Chapter 3 What Love Refuses to Ignore

Selene didn't plan to fall in love.

If she had, she would have packed better defenses-thicker walls, sharper instincts, maybe a warning sign taped to her chest that read DO NOT GET ATTACHED. But love, like most inconvenient things, didn't ask for permission.

It crept in quietly.

It was the way Mr. Cole-Austin-noticed details no one else ever did. The way he remembered she hated artificial sweeteners but tolerated honey. The way he never interrupted her when she spoke, as if her words mattered enough to wait for.

She told herself it was nothing.

Men like him were kind because they could afford to be.

Still, when she stayed late one evening organizing files, she caught herself smiling at her screen for no reason at all. That scared her more than loneliness ever had.

She shut down her computer and leaned back in her chair.

Get it together, Selene, she thought. This is a job. Not a fairytale.

But fairytales had a way of sneaking up on girls who didn't believe in them.

Austin noticed the change too.

He noticed everything.

He had grown up learning how to read people the way other children learned how to read books. In the Blake household, silence was power and information was currency. His father, Richard Blake, ruled with charm and quiet cruelty. Mistakes were corrected, never forgiven. Weakness was mocked.

Austin learned early how to disappear emotionally. But now? He expresses his emotions more, especially whenever he's around Selene.

At sixteen, he'd been sent to boarding school abroad-not for education, but control. At twenty-one, he inherited responsibility instead of freedom. By thirty, he was one of the most powerful men in the city-and one of the loneliest.

People loved his money.

They respected his name.

No one ever asked if he was okay.

Until he met Selene.

She didn't pry. Didn't flatter. Didn't chase.

She existed beside him, not beneath him.

And that was dangerous.

The day everything cracked open was a Thursday.

Selene remembered because Thursdays were usually boring-safe. She liked it safe.

She had decided, after weeks of internal debate and several pep talks to her bathroom mirror, that she was going to tell him how she felt.

Not dramatically. Not desperately.

Just honestly.

She wore a red scarf that morning, the one she bought with her first paycheck. He'd once said, casually, "Red suits you." She pretended not to care at the time. She cared now.

Her heart pounded as she stepped out of the elevator onto his floor.

The atmosphere felt... wrong.

The receptionist avoided her eyes. Two executives whispered near the glass wall, their voices sharp and excited.

Selene slowed.

"...the engagement is official," one of them said.

"Yes. Diana Rowe," the other replied. "Her father finally got what he wanted."

Selene stopped walking.

"Wait-engagement?" the first continued. "I thought Blake hated the idea."

"Business doesn't care what he hates."

The words settled in her chest like broken glass.

She didn't want to jump to conclusions. She hated women in movies who overheard half a sentence and ruined their own lives. She took a breath and walked toward Austin's office anyway.

She deserved the truth.

Austin was standing by the window when she entered, phone pressed to his ear, jaw tight.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I understand the terms."

He ended the call and turned.

Selene didn't smile.

He noticed immediately.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. His tone was calm but stern.

Her voice came out softer than she expected. "Are you engaged?"

The silence that followed was loud.

Austin's shoulders stiffened-not in surprise, but in resignation.

"Yes," he said finally.

The room felt smaller.

"To Diana Rowe?" Selene asked.

"Yes."

Her fingers tightened around the scarf.

"For business," he added quickly. "It's not what it looks like."

She let out a small, broken laugh. "That's funny. Because it looks exactly like what it is."

"Selene-"

"Is she pregnant?" she asked, the words burning on their way out.

His face drained of color. "She said that?"

She nodded. "So it's true."

"No," he said firmly. "I don't know what she's trying to do, but-"

She stepped back.

It felt like déjà vu-standing in a room with a man who had more power than honesty.

Her mind betrayed her, dragging up memories she rarely touched.

Memories of her mother sitting at the kitchen table years ago, hands shaking, whispering about debts and threats.

Her father left one night, promising he'd fix things.

The fire.

The silence afterward.

Men who said trust me had never stayed.

"I should've known," Selene said quietly. "Men like you don't choose women like me."

"That's not true."

She looked at him then, really looked.

"Then why didn't you tell me who you were?"

He opened his mouth.

No answer came out.

And that was the answer.

Selene walked out of the building without waiting for permission.

She quit the next day.

Packed her life into two suitcases and moved to the other side of the city, where no one knew her name and no one expected anything from her.

She got a job as a waitress in Aalia restaurant in Sydney. It smelled like oil and burnt bread. It wasn't glamorous-but it was honest.

At night, when exhaustion forced her to sit still, the past crept in.

She remembered being seventeen, standing in a government office, signing papers that made her officially alone. No inheritance. No justice. Just survival.

She'd built herself from nothing once.

She could do it again.

Austin unraveled quietly.

No public scandals. No dramatic breakdowns.

Just alcohol replacing sleep. Guilt replacing logic.

His grandmother, Victoria Blake, noticed.

She had always been different from the rest of the family-too sharp to be fooled, too old to be controlled.

"You're losing her," she told him one evening over tea. "And for once, it won't be because of money."

"She left," Austin replied bitterly.

Victoria raised an eyebrow. "You pushed."

She leaned closer. "That girl carries grief the way other women carry handbags. If you don't fight for her, Diana will destroy her."

That got his attention.

"What do you know about Diana?" he asked.

Victoria's lips pressed into a thin line. "Enough to be afraid."

And fear, Austin realized, was no longer an option.