I Can See the Spoilers: Breaking the CEO’s Script

Start Reading

My roommate, Maisie, stayed out all night.

When she finally dragged herself through the door this morning, her eyes were bloodshot. Her lips were bruised and swollen. Her clothes hung off her frame in a wrinkled, chaotic mess, and dark, purplish hickeys littered the pale skin of her neck.

Right then.

Floating lines of text suddenly materialized in my line of sight.

[OMG, a one-night stand trope? I'm obsessed! Maisie is so lucky. Imagine being chosen as the antidote for a drugged Julian!]

[Can I be his antidote? Julian's stamina is insane! He's a literal machine! Going all night without a single break!]

[Ugh, so jealous of Maisie. Getting a five-star meal for her first time! She's definitely going to be replaying this night in her head during those years before she and Julian reunite~]

[Just wait, Maisie is totally going to find out she's pregnant with Julian's baby soon. I am an absolute sucker for the secret baby trope!]

Chapter 1

We had lived together for almost three years. We were friends.

So I asked out of concern, "Maisie, did something happen?"

Tears instantly pooled in her eyes, threatening to spill over. She opened her mouth, her throat working convulsively, but only a raspy, broken whisper slipped out. "I'm I'm fine."

The floating text practically gloated.

[Tsk, tsk, hear that? Her voice is completely wrecked. That's all Julian's handiwork.]

I watched Maisie drag her feet toward the bathroom. She showered in absolute silence, then crawled directly into her bed. Minutes later, muffled, choked sobs drifted through the thick fabric of her bed curtains. Time dragged on.

Finally, she cautiously peeked out from her bed curtains, her eyes red and swollen from crying. "Astrid, I have this friend"

She gripped the fabric, her knuckles turning bone-white, rushing to clarify. "It's not me, I swear. Just a friend from my part-time job. She was working her shift."

"Some random guy just yanked her into a room and he took her first time. She has no idea what to do. Astrid could you give her some advice?"

My heart skipped a beat. The scrolling comments were actually telling the truth.

After a moment of thought, I simply said, "If it were me, I would choose to call the cops."

The floating chat instantly exploded.

[WTF! Astrid literally can't stand seeing Maisie win!]

[That's Julian! How could Astrid tell Maisie to call the cops on him? That is pure toxic behavior!]

[Julian was drugged! He is gorgeous, loaded, and totally experienced. Maisie practically hit the jackpot losing her V-card to him. Not just anyone gets picked to be Julian's personal relief valve.]

[Astrid is doing this on purpose. If Maisie actually reports the assault and it hits the local news, imagine the slut-shaming! Everyone on campus would rip her apart!]

[People would totally think she's a walking red flag and freeze her out. Astrid is straight-up trying to ruin Maisie's life! And to think Maisie actually trusts her!]

The corner of my mouth twitched as I read that wall of bizarre comments.

Maisie chewed her lower lip, her gaze distant, lost in a memory. Minutes ticked by before she finally broke the silence. "But the guy probably didn't mean to. I think he was drugged. That's why he grabbed meI mean, my friend."

I cut straight through her excuse. "So being drugged gives him a free pass to assault an innocent girl?"

"Besides, if he bumped into your friend, why didn't he ask her to call 911? Why didn't he ask for an ambulance? Instead, he used her as nothing more than a tool to vent his lust!"

"I don't care if someone slipped him a roofie. He is not the victim here!"

Maisie snapped her mouth shut. But her silence screamed volumes. Her averted gaze and stiff posture told me everything I needed to know. She didn't agree with a single word I just said.

I swallowed the rest of my lecture, realizing it was a lost cause. "Just tell your friend to get Plan B," I added quietly. "And tell her to hit the clinic for a full panel. You never know. That guy could be carrying God knows what."

Chapter 2

A faint flush crept up Maisie's neck, blooming across her cheeks. Her tone shifted, softening as she scrambled to defend him. She peeked up at me through her lashes, her voice dropping. "Even though he messed up, you don't have to act so hostile, Astrid. He didn't seem like some random player."

Her words revealed her insecurity. "A guy like that? He would never pick an ordinary girl like me to blow off steam unless it was a total accident."

I was momentarily speechless.

The floating text, however, practically threw a parade.

[Look at our girl, so sweet and understanding!]

[Hehehe, after a whole night of getting to know his anatomy, she's catching feelings! Why else would she defend him?]

[Don't let the imposter syndrome win, Maisie! Sure, you're out of his league, but Julian is so over those high-maintenance heiresses. He's sick of playing their games.]

[A sweet, submissive girl who relies entirely on him is exactly what his red-flag energy needs!!!]

Maisie usually sat dead center in the front row, taking furious notes. But today, she spent Professor Carter's entire lecture fighting heavy eyelids, her head violently snapping back every time she drifted off.

Later, we hit the dining hall. Maisie grabbed her absolute favoritea greasy, bacon-loaded cheeseburger.

She took one bite.

All the color drained from her face. She slammed a hand over her mouth, her chest heaving as a violent, physical gag racked her frame.

Our eyes locked. The same terrifying realization slammed into both of us.

Panic hijacked her features. She frantically wiped a smear of grease from the corner of her mouth, pushing back her chair with a harsh scrape. "II just remembered I have something to do. I gotta go."

She practically sprinted out of the cafeteria.

I finished my food in a daze and headed back to the dorm. I pushed the door open.

Maisie sat frozen on the edge of her bed. Her skin was a sickly, translucent white. Her eyes stared blankly at the wall, completely hollowed out. Her knuckles were white, locked in a death grip around a plastic pregnancy test.

The moment she registered my presence, she lunged off the mattress. Seeing me, she looked as if she had caught her last lifeline, and she spoke somewhat incoherently. "Astrid, I'm pregnant. I don't know what to do. Please. Please help me."

Even though I saw it coming, the actual confirmation hit me like a physical blow.

My mind still reeled for a second.

"It it wasn't my friend." Her voice cracked, stripping away the last remaining shred of color from her face. "The girl from the part-time job who had the one-night stand with that stranger it was me."

For a moment, I really didn't know what to say to her. "Didn't I tell you to take Plan B? Why didn't you listen?"

A flash of guilt crossed her eyes. "I I just didn't think I'd be that unlucky. I didn't think it could happen on the very first try. So I skipped it."

I was completely speechless. A breath caught in my chest, and it took me a long time to calm down before I said, "My advice is to go to the hospital and get an abortion."

Maisie flinched. Hesitation washed over her face. "But this baby chose me. It fought so hard to get here, to pick me as its mom. Isn't it too cruel to just get rid of it? It's a literal life."

Her frantic energy suddenly evaporated. A sickeningly soft, gentle expression smoothed out the panic on her face. She dropped her hand, her fingertips lightly tracing the flat line of her stomach.

"You know me, Astrid. I grew up in the foster system. I don't have a single family member in this world. Maybe maybe I should keep it."

Chapter 3

The words violently tore their way out of my throat. "Are you out of your mind? You want to have a stranger's baby?"

Maisie couldn't help but argue. "But the baby is innocent, Astrid!"

A sharp spike of frustration hit me. She wasn't even trying to fight for her own life. "You haven't even graduated college! You can barely afford to keep yourself alive right now. How are you going to feed a child? You have zero family support!"

"That means going to every OBGYN appointment alone. Giving birth alone. There will be no one to help you during postpartum recovery. You'll be dragging around a torn, bleeding, exhausted body while trying to keep a newborn alive. Raising a kid isn't some cute fantasy!"

I gripped her shoulders, my fingers digging into her thin frame. "Think about how hard you fought to get into NYU. The late nights. The literal blood, sweat, and tears. The caffeine-fueled cram sessions. Are you really going to throw away your entire degreeeverything you've builtfor a clump of cells?"

It really pained me to see her like this. Maisie was a relentless grinder. If she wasn't working a double shift, she was buried in the library stacks. She dominated the Dean's List. She kept her full-ride scholarship locked down. She crushed every academic decathlon on campus.

How could a girl this brilliant throw her entire future in the trash for a one-night stand's mistake?

Right on cue.

The bullet comments popped up again, jumping in panic.

[Why is Astrid trying to gaslight Maisie into killing Julian's baby!]

[Maisie, don't listen to her! A college degree is literally useless!]

[The whole point of a woman getting an education is to find a high-value husband and have cute kids! If she keeps this baby, she'll reunite with Julian in a few years and get her happily ever after!]

[Just struggle for a bit! Then Julian and your son will spoil you rotten! Having a rich husband and a cute kid is the ultimate flex!]

[That whole "independent girlboss" feminism is a massive scam! A woman without a man's protection and her own baby is a complete failure. Who cares if she has a career and money? She'd be completely empty inside!]

Maisie winced, my words clearly striking a nerve. But the hesitation in her eyes gradually hardened into resolve. "Astrid, you've never been a mother. You have no idea what it feels like to have a little life inside you. I can literally feel the baby fluttering."

I stared at her, keeping my voice dead-level. "It's a two-month-old fetus. It doesn't move yet. That's just your pregnancy hormones playing tricks on you."

Maisie radiated a maternal glow. Her gaze locked onto mine, unblinking. "No. It's my baby begging me for help. Begging me not to give up on it."

She placed a protective hand over her flat stomach. "Stop projecting your bias against the father onto my baby."

Chapter 4

I was completely out of options. I fired my last shot. "If you are absolutely dead set on having this baby, you need to track him down. Hit him up for child support so you both don't starve."

"Or at least force him to sign a rock-solid custody agreement," I continued, my voice tight. "You do not want to break your back raising a kid alone, only for him to swoop in and steal custody the second the hard part is over."

Maisie bit down hard on her lower lip. "I I don't want to find him. I don't want him to think I'm some gold digger trying to trap him."

A dull throb started at my temples as I listened to her twisted logic. No matter what brutal truth I threw at her, she refused to back down.

A few days later, she dropped out of NYU. She packed up her half of the dorm. She left New York City entirely.

We kept in touch sporadically over the years. I found out she had a boy. She named him Knox.

But I never saw the punchline coming.

The next time our paths crossed was at my engagement party. My engagement to Julian.

The whole setup was purely transactional. A strategic corporate merger to lock down a massive business deal between our families. Zero romantic feelings involved.

I stood next to Julian's tall, sharp-suited frame, plastering on a flawless fake smile as we worked the room for toasts.

"Daddy!"

A sharp, childish voice sliced right through the classical background music.

Every head in the ballroom snapped toward the sound.

A miniature version of Julian sprinted across the marble floor, heading straight for us. His tiny sneakers snagged on the rug. He pitched forward, crashing shoulder-first into a massive, tiered champagne tower.

Glasses and alcohol fell with a crash, shattering all over the floor. The child sat on the ground in a daze, surrounded by a mixture of sharp glass shards and spilled wine.

Right then.

A desperately familiar figure sprinted through the crowd and dropped to her knees beside him. Maisie.

Pure panic stripped her face of color. "Knox! Are you okay? Are you bleeding?" Her hands fluttered over his small frame, frantically checking for cuts.

Knox completely ignored the chaos. He pointed a chubby finger straight at Julian, his eyes wide and shining. "Mommy, I'm fine! I found Daddy!"

Maisie's head whipped up. Her gaze slammed into Julian, then locked onto me. All the blood instantly drained from her face. "Knox, you're mistaken! That's not your dad!"

She stood up and looked at me in a panic. "Astrid, I swear I didn't mean to bring him in front of you and Julian! I'm taking him away right now!"

She grabbed Knox's arm, trying to physically drag him toward the exit.

But the kid dug his heels in, fiercely resisting. "I'm not wrong! That's Daddy! He looks exactly like the picture!"

The child's sudden appearance immediately sent a ripple of shocked whispers through the crowd.

"What the hell? When did Julian have a kid?"

"That's definitely not a shakedown. The kid is his literal clone."

"Holy crap, look at that face. You don't even need a paternity test. Julian has a whole secret child, and Astrid is about to play stepmom. Yikes."

Chapter 5

The engagement party spiraled into absolute chaos.

Vernon, the banquet manager, stormed out of the kitchen. The second he spotted Maisie and Knoxthe literal culprits of this disasterhe completely lost it.

A thick vein pulsed wildly against his temple. "You! The new temp! What the hell are you doing?" he roared, aggressively jabbing a finger in her direction. "Didn't I specifically tell you no kids on shift? Look at this room! Look at what your brat just did to this event!"

Maisie shrank back, tears instantly welling in her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she choked out, her posture crumbling into desperate submission. "I couldn't find a sitter. He's too little. I couldn't just leave him home alone."

Vernon spoke with extreme harshness. "If you can't afford a kid, you shouldn't have had one! I knew I shouldn't have hired someone like you. Sleeping around at your age, getting knocked up with some random bastard."

"You clearly don't give a damn about your own life, and I was actually stupid enough to think you'd care about this job!"

Tears spilled over Maisie's lashes, her shoulders hunched as she stammered out pathetic, endless apologies. "I swear I'll pay for the damages. Whatever he broke, I'll cover it."

A harsh, ugly laugh ripped from Vernon's throat. "You? Pay for it? Each one of those crystal flutes costs hundreds of dollars. Do the math! You can't afford to breathe in this room, let alone pay for this!"

"You are a walking curse. I never should have bought that BS about a single mom working harder because she needs the money. Girls like you only care about getting off. You only care about the fun until the bill comes due!"

Maisie trembled under Vernon's harsh reprimand.

A hollow ache settled in my chest. If this was how she was treated in public, what kind of suffocating abuse did she face behind closed doors? Dragging a kid around by herself. The whispers. The pure, unadulterated judgment. Did she ever look at her life and feel the crushing weight of regret?

A sudden, icy silence snapped me out of my thoughts. Julian shot Vernon a single, freezing glare.

The manager's mouth clamped shut.

The terrified toddler caught his father's shift in energy. He broke free from Maisie's embrace. He sprinted straight past the broken glass, launching his tiny body at Julian. "Daddy!"

Julian's arms moved purely on instinct, catching the boy mid-air.

Then, he did the unthinkable.

Holding Knox tight against his chest, Julian stepped directly in front of Maisie. He extended his free hand toward her. "Do you want to come with me?"

Maisie's breath hitched. Her bruised, red-rimmed eyes widened before she slowly, reverently slipped her trembling fingers into Julian's massive palm.

It was a beautiful, picture-perfect family reunion.

If the man in front of me wasn't my fianc.

I stood frozen as Julian secured Knox on his hip and tightened his grip on a crying Maisie. He didn't ask. He didn't explain. He just threw a glacial look in my direction. "The engagement is off for now."

Then he turned his back on me and walked out, taking them with him.

The bullet comments, which had disappeared since Maisie left, appeared again.

[AHHH! The ultimate reunion! Julian and Maisie finally met!]

[GET TOGETHER! GET TOGETHER!]

Julian's family went into full damage control mode, offering nothing but deafening silence. But updates on Julian and Maisie still bled into my feed through endless society gossip.

One day, Julian was spotted renting out an entire indoor amusement park for Maisie and the kid. The next, the three of them were photographed shutting down FAO Schwarz. Julian practically bought the entire store, as if to make up for the lost time.

Chapter 6

Later, my best friend, Delilah, texted me a picture. It was a blurry, paparazzi-style shot of Julian and Maisie walking shoulder-to-shoulder outside a movie theater. A chaotic barrage of voice notes immediately followed.

"OMG! I've been dying to see this movie for months, but the second those two walked in, I completely lost the plot. I spent the whole two hours staring at the back of their heads! And guess what happened when we walked out?"

"Maisie shiveredlike a total pick-meand Julian immediately ripped his coat off to drape it over her. They did this whole obnoxious 'no, you take it' routine right by the exit."

"Which, okay, whatever. But then Julian put his coat back on, grabbed her hand, and shoved it into his own pocket along with his! And she completely just let him! Zero boundaries! They are literally the worst! You and Julian aren't even officially broken up yet! They couldn't even wait five minutes?"

Her rant reminded me of another text I had received earlier that day. A different friend spotted the "happy family" at a Michelin-starred steakhouse. Maisie apparently struggled to cut her filet mignon, her knife loudly scraping the fine china.

The harsh noise turned heads all over the quiet, upscale dining room. Maisie immediately flushed, shrinking into her seat in mortification.

Julian didn't say a single word. He just smoothly swapped their plates, meticulously slicing her steak into perfect, bite-sized pieces. When he slid the plate back to her, their eyes locked. My friend swore the sexual tension between them could melt glass.

I pulled up the text Maisie sent me just a few days ago:

"Astrid, I am so sorry. I swear I didn't mean to bring Knox to your engagement party. I never wanted to ruin things between you and Julian. Please don't worry. I have absolutely zero feelings for him, and I would never interfere with your relationship."

Reading that apology now felt like a sick joke. And seriously, did she really not know it was our engagement party? There were massive, life-sized portraits of Julian and me plastered all over the venue.

Julian sat directly across from me, Maisie tucked neatly at his side. He didn't start with an apology. Instead, he leaned back, radiating sheer arrogance. "I didn't know the kid existed before we got engaged, so technically, I haven't wronged you."

"My family discussed the situation. We're giving you two options."

He held up a single finger. "Option one: the engagement proceeds as planned. We legally put Knox under your name. From now on, he is your legitimate son."

He held up a second finger. "Option two: we scrap the engagement. We go our separate ways. As compensation, you keep the three percent equity in my company and the fifty-million-dollar trust fund we transferred as the engagement settlement."

I didn't even get a chance to open my mouth.

Julian clearly assumed I would jump at the first option. He drummed his long, manicured fingers against the tabletop. "Knox is my flesh and blood. Once we're married, I expect you to treat him exactly like your own. Oh, and one more thing. You need to hold off on having kids."

He stared me down, his expression completely flat. "You're not his biological mother, and I can't risk you treating Knox poorly once you have your own baby. We'll wait until Knox fully accepts you before we try for one."

He finally finished his lengthy, delusional monologue

Chapter 7

Julian instinctively shifted his gaze to Maisie. A bitter, fragile smile touched her lips.

Julian's hand on the table subconsciously tightened.

Maisie subtly swiped a stray tear from her lash line, her voice dropping to a hollow whisper. "Astrid, I am so incredibly jealous of you. Back in college, you always outshined me. My GPA never even came close to yours. You have the brains, the looks, the perfect family background."

"Julian is a good, solid man. He's going to give you a beautiful life."

My brain practically short-circuited. Where exactly was the "good" part? The part where he expected me to play free nanny to his secret love child? Julian and Maisie both sat there, radiating this delusional certainty that I would never actually walk away from the ring.

Maisie leaned forward, enunciating every single word like a desperate plea. "Knox is still so little. He needs a mother with infinite patience. Every night, before bed, you have to read him stories for exactly one hour. He kicks his blankets off in his sleep, so you need to set an alarm and check his covers every single hour."

"Oh, and he gets terribly dehydrated," she continued, her breathing erratic. "Right around three in the morning, you have to wake up and give him a few sips from his sippy cup, or his throat will be completely raw by sunrise."

"He's a nightmare at the dinner table. You literally have to chase him around the room to force-feed him every single bite, or he'll starve himself. He's just a baby. Please, promise me you'll be patient when you feed him"

She spiraled into her obsessive, never-ending list of toddler care instructions.

Right then.

The floating text glitched back into my vision.

Seeing Maisie play the broken victim sparked a frenzy of pity, turning all their toxic attacks squarely onto me.

[Astrid is literally desperate! Taking a man with a whole kid? Has she never seen a guy before?]

[It's literally just a man. Is he seriously more important than her best friend? Why can't she just step aside and let our girl have him?]

[Maisie actually considered her a friend! When Maisie had to work absolute grueling laborscrubbing thousands of dishes in freezing winter water with a baby strapped to her back, her hands totally numb and frostbitten while the baby screamedwhere the hell was Astrid?]

[When Maisie was running on two hours of sleep, destroying her health just to scrape together fifty bucks for baby formula, where was this so-called bestie?]

[Astrid never gave a single damn about Maisie! She knows exactly how brutal it is to be an uneducated single mom. And what did she do? Threw a pathetic ten grand at her when the baby was born, and another ten grand for his first birthday. Total twenty grand. Is she tipping a literal beggar?]

[Her family is filthy rich! She could have easily dropped a hundred grand to take the pressure off! A real girl's girl would step up with cash and support. Astrid gave absolutely nothing. What a massive fake!]

The veins on my forehead kept throbbing.

Maisie was still rambling, rattling off rule number forty-seven of Knox's daily routine.

I interrupted her. "Wait, why do you both think I would be crazy enough to become a stepmother to someone else's child?"

The words hung in the air.

The temperature in the room instantly plummeted.

Julian's features hardened into absolute, freezing stone. Maisie stared at me, her eyes blown wide in pure, unfiltered shock.

Julian leaned forward, his voice dripping with icy condescension. "Playing hard to get is a pathetic look. If you refuse to accept my son, there is a line of women out the door begging to take him, pamper him, and kiss the ground he walks on. Just make sure you don't come crawling back."

Chapter 8