BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

The sharp click of Selena Hayes' red stilettos echoed through the marble lobby of Wolfe Global like gunfire. Heads turned, whispers followed. Her reputation had always preceded her, but today, it carried a different kind of weight-one wrapped in silk, vengeance, and heartbreak.

Ten years ago, she would've stumbled at the sight of his name etched on the glass doors.

Today, she adjusted her blazer and walked straight through them.

The elevator doors slid open with a soft ding. Her reflection stared back from the mirrored walls-sleek, composed, powerful. Nothing like the girl Sebastian Wolfe left behind on a rainy night with nothing but a goodbye text and a shattered heart.

"Thirty-ninth floor," the receptionist had said. "CEO's office."

Selena's fingers clenched around the handle of her sketch portfolio. This wasn't just another design contract. It was personal. Too personal.

The doors opened.

And there he was.

Sebastian Wolfe stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, his silhouette bathed in the golden light of a fading afternoon. Tall, immaculately dressed in a charcoal-gray suit, with that same magnetic air of quiet danger. But when he turned around-those eyes... God, those storm-gray eyes-they locked with hers, and suddenly, ten years melted like snow in fire.

"Selena," he said, voice low, smooth, unreadable.

"Mr. Wolfe," she replied coolly. "Let's keep this professional."

A flicker of something crossed his face-guilt? Pain? Or maybe just amusement. He walked toward her, slowly, like he owned every inch of the floor beneath her heels.

"You've changed," he murmured.

She lifted her chin. "You haven't."

There were no flowers. No apologies. Just silence. And the weight of everything they never said.

Selena handed him the contract.

He took it.

And with it, the first spark in a fire that would consume everything they thought they had buried.

Sebastian flipped through the pages of the contract, but he wasn't reading. His eyes kept drifting back to her - the sharp lines of her jaw, the elegance in her movements, the fire in her eyes that had only grown brighter over the years.

"Did you really think we wouldn't meet again?" he asked, not looking up.

Selena gave a dry smile. "Actually, I prayed we wouldn't."

He finally looked at her, and for a second, the billionaire façade cracked. Something raw shimmered in his expression - regret, maybe. Or guilt.

"You disappeared, Sebastian. No warning. No closure. Just silence." Her voice trembled, only slightly. "Now you want to play business with me like we're strangers?"

"I had my reasons."

Selena laughed, soft but bitter. "You always do."

Before he could speak again, she stood, gathering her file. "You hired me for a job. I'll deliver. But let's not pretend we're anything more than a contract."

She walked to the door. Just before she opened it, he said, "I never stopped thinking about you."

She paused.

But she didn't turn around.

"I did," she whispered. "And I survived."

Then she was gone.

And Sebastian, for the first time in a long time, realized he had built an empire-

but lost the one thing that ever mattered.

---