A SECOND CHANCE AT FOREVER Chapter 77: CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

KYLE

I didn’t knock.

I didn’t wait.

I didn’t give a damn who was in the room or what the hell she was doing.

The doors to Atlas’s office slammed open so hard they rattled on their hinges. The air in the conference room turned thick with tension as every staff member seated around the long glass table froze. Laptops, notepads, coffee cups—every last thing forgotten as a dozen wide eyes locked onto me.

I barely spared them a glance. My focus was already locked on her.

Atlas.

She sat at the head of the table, pristine as ever, dressed in a sleek white blouse and perfectly tailored skirt. A picture of control and elegance. She didn’t startle at my entrance, didn’t so much as blink. Instead, she let out a slow, deliberate sigh and twirled a pen between her fingers, like I was nothing more than an expected inconvenience.

“Well,” she drawled, arching a brow. “This is dramatic.”

I barely heard her over the blood pounding in my ears. My hands clenched into fists at my sides as I took a step forward, voice sharp, lethal.

“What the fuck did you do?”

A hush fell over the room. Uneasy glances. Nervous shifting. Someone swallowed audibly.

Atlas sighed like she was already bored of this conversation. Then, with a flick of her fingers, she dismissed them. “Leave us.”

No one hesitated. Chairs scraped against the floor as they all scrambled to their feet, heads down, eager to escape. Within seconds, the doors shut behind them, sealing us in.

Just the two of us.

Finally.

I stalked toward the table, slamming my hands against the glass surface as I leaned in. “What the fuck did you do?”

Atlas tilted her head, lips curving slightly. “You’ll have to be more specific, darling. I do a lot of things.”

My jaw locked, rage boiling under my skin. “The video, Atlas. You manipulated it.”

Something flickered in her eyes—quick, almost imperceptible, but I caught it. And it only made my blood burn hotter.

The video she sent Ashley wasn’t just some random exposure of my past. It was calculated. Twisted. Designed to hurt. I already knew the sex in that video had happened long before Ashley came back into my life. But Atlas had made it look recent. Fresh. Like it had happened while Ashley and I were finding our way back to each other.

And Ashley—fuck, Ashley had believed it.

Atlas leaned back in her chair, exhaling in mock disappointment. “Oh, Kyle. I just showed her the truth. It’s not my fault if she didn’t like what she saw.”

My fingers curled against the glass. “You and I both know that was not the truth.”

Atlas didn’t flinch. Didn’t waver. If anything, my anger seemed to amuse her. The corner of her lips curled, her perfectly manicured nails tapping idly against the desk like this was just another game to her.

She leaned forward slightly, her eyes glinting with something sharp. “Not the truth?” she echoed, tilting her head. “I think you’re forgetting, Kyle. You slept with me. You made that choice. I just reminded her of it.”

A muscle ticked in my jaw. “That was over two years ago, and you damn well know it.”

Atlas gave a small, elegant shrug. “Details. The timing doesn’t change what happened. And it’s not like I lied to her. I simply gave her something to see.”

“Something you manipulated.” I bit out. “You deliberately cut out the parts that would’ve proved it wasn’t recent. You knew exactly what you were doing when you sent it to her.”

She sighed, feigning exasperation. “Kyle, darling, you act like I held a gun to her head and forced her to believe it. Maybe if your relationship was stronger, if you had earned back her trust, she wouldn’t have been so quick to assume the worst.”

My fingers curled into fists, nails digging into my palms. I wanted to break something. Smash the smug look off her face. But losing my temper wouldn’t fix this. Wouldn’t undo the damage she had already caused.

Atlas must’ve seen the war in my expression because she leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. “You should be thanking me, actually.”

I barked out a humorless laugh. “Thanking you?”

“Yes.” She smirked. “I saved you both the trouble. Ashley was always going to leave you, Kyle. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually. She never truly forgave you, and deep down, you know that. All I did was speed up the inevitable.”

My breath turned sharp.

She was wrong. She had to be.

But a sliver of doubt crawled into my chest, festering like a poison.

Atlas watched me carefully, like a predator waiting for a weak spot to tear open. “You think she’ll come back from this? That she’ll listen to you, believe you over what she saw with her own eyes?” She let out a soft laugh. “Face it, Kyle. You lost her the moment she hit play.”

I gritted my teeth, forcing my voice to stay steady. “You don’t get to decide that.”

Atlas smiled, slow and lazy. “Maybe not. But she already did, didn’t she?”

I exhaled hard, forcing the rage back down. She wanted a reaction. Wanted to see me snap. But I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

I straightened, inhaling deeply as I forced the last remnants of my restraint into place. But it wasn’t enough. Not even close.

Before I could stop myself, I closed the distance between us. One step. Then another. Atlas’s smirk didn’t falter, but I caught the way her fingers tensed slightly against the desk. The way her throat bobbed just once before she lifted her chin, feigning indifference.

“Tomorrow morning,” I said, voice dangerously low, “you’re going to wake up to the biggest fucking disaster of your life.”

Atlas arched a brow, but I saw the flicker of unease in her eyes. “Oh? And what exactly do you think you can do to me, Kyle? I’ve been untouchable for years.”

I let out a humorless chuckle, leaning closer. “Not anymore.”

She exhaled sharply through her nose, as if unimpressed. “You think you can take down Robin Enterprises? Please. You don’t have that kind of power.”

I tilted my head slightly. “Don’t I?”

For the first time, the smirk faltered.

Good.

I took another step forward, my hands bracing against the desk as I lowered my voice. “You’re not as clean as you pretend to be, Atlas. I know about Project Silvergate—the offshore accounts, the ghost investors, the illegal funding that’s been keeping your precious company afloat. It took me less than a day to trace the connections, to see just how deep the corruption runs. You think the press won’t eat that up? That the board won’t turn on you the second it goes public?”

Atlas’s jaw tightened, her nails digging into the armrest of her chair. But she didn’t speak.

I leaned in just enough for my next words to be a whisper. “How long do you think you’ll last before they tear you apart? Before your sponsors drop you? Before everything you built crumbles at your feet?”

Her nostrils flared slightly, but her expression remained impassive. Still, the tension in her posture betrayed her.

I gave a slow, deliberate smirk. “You don’t look so confident now.”

Atlas sucked in a breath, composing herself. “You wouldn’t,” she said, but her voice lacked the usual certainty.

I straightened, rolling my shoulders as I pulled my jacket over my arms. “Try me.”

Her hands curled into fists. “Kyle—”

“Your move, Atlas.” I cut her off smoothly, already turning for the door. “Enjoy your last peaceful night. It’ll be your last for a long time.”

I reached for the handle, but her voice lashed out behind me.

“You think this will win Ashley back?” she snapped. “You think ruining me will make her trust you again?”

I paused, gripping the doorframe tightly, but I didn’t turn around. “No,” I admitted. “But at least you won’t be around to destroy her any further.”

Silence.

Then, just as I stepped into the hallway, her voice came one last time. Low. Seething.

“You’ll regret this, Kyle.”

I didn’t stop walking. “We’ll see about that.”