The private suite on the eightieth floor was colder than the ballroom below: dimmer lights, heavier silence, the kind of quiet that pressed against your skin like judgment.
Everett sat in the high-backed leather chair by the window, cane resting across his knees, silver hair catching the faint glow of the city skyline.
He simply watched him cross the marble threshold: blazer still sharp, sleeves rolled, hair wild from the terrace wind and the dance floor chaos.
Grayson and the other guard stayed outside. The door clicked shut behind him.
Nyx stopped in the center of the room, legs apart, hands loose at his sides.
"I won't go to Connecticut," he said, voice flat, final.
Everett's mouth curved: slow, mocking, the smile of a man who'd heard every rebellion before.
"You won't?" he echoed, tone dripping with false surprise. "How novel. The spoiled child declares independence. Again."
He tapped the cane once against the floor: sharp, deliberate.
"You think your little performance tonight changes anything? Waltzing with the doctor like a lovesick teenager, making a spectacle on my birthday floor? You're not bargaining from strength, Nyx. You're bargaining from the bottom of a very deep hole you dug yourself."
Nyx's jaw tightened. He took one step closer.
"I'm ready for therapy," he said. "But I stay here. In the city. At Bellevue … the same hospital I went to when I … fainted." He let the word hang, laced with sarcasm.
"Your funded one. The addiction-medicine wing you poured millions into so the board could pat themselves on the back. I'll go. Outpatient. Daily sessions. Drug tests. Whatever you want. But I'm not disappearing to some locked facility in the woods where you can pretend I don't exist until I'm 'fixed.'"
Everett studied him for a long moment: eyes cold, assessing, the same arctic gray that had once stared down competitors until they folded.
"I don't trust you with that," he said quietly.
"You've lied to every doctor, every counselor, every family member who tried to help. You've walked out of facilities, bribed staff, charmed your way free. You think I'll let you stay in the same city as your enablers? As that doctor you were practically dry-humping on the dance floor? You'll be back on the yacht … or worse … within forty-eight hours."
Nyx's hands curled into fists: nails biting palms, but his voice stayed steady.
"If I do something," he said, "if I slip, if I run, if I so much as miss one session … I'll go to Connecticut myself. Voluntarily. No fight. No security dragging me. I promise."
Everett's brow lifted: slight, skeptical.
"You promise," he repeated, mocking the word like it tasted sour.
"The same way you promised to behave tonight? The same way you promised your father you'd stay clean after the last overdose? Promises from you are worth less than the paper they're written on."
Nyx stepped closer, close enough that he could see the faint lines of exhaustion around his eyes, the weariness he hid behind steel.
"Then make it ironclad," he said.
"Legal. Binding. Add it to the trusts if you want. Breach the agreement, and I forfeit something. Shares. Access. Whatever leverage you need to believe me. But I stay here. I get treatment where I can actually breathe. And I prove you wrong."
Everett leaned back, cane tapping once more: slow, thoughtful.
"You think therapy will fix you?" he asked softly. "That sitting in a circle talking about your feelings will erase the damage you've done? To yourself. To this family. To the name."
"I don't think it'll fix me," Nyx answered, eyes locked on his.
"I think it'll give me a fighting chance not to destroy everything before I turn twenty. And maybe … just maybe … it'll give you a reason not to hate your own blood so much you'd rather lock it away."
Silence stretched: thick, heavy, decades of resentment hanging between them.
Everett exhaled once: long, measured.
"You have one week," he said at last.
"Outpatient at Bellevue. Daily sessions. Weekly drug screens. Security escort to and from. One violation … one missed appointment, one positive test, one whisper of scandal … and the car leaves for Connecticut at dawn the next day. No negotiation. No second chances. And if you break this promise …" He leaned forward slightly, voice dropping to a near-whisper. "I will personally ensure you never see the inside of this tower again. Not as heir. Not as family. Not at all."
Nyx held his gaze: unblinking, unflinching.
"Deal," he said.
Everett nodded once: sharp, final.
"Get out."
Nyx turned on his heel, blazer flaring, and walked to the door.
He paused at the threshold, hand on the handle.
"One more thing," he said without turning. "If your golden boy Ryan tries to touch what's mine again … I'll make sure he regrets being born a Ravencroft-by-marriage."
The door opened.
He stepped through.
And as it closed behind him, Everett Ravencroft sat alone in the dark suite, staring at the city lights.
For the first time in years, he wondered if the cage he'd built might not hold him after all.
And if it didn't … what would be left when he finally broke free.
Nyx slipped into his suite on the seventy-ninth floor just after midnight. The party noise had finally died to echoes in the corridors below.
He kicked off his oxfords, blazer already discarded on the chaise. He peeled off the white shirt, tossing it aside, leaving his broad, toned torso bare as he dropped onto the edge of the bed. He pulled the burner phone from under the mattress and opened the group chat with Lexi and Jade.
The screen lit his face in cold blue.
Nyx: Deal made. No Connecticut. Outpatient at Bellevue. Daily sessions, drug tests, security escort. One slip and I go willingly. Grandfather bought it. For now.
Lexi's reply came first: almost instant.
Lexi:Holy shit. You actually talked him down?
How the fuck did you pull that off? What did you promise, your firstborn?
Jade: Or your dignity?
Wait … Bellevue? The same hospital where you OD'd? Where she works?
Nyx: Exactly.
A three-second pause. Then both typing bubbles lit up at once.
Lexi: Wait wait wait.
You're staying in the city … for therapy … at the hospital funded by your family … where Dr. Ice Queen spends her days saving lives and hating rich kids?
Nyx.
Why?
Jade: Don't play dumb. We know why.
Nyx: Because Connecticut would be good. No family breathing down my neck. No Ryan lurking. No Bianca fake-crying. No Grandfather watching every move.
But the doctor is here.
And I'll go to her daily for my sessions.
Another pause: longer this time.
Lexi: You're literally engineering daily exposure to the woman who called you disgusting and said she never wants to see you again.
On purpose.
In a clinical setting.
Where she has all the power.
You're unhinged.
Jade: Unhinged is putting it mildly.
This is next-level obsession.
You're gonna sit in her office every day, sober(ish), talking about your feelings … while plotting how to make her come apart?
Bold. Reckless. Hot. But mostly insane.
Nyx: She can hate me in private.
She can judge me in session notes.
She can write "non-compliant" a hundred times.
But she'll have to look at me.
Every. Single. Day.
No running. No AMA. No disappearing.
I'll be there. In her space. Under her skin. Until she cracks.
Lexi: And if she reports you? Says you're fixated? Dangerous?
They'll ship you off faster than you can say "transference."
Nyx:Then I'll make sure the fixation goes both ways first.
She already felt it tonight. On the dance floor. When her body pressed against mine and she didn't push away fast enough.
She'll fight it. She'll hate it.
But she'll feel it.
And I'll be there every day to remind her.
Jade: You're playing with fire, Nyx.
And this time the fire has a medical license and boundaries thicker than your grandfather's trusts.
Nyx:Good.
I like a challenge.
He set the phone down for a second, stared at the ceiling, then picked it back up.
Nyx: First session tomorrow.
I'll wear something that makes her remember the way my hand felt on her waist.
Something that makes her hate how much she notices.
Lexi:You're going to therapy to seduce your therapist.
Iconic. Deranged. I'm here for it.
Jade:Same.
Just don't get sectioned before you get laid.
Nyx:Noted.
He powered the phone off, tossed it onto the nightstand, and flopped back onto the silk sheets: bare-chested, trousers still on, bruises blooming on his wrists like dark jewelry.
Tomorrow he would walk into Bellevue.
Into Rowan's domain.
Daily.
Uninvited.
Unstoppable.
And he would make the doctor who hated him feel something far more dangerous than disgust.
He would make her feel need.
And when that happened?
The cage wouldn't matter anymore.
Because Nyx Ravencroft would already be free.
~~^-^~~
The black SUV pulled away from Ravencroft Tower just after 1 a.m., city lights streaking past the tinted windows in long white and red blurs.
Rowan sat in the back seat, arms crossed tight over her chest, black dress still clinging to her curves but now feeling too tight, too exposed.
Her hair, loose from the dance, from Nyx's fingers brushing too close, was a tangled mess around her shoulders.
She stared straight ahead, jaw locked, breathing still uneven.
Sara drove, knuckles white on the wheel, glancing at Rowan in the rearview every few seconds. Emma sat shotgun, twisted halfway around to watch her friend.
"Ro," Sara said quietly, voice steady but gentle. "Breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. You're safe now."
Rowan exhaled hard: sharp, frustrated. "I'm fine."
Emma snorted.
"You're not fine. You look like you just survived a war zone. That guy had his hands all over you like he owned the deed to your body. And you danced with him. For how long? Three minutes? Felt like three hours from where we were standing."
Sara flicked the turn signal, merging onto the bridge toward Brooklyn.
"He's a spoiled, entitled brat who thinks the world is his playground. What happened on that floor was a power play. Nothing more. He wanted to rattle you. He succeeded for a second. But it's over. You walked away. You didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing you break."
Rowan's fingers dug into her arms. "He said … he said he could make me lose my mind. Just his mouth on my neck."
Her voice cracked on the last word: anger, humiliation, something darker threading through it.
"And for one stupid second, when he dipped me, when his lips brushed my jaw … I didn't push him away fast enough."
Emma reached back, squeezed Rowan's knee once: firm, grounding.
"Hey. Listen to me. That rich brat was just a moment. A fucked-up, intense moment. He's seventeen, high on his own drama, and he's fixated because you didn't fall at his feet like everyone else does. You saved his life, you called him out in your chart, you didn't beg or pity him. That's why he's obsessed. Not because you're weak. Because you're not."
Sara nodded, eyes on the road.
"Exactly. He's used to people folding. Family, staff, friends … they all bend. You didn't. So he's trying to break you instead. Classic avoidance bullshit. He'd rather destroy you than face whatever void he's running from."
Rowan closed her eyes for a second, head tipping back against the seat.
"I felt it. On the floor. When his hand was on my waist. When he whispered in my ear. My body … reacted. I hate that it reacted."