Page 182 of My Big, Fat, Secret Billionaire Baby

CC: Luca Briggs

Subject: Withdrawal from Competition

Please accept this email as formal notification of my withdrawal from the upcoming Chamonix Wingsuit Invitational. Due to unforeseen personal commitments and a re-evaluation ofpriorities, I will not be competing. I wish all participants the best of luck.

Sincerely,

Leo Maxwell

I hitsend before I can second-guess myself. Before the old Leo, the reckless, adrenaline-fueled bastard, can claw his way back to the surface.

The ‘CC: Luca Briggs’ feels like twisting the knife, but fuck him. If he’s going to find out, he can find out this way.

A wave of something washes over me.

Not relief, not exactly.

Not yet.

But… lightness?

Like a massive fucking weight has been lifted from my chest.

The Chamonix comeback, the grand gesture, the ultimate PR move… it suddenly feels… irrelevant.

Meaningless.

Compared to Mia’s smile. Compared to the tentative hope in Sabrina’s eyes before I crushed it.

This is going to have repercussions for Maxwell & Briggs, of course. Sabrina has been playing up my involvement in Chamonix, at my insistence, so for me to back down now won’t look good.

Investors will be spooked.

My ‘brand’ as the fearless daredevil will take a fatal hit. The media will likely have a field day.

And Luca… good old Luca. Well, he’s going to fucking explode.

I erupt into a hearty belly laugh. I can see his face now when he reads the email. Apoplectic,his face red, his eyes bulging, that big vein throbbing on his forehead and threatening to burst.

But I don’t care. About Luca. About the investor backlash.

Because I’m... free. For the first time in a long time, maybe ever.

Free.

And I’m finally seeing the landscape without the distorting lens of adrenaline or ambition.

I know, with a certainty that settles deep in my bones, that the decision to withdrawal isn’t a failure. No matter what Luca might tell me, or the media might write.

It’s a victory.

The only one that actually matters.

My phone rings, almost on cue. The caller ID flashes:Luca Briggs.

Here we go.

I take a deep breath, bracing myself, and answer.

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