The office... it still smelled of Ethan.
Celeste stood in front of the window, her arms crossed over her chest. Outside, the day continued, but inside, time seemed to stand still. Her eyes were drawn to the small details on the desk: symmetrically placed pens, an immaculate agenda, a neatly placed digital clock.
Everything was too organized. Too controlled. Just like Ethan himself.
She took a deep breath. Ethan was no longer here. He might have been physically present, but... his touch, his attention, even his gaze had long since left this room.
She didn't know where he was. What he was thinking, what he was feeling... she didn't know anymore.
She looked at her phone, the screen was still blank. The last call had been days ago. The days of Ethan calling spontaneously were over.
"Busy... Always busy. There was a time when he would stop whatever he was doing and come to see me."
He walked over to the desk and opened the cover of the agenda with his fingertips. He flipped through the pages; business meetings, presentations, client meetings...
But there was no trace of himself in any of the lines.
He was startled by a knock at the door. Katie entered. Her voice was soft, her manner careful.
"Mrs. Valmont, I didn't expect to find you here."
Celeste turned her head slightly.
"I thought I'd find Ethan here, too."
Katie hesitated for a moment before closing the door behind her.
"He must have gone to a quick meeting. He had a full schedule this morning."
Celeste eyed Katie. Her posture was distant but respectful. Alert, as if sensing possible tension, but professional enough not to intervene directly.
"I know it's been busy, too 'busy' lately."
Katie smiled slightly.
"Yes, the pace of work has picked up. Negotiations with new investors for the agency, planning with the content team... I think she's building a new structure for herself."
Celeste's eyes turned to Katie.
"For herself or for others?"
Katie didn't immediately understand the meaning of the question. She tilted her head slightly.
"I meant for the agency, but of course I can't really know what goes on in her personal life."
There was a silence. Celeste realized that Katie was careful about these things. She didn't want to tell her anything explicit. But from what she had observed, she might know too much.
"So... is there someone in your life?"
Katie did not take the question personally. But she answered with a short pause.
"I don't know."
Celeste took a step forward and put her hands on the table.
"Tell me as a woman, Katie. You know how a man's behavior changes when you feel the presence of another, don't you?"
Katie looked away slightly, then turned to Celeste.
"Sometimes change is just change. People grow, change direction. It's not necessarily about someone coming into your life."
Celeste chose not to say what was on her mind. But there was jealousy in her eyes. Not just of women. Of life. Of the passage of time, of the uncertainty that took Ethan away.
"I hope so," she murmured.
"Because if I can't see where he's going... he might have left me behind."
Katie spoke in a softer tone.
"Ethan doesn't forget people he respects easily, Celeste. I don't know where he puts you. But ignoring you is not his style."
Those words left Celeste with both hope and doubt.
"I don't know where he put me, Katie...but I was in it. And even though I fell out, I still carry the scent of that place with me."
Katie realized that with that sentence the conversation was over. She bowed her head slightly.
"I'll let you know if anything happens."
The air in the office was still. Celeste sat in Ethan's chair with the confidence of a queen reclaiming an established throne. Katie stood across from her, silent but alert.
Celeste tilted her head, then looked at Katie. Her eyes were soft, but there was a steady edge to them.
"How long has it been, Katie?"
Katie answered without hesitation.
"Seven years."
"That long? I thought it was like yesterday."
There was a silence. Celeste's eyes swept over Katie's hands, then her face. It was as if she were examining a portrait that had been hidden for years.
"Do you remember your nickname?"
The muscle in Katie's jaw tensed slightly, but her gaze didn't change.
"Cat."
"Do you remember why I called her that?"
"Because... I walked in the shadows, I was quiet, and I always got down without falling, didn't I?"
Celeste nodded. She smiled slightly, but her eyes pierced through Katie.
"Exactly. You existed without disappearing. But every cat has a moment when it hits a wall..."
Katie tilted her head, not looking away.
"I hit a wall too, and I still carry the scars."
Celeste stood slowly. She moved closer. Her fingers touched Katie's shoulder lightly, then slid up her arm.
"So... who hit you, Katie? Do you remember your name?"
Katie closed her eyes. She took a deep breath.
"Loyd. Loyd Kray."
Celeste repeated the name slowly, a cold timbre on her lips.
"Loyd Kray... The man who follows the girls. Who thinks he's buying them. Waits for your nights."
Katie stayed like a hidden echo in Celeste's voice. But she didn't back down.
"He broke me. But I needed that break to get back to myself."
Celeste stepped closer. She leaned slightly into his ear.
"Did Ethan ever touch you, Cat?"
Katie's eyes widened for a moment. The answer didn't come immediately. But when it did, it was clear: "No. But he may be the only man who sees me in every touch."
Celeste paused for a moment. Her eyes, this time on Katie's cheeks, were filled with tenderness.
"What does he see in you, Katie? Your strength or your weakness?"
Katie's voice was almost a whisper.
"He hasn't decided yet. But the moment of truth will come."
Celeste took a step back. Her hands remained on Katie's wrists for a moment.
"What is your greatest fear, Cat?"
Katie didn't lower her eyes.
"Ethan getting used to the sound of another woman's voice."
Celeste's face froze for a moment at that answer. Something flashed in her eyes. Maybe sadness, maybe anger, maybe something much older.
But he smiled. And let go of Katie's hands.
"Then learn to touch with your voice, Katie."
Katie nodded.
"I'm already on my way."
Celeste walked to the door. She stopped before opening it.
"Can I tell you something?"
Katie raised her eyes.
"You're not a 'cat' anymore. But you still have claws. And Ethan knows a sharp one. As long as... you pull in the right place."
And with footsteps echoing behind the door, Celeste left the room. Alone, Katie took a deep breath.
Loyd Kray... Cat... untouched silence...
They were all awake again.
But this time, Katie's eyes were filled not with fear, but with a target.
And the name of the target: Ethan.
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The elevator descended silently. When the glass doors opened, Celeste still stood like a statue, unmoving. There was no rising jealousy in her, no momentary anger. It was something sharper, more dangerous: insight.
As her feet automatically led her to the exit door, her mind still wandered to Katie's face. He recognized the faint loyalty in her eyes. But it wasn't just loyalty anymore.
"Choices of your own... a purpose of your own."
It was the first time she realized that. And it was something that Celeste would never allow. Because Katie was only supposed to play one role: a mediator. A bridge to Ethan, but with Celeste still pulling the strings.
But Katie was no longer a bridge, she was becoming a crossroads.
And that was... a loss of control.
When she got into the car, she didn't slam the door shut. This was a moment of reflection, not anger. Before turning the key, she stared at the end of the street.
"I chose you in the first place. I saw you in that studio crowd. I guided you. I trained you. You shouldn't trust yourself... you should trust me."
Katie was very clear in the office that day. Calm, brave, careful. But do you know what was most dangerous to Celeste?
"She knew what she didn't want anymore.
And that day, she answered Celeste's every word. He didn't shut up in the face of a question. He wasn't afraid.
He even agreed to be interrogated, but he didn't confess. It was a demonstration of strength.
"My little cat... are you going to turn your claws on me now?"
Celeste closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. She saw Katie as she had been all those years ago: shy, quiet, obedient. She couldn't look into her eyes. Her knees would shake when she walked next to Ethan. Celeste had told her how to dress, even how to speak.
But now... She looked at Ethan. Directly. Without hesitation.
And that's when Celeste realized:
"He's no longer a pawn I control. I'm in the game, but a new piece is forming on the board."
She lit her cigarette. She opened the window a little. She seemed to want to let her thoughts out with the smoke.
"I needed him, yes. A shadow to stand beside Ethan. But if the shadow began to change shape... I'd have to remind him again."
Everything Katie whispered in his ear was not in vain: "What was your nickname?"
"Did Ethan ever touch you?"
"What is your greatest fear?"
This was Celeste's master plan: To bring Katie back to her former fragility. To hit her not in her strength, but in her past.
But Katie was standing tall today. And Celeste hadn't forgotten.
"Maybe you still think of me as your 'teacher'... but you think my role is about to end, don't you?"
Celeste leaned back in the seat before starting the engine.
A mischievous smile slowly tugged at the corners of her lips.
"The game is just beginning, Katie. But I know just the move to get you crushed again."
She touched the wheel.
This wasn't about protecting Ethan.
It was about who would be the one to lead Ethan.
And Celeste's shadow would never be lifted from Ethan. The more Katie crossed that line, the more Celeste would remind him:
Who she learned from.
Who she was afraid of.
And most importantly...
Who you owe.
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Celeste was still in the car when the phone rang. It was as if the silence she was in had cut her off from the outside world. The window was down, her fingers on the wheel.
The name on the screen was... like a key.
Lovren.
Like a door to another life.
And Celeste opened that door without hesitation.
By the time she picked up the phone, her voice had already changed.
"Celeste."
Lovren's tone was calm, but there was a vague desire in it. This voice reminded her that she was someone else. Celeste closed her eyes. Her smile was not for Ethan, but for the other body she remembered.
"Did you miss me, or did you just want to hear my voice? " There was a slight playfulness in her voice. Subtle, but obviously intended.
Lovren laughed.
"Talking to you... reminds me of another time. Even breathing with you is like another life."
Celeste liked that sentence. Because that's exactly what it was.
When she talked to Lovren, she was a different woman.
Not a mother, not a bearer of the past.
No one to answer to, no one to hurt.
Just...
A woman.
And maybe for the first time, just a woman.
"Then let's talk. Because today I want to get away from... that other world."
Lovren didn't ask what that meant. For he knew the bridges Celeste built with silence. He didn't know that she split her identities, but he sensed that in every conversation she found another side of herself.
"We need to get together," Lovren said, as if it were a common phrase. But it struck a deep chord with Celeste.
"Today?"
"If you have time. Or..."
Lovren's voice slowed, "...if you want to make some time for this other woman."
Celeste's fingers rested on the window sill. She tilted her head back. Her eyes drank in the sun.
"That woman...doesn't seem to have time for you."
That sentence, without mentioning Ethan's name, erased everything Ethan was.
Where Lovren was, there was no Ethan.
And where there was Ethan... there was no this woman.
And that's what Celeste's breakup was about.
Lovren wasn't making her take on a new identity; he was bringing out the second woman, the one she had always repressed, but who never ceased to exist.
There was another sound:
Lovren's breath.
"Then I'll come for you tonight. Be ready. Tonight... this woman will speak. It's time for the other one to shut up."
Celeste's face was still the same when the phone went dead.
But his eyes... they were different now.
"I can still fight for Ethan.
But I don't want to fight with Lovren.
I just want to... exist with him."
And maybe that's why it was dangerous.
Because Celeste had already lost the line between being and belonging.
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