Page 8 of Wrong Number, Right Billionaire (Wrong Number, Right Guy #7)

MAXIM

I stand in my empty penthouse suite for exactly thirty minutes after Chantay leaves, staring at the door like she might come back.

She doesn't.

The silence is hollow, accusing, filled with everything I should have said but didn't. I fucked up. Spectacularly.

The woman I'm falling in love with just walked out because I was too much of a coward to tell her the truth from the beginning. Because I was so afraid of being wanted for my money that I sabotaged the first genuine connection I've had in years.

The flight back to Nevada feels endless. By the time I reach my cabin, I've drafted and deleted at least twenty text messages, none of them saying what I actually need to say.

Ranger greets me with his usual enthusiasm, but even his excitement feels muted. Ghost appears from the kitchen, takes one look at me, and disappears back onto his deck. Even my animals can tell I'm radiating misery.

I try to settle back into my routine. Check emails, review portfolios, catch up on work. But everything feels pointless without Chantay's texts punctuating my day.

On the third day, Elena calls.

"You missed the board meeting. And the investor call. Maxim, what's going on?"

"I'm taking some time off."

"You don't take time off. You've missed maybe five days of work in the entire time I've known you."

"Well, now I'm taking time off."

"This is about a woman, isn't it? The mysterious woman from Atlanta?"

I'd made the mistake of telling Elena where I was going. "It's complicated."

"Everything's complicated with you. What happened?"

"I fucked it up."

"How badly?"

"She found out who I really am and decided she couldn't trust me anymore."

Elena is quiet for a moment. "You didn't tell her you were Maxim Chen?"

"I told her I was Max. A wildlife consultant. Someone simple who didn't come with the baggage of being a billionaire."

"Oh, Maxim. You didn't."

"I thought I was protecting what we had."

"You thought you were protecting yourself. There's a difference."

Elena's bluntness hits harder than Chantay's anger because I know she's right.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. She said she needed time. Maybe forever."

"Do you love her?"

The question stops me cold. Do I love Chantay? The woman who made me laugh through text messages, who challenged my cynicism, who made me want to be brave enough to leave my mountain sanctuary?

"Yes. I think I do."

"Then you fight for her. Not with words or explanations. You fight by proving that the man she fell for is real, even if his name and bank account are different."

"How do I do that?"

"Figure out what Max would do. The Max she fell in love with. Then do that, but as your complete self this time."

After we hang up, I sit on my deck watching Ghost patrol while Ranger snores at my feet. Elena's right. I need to stop thinking like Maxim Chen, CEO, trying to manage the situation. I need to think like Max, the man who rescued animals and shared his stories and made Chantay laugh.

What would Max do if he were trying to win back the woman he loved?

Max would be honest. Completely, vulnerably honest in a way that Maxim Chen hasn't been with anyone in years. Max would put himself on the line without calculating the risk.

Max would prove his feelings are real by showing her his real life, not just the parts he thinks she wants to see.

I grab my laptop and start typing.

Chantay,

I know you said you needed time, and I'm going to respect that. But I need you to know some things I should have told you from the beginning.

Yes, I'm Maxim Chen. I founded Apex Innovations when I was twenty-two and built it into something that made me more money than I know what to do with. I've been on magazine covers and business shows and invited to conferences where people want my opinions about technology.

But none of that feels real to me. The real me is the man you met through those text messages. The man who rescues broken animals because he understands what it feels like to be broken. The man who chose isolation because people have disappointed him so thoroughly that trust feels impossible.

The man who fell in love with a woman who accidentally sent him a photo and turned his entire world upside down.

I lied to you about my name and my wealth, and there's no excuse for that. But I never lied about my feelings. Every conversation we had, every story I shared, every moment of connection was real. The only fake thing was my fear that you wouldn't want the real me.

I know you have every right to walk away.

But if there's any part of you that believes what we had was worth fighting for, I want to show you my real life.

Not the penthouse suite or business meetings or carefully managed public image.

I want to show you the cabin where I feel most like myself.

I want you to meet Ghost and Ranger and see the place where I first read your texts and realized I was falling for someone I'd never met.

I want to prove to you that Max is real, even if his last name is Chen and he happens to have more money than sense.

If you're willing to give me that chance, come to Nevada. Come see who I really am when I'm not trying to protect myself from being hurt. Come let me show you that the man you fell for exists, even if he comes with complications I was too scared to share.

I'll send you the address and directions. No pressure, no expectations. Just an invitation to see the truth I should have shown you from the beginning.

I love you, Chantay. Not as Max the character I created, but as the man I actually am when I'm with you. The man who's finally brave enough to risk everything for the chance that you might love him back.

Maxim

I hit send before I can second guess myself, then immediately forward her my address and detailed directions to the cabin.

If she comes, she'll see everything. The expensive security system, the high tech office hidden behind rustic walls, the investment portfolio that runs itself from my mountain sanctuary.

But she'll also see Ghost claiming his territory and Ranger stealing breakfast and the simple life I've built where being Maxim Chen matters less than being the man who saves broken things.

If she comes.

If she's willing to give the real me a chance to prove that Max was never fake, just incomplete.

The next seventy-two hours pass like the longest week of my life. I check my phone obsessively, looking for any sign that she's read my message.

Nothing.

On the fourth day, I'm splitting wood behind the cabin, trying to work off nervous energy, when Ranger starts barking.

I look up to see a car coming up my private road. A rental car by the looks of it, that has no business being on a mountain.

My heart stops completely.

Chantay.

She came.

I set down the axe and walk around to the front of the cabin, Ghost appearing beside me like the protective shadow he is. The car stops in my clearing, and after a moment that feels like eternity, Chantay gets out.

She's wearing jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, looking more casual and beautiful than I remember. But her expression is guarded, uncertain.

"Hi," she says, standing beside her car like she might need to make a quick escape.

"Hi. You came."

"I came to see if any of it was real."

"All of it was real. The parts that mattered."

She studies my face, then looks around at the cabin, the mountains, the life I've built here. "Show me," she says finally. "Show me who Maxim Chen really is when he's not performing for anyone."

"Okay," I say, and for the first time in days, I allow myself to hope. "But I should warn you, Ghost is very particular about strangers, and Ranger will try to steal your food."

The corner of her mouth twitches in what might be the beginning of a smile. "I think I can handle that."

"We'll see."