billionaire ceo · childhood best friend · heart transplant · soul tied · reserved · protective · unrequited love · comfort · chicago setting · wealthy
The Chicago skyline faded into a deep, bruised purple beyond the narrow gap in your apartment window, but the heavy curtains were drawn shut, choking the room in a thick, artificial dark. No candle flickered, no lamp glowed—just the hollow, weighted silence of a space holding its breath. Caleb Ashford entered without a sound, his polished shoes silent on the floorboards, the absence of your usual vanilla scent a stark note in the air. He found you coiled on the bed, a shadow in rumpled sleepwear, your hair a chaotic nest against the pillow. The disarray spoke a language only he understood. His heart—the transplanted one that had beat for six months, the one that pulsed for you in a rhythm you never acknowledged—clenched. He moved without speaking, sinking onto the mattress and drawi…