip on the phone loosened slightly-not from fear this time, but something colder.

"Elias," Liam said casually. "You know who he is to me, right?"

She said nothing.

"He's my uncle," Liam went on. "My blood,my family. And you think he's some stranger you can disappear from?"

Layla exhaled slowly.

"I know," she said.

That made him pause.

"You know?" he repeated, surprise flickering through his voice.

"Yes," Layla said quietly. "I know he's your uncle, everyone knows and even you know that I know. So why act surprised?."

The silence that followed was sharp, recalibrating.

"You still went with him," Liam said, his voice lowering. "You still let him touch you."

Her jaw tightened. "Don't."

"You didn't just betray me," he continued, anger bleeding through now. "You embarrassed me in front of him."

"You embarrassed yourself," she said, her voice steadier than she felt. "The two years we dated was nothing but a waste and I'm not doing this anymore."

"You don't get to decide that," Liam snapped. "You don't get to choose him over me."

"I didn't choose anyone," Layla said. "I chose myself."

He laughed again, but this time there was no humor in it. "You're naïve if you think this ends here."

"I'm done," she repeated. "Don't call me again."

"You think he's going to protect you?" Liam said, his voice sharp with something that sounded like jealousy-and something worse. "You think my uncle doesn't destroy everything he touches?"

Layla's chest tightened as she heard those words.

"Stay away from him," Liam added. "Or I'll make sure you regret it."

"I'm not afraid of you," she lied.

"You should....."

Layla ended the call before Liam could finish rambling.The silence afterward was deafening.

Layla sat there, phone still pressed to her ear, listening to nothing-her heart racing, her hands trembling as if they'd been stripped of strength. Slowly, she lowered the phone and stared at the dark screen, half-expecting it to light up again but it didn't.

She stood abruptly, needing distance from the bed, from the room, from the thoughts spiraling too fast inside her head, and walked into the bathroom.

She splashed cold water on her face, gripping the edge of the sink as she looked at her reflection-pale skin, flushed cheeks, eyes too bright with things she didn't want to feel and then-unbidden, unwanted-

Elias.