Five Years a Secret, Now I Deny We Ever Met Chapter 14

Five Years a Secret, Now I Deny We Ever Met Chapter 14

Sarah let out a terrified scream.

“Sebastian! Are you crazy? Stop!”

After that first punch, Sebastian’s bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the broken screen, as if he could burn away the last trace of Julian’s shadow. He raised his fist again, preparing for a second blow that would turn the machine holding all my hopes into scrap metal.

My mind went blank.

That computer held more than just Julian. It held five years of my work, all the material for my honors thesis, and my only path to Florence.

“No—”

I don’t remember moving. Blood rushed to my head, reason burned to ash, and only primal instinct remained. With all my strength, I slammed into Sebastian, shoving him away.

“Get out! Sebastian, get out of my life!”

He staggered back, crashing into the desk and staring at me in disbelief.

I didn’t look at him again. I threw myself at the poor computer, desperately trying to power it on as if I were holding a dying child.

The screen flickered once, then went completely black.

Sebastian stood there, stunned. He watched me shield the broken laptop, and the destructive rage in his eyes slowly collapsed, replaced by a devastation I had never seen in him before.

From childhood until now.

No matter how angry he made me, I had never said anything so harsh.

When we first met, I called him “Sebastian,” just like every other girl at Auden who admired him.

Later, in the secret world that belonged only to us, I began calling him “Seb.” Because everyone else called him Sebastian, and I wanted a name that was just ours.

Even when we fought, the worst I ever called him was an “arrogant bastard.”

Never this.

Never pointing at him, using every ounce of my strength, and telling him to get out of my life.

“Chloe,” he trembled, his voice shattered. “For some vague opportunity, for a man you’ve known less than a day… you’re telling me to get out?”

It wasn’t because of Julian.

It was five years of grievances, of being deceived, of fearing for my future—all of it detonating in a single moment.

I raised my head coldly, not even bothering to explain.

“Isabella is still waiting for you at the estate. Don’t stand here losing your mind like a spoiled child. Go back where you belong.”

“Do you know what tonight is?” He was still testing me, trying to use this childish provocation to gamble that I still cared, that I would go mad with jealousy and beg him to stay. “Do you know what will happen after I go back?”

I looked at that handsome face, now distorted by jealousy and a loss of control, and felt an exhaustion I had never known.

I even smiled.

“Sebastian, you and Isabella are business allies, aren’t you?”

My voice was soft, but it was a cold scalpel, slicing through his final disguise.

“The performance you put on for the media is protected by public opinion and a family agreement. Don’t worry. No one will care what happens behind closed doors.”