Chapter 3 3

Gisele watched Channing's back disappear down the grand staircase. The silence of the hallway pressed against her eardrums. A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach.

She couldn't go back to the ballroom. She couldn't face the music and the fake smiles.

She turned and practically ran down a narrow side corridor, pushing open the first unlocked door she found.

It was a small, dimly lit side room used for storing antique oil paintings. The air smelled of dust and old varnish. Gisele leaned her back against the heavy wooden door, sliding down until she hit the floor.

She pulled her phone from her clutch. The screen lit up with a text from Dr. Thaddeus.

If the balance isn't settled by tomorrow, we have to move Evelyn to the public ward.

A choked sob tore from her throat. She pressed the heel of her hand hard against her mouth to stifle the sound. She was out of options. She had to call the predatory loan company.

Just as her thumb hovered over the dial button, the door behind her burst open.

The force of it sent Gisele sprawling forward onto the hardwood floor. Her phone skittered away into the shadows.

She scrambled to her knees, her heart leaping into her throat.

He had followed the desperate, staccato echo of her heels, a sound of pure panic that had drawn him like a shark to blood in the water. Constantine stepped into the room. He closed the door behind him with a soft, ominous click. He stood there for a second, one hand casually slipped into the pocket of his tailored trousers, looking down at her like she was an insect he was deciding whether to crush.

The suffocating scent of cedar and bergamot filled the small space instantly.

Gisele pushed herself up, backing away until her shoulder blades hit the heavy, gilded frame of a Renaissance painting. There was nowhere else to go.

Constantine closed the distance between them with slow, predatory steps. He stopped just inches away, trapping her in the corner.

"Let's drop the act, Miss Cooper," he said, his voice a lethal whisper in the quiet room. "Tell me. What is your exact price? How much is Channing paying you to play the devoted, tragic girlfriend?"

Gisele's breath hitched. "I'm not-"

"Don't lie to me," he cut her off, his eyes flashing with a dangerous silver light. "I know exactly what you are. I've watched you cling to him for two years. You tolerate his cheating, his temper, his absolute uselessness. Why? Because you want the Warner name attached to your pathetic little architectural firm."

Every word was a precision strike. He was using the sharpest, most ruthless Wall Street vocabulary to dissect her life, reducing her dreams and her struggle to a cheap, gold-digging transaction.

"You don't know anything about me," Gisele fired back, her voice shaking with a mixture of fear and pure rage. She lifted her chin, refusing to look away from his piercing stare. "I made a mistake in that study. I thought you were him."

Constantine let out a dark, humorless laugh. "You thought I was him? My brother doesn't have the spine to stand up straight, let alone command a room. You knew exactly whose chest you were touching."

"You are a monster," Gisele spat, her chest heaving. "You sit up there in your ivory tower, judging people who are actually fighting to survive. You think money makes you a god."

Constantine's eyes darkened. He leaned in closer, his tall frame completely eclipsing the dim light.

"And you think your little struggle makes you noble?" he whispered cruelly. "He will never marry you, Gisele. You are a placeholder. A toy he uses to piss off our father. The second he gets bored, you'll be back in whatever Brooklyn slum you crawled out of."

The truth of his words sliced through her chest like a physical blade. She knew Channing didn't love her. She knew it was a transaction. But hearing it spoken out loud by this man broke the last thread of her composure.

Gisele bit down hard on the inside of her lower lip. She bit down until the metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. She wouldn't cry in front of him. She absolutely refused.

"Move," she demanded, her voice thick with unshed tears.

Constantine didn't move. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her mouth. He saw the tiny bead of bright red blood welling up on her bottom lip.

Something inside Constantine snapped. The cold, calculating machine in his brain short-circuited. An instinct he didn't recognize, an impulse he couldn't control, urged him to close the distance, to erase the self-inflicted wound. He fought it, his body rigid with the effort. But the sight of her pain, caused by his own cruel words, was a magnetic pull he couldn't resist. With a motion that was both swift and filled with a strange, frantic revulsion, he pulled a pristine white silk handkerchief from his breast pocket. He lunged forward, not with his hand, but with the folded silk, dabbing harshly at the corner of her mouth.

Gisele gasped, her eyes flying wide open. The unexpected touch of the rough silk against her raw lip sent a violent shockwave through her entire body.

She jerked her head away, slapping his hand down. "Don't touch me!" she hissed, her voice filled with genuine revulsion.

The rejection hit Constantine like a physical blow. The momentary lapse in his control vanished, replaced by a surge of furious, defensive pride.

He lunged forward, his hand snapping out to grip her jaw, his fingers digging into her soft skin. He pulled her face up, forcing her to look at the raw, violent storm in his eyes.

"Don't play hard to get with me," he growled, his breath ghosting over her lips. "It's a dangerous game, and you don't have the chips to play it."

His chest was practically pressed against hers. Gisele could feel the rapid, heavy thud of his heartbeat through his suit. He was staring at her mouth, his eyes completely dilated.

Suddenly, the sharp, shrill ringtone of a phone shattered the tension.

Constantine flinched as if he had been shot. He dropped his hand from her jaw instantly, taking a rapid step back.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his private phone. He looked at the screen, then looked at his hand-the hand that had just touched her face.

A look of absolute disgust crossed his features. He pulled the same silk handkerchief he had just used on her from his breast pocket and began to wipe his fingers, scrubbing the skin as if she had infected him with a disease.

The gesture was the most humiliating thing Gisele had ever experienced. The tears she had been fighting finally spilled over, tracking hot paths down her cheeks.

Constantine answered the phone, his voice instantly returning to the cold, robotic tone of a CEO. "Speak."

He didn't take his eyes off her. As he listened to his assistant on the other end, he looked at Gisele, his face a mask of stone, and mouthed a single word.

Leave.

Gisele didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed her clutch from the floor and bolted out of the room, the sound of her heels echoing frantically down the hall.

Constantine stood alone in the dim room. He hung up the phone without saying another word. He looked down at the silk handkerchief in his hand, now stained with a tiny speck of her blood and the phantom touch of her skin. He could still feel the soft, warm skin of her jaw burning against his fingertips.

With a violent curse, he threw the expensive silk into the trash can.