Yours, Forever

f i f t e e n

"Do I pay you guys to fuck around and waste my time?"

Xavier slammed his palms on the table causing everyone's eyes to widen. His loud commanding voice laced with anger echoed throughout the conference room.

"Fix this by Friday or you're all fired."

Before anyone could even have the courage to speak up, Xavier stood up and walked out of the conference room. He was having a terrible day—or week to be specific. Ever since Saturday, all he could think about was Aurora, but she seemed to be ignoring him.

He wanted to go find her directly, but the day after the gala, he had to urgently fly out to New York to resolve an issue at one of the many Knight Industry branches.

However, that didn't stop him.

He called and texted everyday, but she continued to ignore him. He wasn't sure what he did that was wrong—all he wanted was an answer. Out of frustration, he unleashed his anger on his employees. He was even more merciless and irritable as the days pass.

His arms were crossed as he stood glaring at the view outside his large window overseeing downtown LA. Xavier had come home from the short business trip the day before and had immediately wanted to head to Aurora's apartment to see her. However, because of the shitty weather, his flight had been delayed, causing him to land at midnight instead.

Of course, this further angered him, hence the mood he was currently in. It was as if his mood got worse and worse as the days pass—well, that was exactly what was happening.

It was evident in the way he was yelling at his employees left and right. The slightest mess up would end up in a firing. Everyone was terrified of being in his line of sight. Even Lucas couldn't save them from Xavier's wrath.

"Knock, knock."

"What?" Barked Xavier, turning around to shift his glare to the door at the culprit who dared disturb him.

"Is that the way you greet your little sister?" Maddie gave her older brother a questioning look as she stepped into his office.

Xavier grunted, taking a seat at his desk.

"Bad day."

His blunt response made Maddie snort. "I'm guessing with the bad mood that you're in, Rory still hasn't come by."

Xavier offered no response, causing Maddie to quietly chuckle under her breath.

"You know she didn't mean what she said Saturday night. It was a spur of a moment type of thing."

"And how would you know that?" Asked Xavier, pretending to be busy with the papers on his desk.

"Because she told me," Her admission caused Xavier's head to snap towards her.

"You talked to her?" Xavier's usual stone cold face was now filled with despair.

"Of course I talked to her. I slept over at her place last night," Maddie said in a 'duh' tone.

"How is she doing? What did you guys talk about? Why won't she answer my calls or texts?"

His sudden burst of questions caused Maddie shake her head and grin. "You've got it bad, big brother."

Xavier glared. "Are you not going to answer my questions?"

"What crawled up your ass?" Maddie sassed back as she gave her brother the infamous Knight glare to which he responded right back with the same glare. The two stubborn siblings refused to give up.

Xavier ran his fingers through his already unkempt hair, causing Maddie's resolve to soften at how frustrated and desperate her brother looked.

"Look, it's not easy for her to come to you first," Her statement caused his eyebrows to furrow. "What she said on Saturday was just her trying to protect herself."