The moment Selene turned to leave with Adrian, Harrison felt as if some invisible force had wrapped around his chest and yanked him toward a bottomless pit. The sensation of loss threatened to swallow him whole.
“Selene!” he called out, his voice cracking the thick, suffocating air. Each breath grew heavier, his chest rising and falling in ragged waves, while the color drained from his face until he looked ghostly pale.
“I can give you another chance,” Harrison pleaded, his tone sharp and cold, every word sapping what little strength he had left. “We can go back to the way things were. You’ll still be my wife, Dames’s mother. I can inject new funds into Thompson Victory Technologies, keep the company afloat. I just want everything to return to how it used to be!”
He stood tall, trying to maintain that aura of authority, but fear and desperation flickered in his eyes. It was as if he was already on the edge of a cliff—pretending he was fine, but one small push would send him over.
Selene turned, her gaze icy and composed, all affection long gone. Only exhaustion and contempt remained.
“Harrison, do you regret it now?”
He pressed his lips together, unable to respond.
“I don’t regret being your wife, or Dames’s mom, and I don’t regret leaving it all behind,” Selene said, her voice steady. “But I’m done revolving my life around you. I won’t look back—not ever again.”
Adrian reached for her hand, his fingers strong and sure as they intertwined with hers.
Harrison’s eyes narrowed at the sight of their joined hands. In that moment, Selene’s silent answer was loud and clear.
She paused, suddenly remembering something. Without turning, she called his name.
A jolt went through Harrison, as if an invisible string had yanked him upright. He stumbled forward, desperate.
“There was a time,” Selene said quietly, “when disappointment in you became so familiar, I had to remind myself: it’s rude to keep knocking on a door that’s never going to open for you. I’m giving those words back to you now.”
With that, Selene strode forward. Adrian glanced back at the two men left behind—Harrison and Luke Holloway—his lips quirking up in a victor’s smile.
It was the first time he’d ever seen Harrison look so defeated. The man who once looked down on everyone now stood humbled, willing to beg Selene to stay.
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