ylist suggestion:


    “Constetion” by Jade LeMac.


    “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Ray


    “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri


    HUNTER’S POV


    The amber liquid swirled in my ss like liquid gold, catching the dim lights of Vincent’s penthouse bar.


    The city sprawled below us through floor–to–ceiling windows, a glittering maze of lights and possibilities that somehow felt less overwhelming than the chaos in my chest.


    “So,” Vincent said, settling into the leather chair across from me with his own drink, “how’s the love life going with the pretty Celine?”


    Despite everything, I found myself smiling–a real smile that felt foreign on my face after years of practiced corporate expressions.


    “Different,” I admitted, taking a sip of the whiskey. “She makes me feel… different.”


    Vincent raised an eyebrow, his green eyes sparkling with mischief. “Different how? Like you’ve discovered emotions beyond a cold, calcting businessman?”


    Hleaned back in my chair, the leather creaking softly.


    “The past few days, taking her on that date, just being around her… I feel like a different man. Lighter, somehow. Like I can breathe for the first time in years.”


    “Well, I’ll be damned.” Vincent grinned, gesturing at me with his ss. “Look at you, actually talking about feelings without looking like you’re going to break out in hives. And you’re not brooding! This is historic.”


    “I don’t brood,” I protested, but even I could hear the lie in my voice.


    “Hunter, my friend, you’ve perfected brooding into an art form. Buttely?” He studied my face with the intensity of someone examining a


    rare artifact.


    “You look… human again.”


    The warmth in my chest dimmed slightly as reality crept back in. “My mother’s back in town.”


    Vincent nearly choked on his drink. “The Ice Queen of Reid has returned? Christ, Hunter. How determined is she to make your life miserable


    this time?”


    Iran a hand through my hair, the familiar tension creeping back into my shoulders. “She walked in on us. Celine and I. In my bed. This morning.”


    “Jesus.” Vincent set down his ss with a sharp clink. “While Celine was…?”


    “Naked. Completely mortified.” The memory of Celine’s face, the way she’d scrambled for the sheets, the humiliation in her eyes–it made my jaw clench.


    “Then Mother insisted on having breakfast with us. Turned it into an interrogation.”


    13:08 Tue, 5 Aug


    “How did Celine handle it?”


    <b>20 </b>


    The question hit me like a punch to the gut. “She was embarrassed, In front of Caesar, in front of the staff. My mother made sure everyone in that room knew exactly what she thought of Celine. Called her…” I couldn’t bring myself to repeat the words.


    Vincent was quiet for a moment, swirling his drink thoughtfully. “What are you going to do about it?”


    I leaned forward, my mind racing through possibilities.


    “I’ve been thinking about sending them abroad. Celine and Caesar. Somewhere safe where my mother can’t reach them. Or maybe I could set them up somewhere else entirely–get Celine out of the maid position, find them a nice ce where <i>no </i>one would look down on them.”


    “So you want to hide her.”


    “I’m not hiding her,” I said quickly, defensively. “I’m keeping her safe. There’s a difference.”


    Vincent went quiet, his expression growing serious in a way that made me ufortable. He studied me for a long moment, then asked the question that stopped my world.


    “Why don’t you just marry her?”


    The word hit me like a physical blow. My ss froze halfway to my lips, the whiskey forgotten as memories crashed over me like a tsunami.


    ‘London. Three years ago.‘


    ‘The taste of victory was still sweet on my tongue as I walked through the front door of my Kensington penthouse, ready to celebrate closing the biggest deal of my career. I had champagne chilling, dinner reservations at Sophia’s favorite restaurant, and the ring I’d been carrying for weeks burning a hole in my pocket.’


    ‘But the universe had other ns.’


    ‘I found them in our bedroom–my bedroom–Sophia’s blonde hair spilled across my pillows, her body tangled with someone I recognized immediately. Patrick’s cousin. The same Patrick who’d introduced us three years ago, who’d been at every business dinner, every


    celebration.‘


    ‘The sound that escaped my throat wasn’t quite human.‘


    ‘Sophia’s blue eyes met mine across the room, wide with shock and something that might have been relief. She didn’t even try to cover herself, didn’t scramble for exnations or apologies. She just stared at me like she’d been waiting for this moment.’


    ‘I turned and walked out without a word.‘


    “Hunter?” Vincent’s voice seemed toe from very far away. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”


    I drained my ss in one burning gulp, the whiskey doing nothing to numb the ache that had suddenly opened in my chest. “I need another


    drink.”


    But even as Vincent refilled my ss, the memories kepting, relentless as a tide.


    ‘The club was loud, pulsing with music andughter that felt like mockery. I’d called Patrick, needing answers, needing someone to exin how my entire life had imploded in the space <i>of </i>ten seconds.‘


    “What happened?” Patrick asked when he found me at our usual table, his face a mask of concern that I now recognized as perfectly crafted


    lies.


    “Did you know?” The words came out rougher than I intended. “Did you know your cousin was sleeping with Sophia?”


    13:08 Tue, 5 Aug


    Patrick’s face went carefully nk. “What are you insinuating, Hunter?”


    3038


    “You introduced us,” I said, my voice deadly quiet. “Three years ago. You brought her to that charity g, made sure she met me. Were you nning this from the beginning?”


    “That’s insane. Why would Sophia cheat? She loves you.”


    Iughed, but there was no humor in it. “I just found the woman who loves me in bed with another man.”


    Patrick reached out, cing a hand on my shoulder that felt like a brand. “Don’t do something stupid that you’ll regret.”


    I shrugged him off and walked away, not knowing that his words would prove prophetic in ways I couldn’t imagine.’


    “Hunter.” Vincent’s voice was sharper now, concerned. “Talk to me.”


    I blinked, finding myself back in the present, my friend’s worried face swimming into focus. “Sophia was waiting for me when I got home,” I heard myself say. “Sitting on the couch like nothing had happened.”


    The words started pouring out then, three years of buried pain spilling between us like blood from a wound.


    “We need to talk about what happened,” she’d said, her voice small and uncertain.


    ‘I’d tried to ignore her, tried to walk past her to my room where I could lock the door and pretend my world hadn’t just ended. But she blocked my path, her small hands wrapping around my wrist.


    “Don’t touch me,” I’d snarled, jerking away from her like her skin burned.


    But she held her ground, those blue eyes I’d once loved now bright with unshed tears. “I deserve that. But Hunter, please-”


    “Why?” The word exploded out of me with three years of suppressed emotion. “Why him? Why destroy everything we had?”


    ‘Her face crumpled, and for a moment she looked like the scaredw firm secretary I’d fallen in love with. “I felt like I was suffocating. Everything was moving so fast, and you were always working, always busy. The rumors about us, about me being amon secretary engaged to someone like you… It was too much.”


    “You could have talked to me,” I’d said, my voice breaking despite my efforts to stay strong.


    “You were never around to talk to.”


    ‘I’d stared at her then, really looked at her. Her short blonde bob was mussed, her blue eyes red with tears, her professionalposurepletely shattered. She was still beautiful, still the woman I’d nned to propose to.‘


    “When did it start?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer.


    “The day you missed my birthday,” she whispered. “I went out to eat alone, and I ran into him at the restaurant. He was kind, Hunter. He


    listened to me.”


    “I got stuck in traffic,” I said weakly, remembering that night, remembering the guilt that had eaten at me for weeks. “I tried to call-”


    “I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” she said quickly. “But when he asked me to have a drink, to talk… I felt something I hadn’t felt in months. Like someone actually cared about what I had to say.”


    The betrayal cut deeper than any knife. “So you decided to sleep with him.”


    She started crying then, real sobs that shook her whole body. “He made me feel things I hadn’t felt in so long, Hunter. Things you used to


    make me feel.”


    1308 100, DAUN


    林麥<b>55</b>%音


    55%在


    i stumbled backward, the words fitting me like physical blows. “Why are you telling me this? Why are you making it gorse”


    “Descause we wouldn’t have been happy anyway,” she said through her tears. “<b>Your </b>mother hates me. She would have made my life miserable would have been miserable marrying you.”


    Something inside me shatteredpletely. “I would have fought heaven and earth for you,” I whispered. “My mother, my family, anyone fin tried toe between us. And you were already giving up.”


    I turned away from her then, unable to look at her face any longer. The sound of her sobbing followed me to my room, where I locked the door and broke down myself.


    “She left the ring.” I continued, my voice barely audible even to my own ears. “One weekter. Just left it on the kitchen counter with a letter


    was too much of a coward to read.”


    Vincent waspletely still, his drink forgotten in his hands.


    “Patrick tried to talk to me after I ended our partnership. Wanted to know if I’d heard from her. Said she was broken, that she regretted everything.” Iughed bitterly. “Three dayster, her aunt called my old number.”


    The silence stretched between us, heavy with unspoken understanding.


    “She killed herself, Vincent.” The words felt like ss in my throat. “Overdose. Her aunt said they couldn’t reach anyone, that she’d been trying to call me but I’d changed my number.”


    Vincent’s face went pale. “Jesus, Hunter-”


    “I found her things when I cleaned out the apartment. She kept everything–the ne I gave her for our first anniversary, the perfume i bought her in Paris, a picture of us from that weekend in Scond.” My hands were shaking now, the whiskey making everything feel raw and exposed.


    “And a letter. Her final letter.”


    ‘Hunter,‘


    ‘By the time you read this, I’ll be gone. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, and I’m not asking for it. I just need you to know that I never stopped loving you. Not for a single day, not for a single moment.


    ‘I wish I could go back in time and fight for us instead of running away. I wish I could be brave enough to stand up to your mother, to the rumors, to all of it. I wish I could be the woman you deserved.‘


    “You were right–I gave up on us when I should have fought. I let fear and insecurity destroy the best thing that ever happened to me. I let them destroy us.‘


    ‘I hope someday you can forgive me. I hope someday you can love someone the way you loved me, someone who will fight for you the way I


    never could.‘


    ‘I will love you forever.‘


    ‘Sophia‘


    “She never stopped loving me,” I whispered, the words barely audible. “And I let her die thinking I hated her.”


    Vincent was quiet for a long time, just sitting with me in the weight of my confession. Finally, he spoke.


    “Is that why you can’t marry Celine? Because of Sophia?”


    <b>4/5 </b>


    13:08 Tue, <b>5 </b><b>Aug </b>


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    I looked up at him, my vision blurry with unshed tears. “What if I fail her too? What if my love isn’t enough to protect her from my mother, from this world? What if I lose her the same way?”


    “Hunter,” Vincent said gently, “Celine isn’t Sophia. And you’re not the same man you were three years ago.”


    “Aren’t I?” I asked bitterly. “I’m already thinking about sending her away to keep her safe. How is that any different from giving up?”


    Vincent leaned forward, his eyes intense. “Because this time, you’re not running from the fight. You’re trying to protect someone you love. That’s not giving up–that’s love.”


    I stared into my empty ss, seeing Celine’s face reflected in the amber dregs. Her warm brown eyes, her shy smile, the way she looked at me like I was something precious instead of something broken. <fn447b> For original chapters go to find?novel</fn447b>


    “I can’t lose her,” I whispered.


    “Then don’t,” Vincent said simply. “Fight for her. Fight for Caesar. Fight for the family you could have.”


    ‘Fight for the family you could have.’


    The words echoed in my mind as I sat there, surrounded by the ghosts of my past and the possibility of a future I’d never dared to hope for.


    Sophia was gone. But Celine was here, warm and real and brave enough to love a broken man like me.


    Maybe it was time to stop running from happiness.


    Maybe it was time to fight.