Chapter 5 He Saw It
Celeste's POV
My heart dropped.
I turned around slowly.
Dmitri was leaning against the doorframe. I had no idea how long he'd been standing there.
"Not close?" He repeated the words back at me.
Then he smiled — and somehow it made his face colder than when he wasn't smiling at all.
"If you're not close, then starting tomorrow, you'll report to me in person. Nine o'clock. Every morning."
Ethan went pale on the spot. Even his voice came out shaking. "I — "
"Get out."
Dmitri cut him off before he could finish. Ethan practically pressed himself against the wall on his way out, pulling the door shut behind him.
It was just the two of us now.
A chill crawled up my spine.
He crossed the room and stopped in front of me. He was much taller than I was — I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes.
There were red veins threaded through the whites of his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept all night.
"What did I say to you last night?" he asked.
I didn't answer.
"I said you weren't going anywhere." His voice was measured, deliberate. "You left through the service elevator."
"You forgot to change the code."
I told him the truth.
His jaw tightened.
"You wanted to get away from me that badly?"
"I wasn't running from you. I just wanted to go home."
"Celeste." He said my name. "You told me last night — with your own mouth — that you love me."
My breath stopped.
"That was — "
"That was what?"
"That was you putting words in my mouth."
"I put words in your mouth?"
"I said what you wanted to hear." I turned my head away. "Don't forget the rest of it. I also said you have a fiancée, and I'm not about to get tangled up in that. So daily reports are out of the question."
He stared at me without a word.
I thought he was going to lose his temper.
But he only nodded — slowly, like he was turning something over in his mind.
"Fine."
"Fine, what?"
"Every day you fail to report, the partnership with MR gets terminated. Automatically."
He took a half step back.
I stood there, frozen.
"What?"
"Every day," he said. "Don't forget that." He turned toward the door, stopped at the threshold without looking back. "Miss a single one, and I'll go to your boss at MR myself — to discuss ending the contract, and to share my own thoughts on exactly how uncomfortable you felt last night."
The door closed.
I stood where I was. My palms were soaked.
I turned to gather my files. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the paper.
The next morning, at eight fifty-five, I was standing outside his office.
Theo — his secretary — opened the door for me.
"The boss is expecting you."
Theo was the one who had intercepted Marie at the reception the night before. The way he spoke to me was perfectly courteous — the kind of courtesy you'd extend to someone you didn't expect to see again.
I walked in.
Dmitri was behind his desk, head down, pen moving across a document. He didn't look up.
I began my report.
Project progress, delivery milestones, sample garment confirmation schedule. I had it all memorized. I didn't look at him once.
Ten minutes.
I closed the folder. "That's everything."
He set down his pen.
"These past three years — where were you?"
My stomach clenched.
"It's in the letter."
"I want to hear it from you." He looked up.
Morning light fell across his face, catching gold. He was thinner than before. The hollows beneath his eyes were deeper.
"I searched for you for three years."
My throat tightened.
"Then you were looking in the wrong place. The letter said I'd gone to hell — but hell didn't want me, so I came back."
"How did you survive?"
"On my own."
"Alone?"
"Alone."
"I don't like being lied to twice." His voice dropped. "The truth about three years ago — I want every word of it."
I said nothing.
Of course I couldn't tell him.
Because if I said one word more, I was afraid I wouldn't survive it.
His jaw was clenched so tightly I could see the muscle working.
He brought his pen down hard on the desk. A muffled crack.
"Get out."
I turned and left.
It wasn't until I pulled the door shut that I realized I'd been holding my breath the whole time.
The next day was the same.
Nine o'clock. Report. His questions grew harder to answer one by one, and I turned every single one away the same way.
It's in the letter.
I don't want to talk about anything outside of work.
You don't have the right to ask me that.
That last one landed.
He went quiet for a long moment.
"Don't have the right?"
He leaned back in his chair, watching me.
"You owe me an explanation, Celeste."
"I don't owe you anything."
"You let me hold a funeral for you for three years."
My nails pressed into my palm.
"That was your choice."
"My choice?" He let out a short, low laugh. "I thought you were dead. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
I knew, of course. If he had died back then without warning, I think it would have broken me too.
But back then, I had also believed I was going to die.
And none of that truth was mine to speak.
"That's all I have to report." I said. "I'll see myself out."
"Stop."
I opened the door and walked out. Straight to the restroom. I stood in front of the mirror for a long time.
Don't go soft, I told myself.
He hated me. He had every right to.
But if I went soft — what would happen to my mother?
On the third day, I stepped out of the elevator with a stack of sample garment reports in my arms.
Someone walked straight into me.
Hard.
The files went flying. Paper scattered across the floor.
"Oops."
Vivian was standing in front of me.
I knew her. The most relentlessly fawning creature in Marie's orbit — the one who had said the cruelest things to my face three years ago. She was wearing an F&G badge now.
She looked at me as though she'd only just registered who I was, and laughed out loud.
"Oh, it really is you!" Her voice was loud enough to make the people at the front desk turn around. "I thought Marie had lost her mind. You're actually alive."
I crouched down to pick up the papers.
"How did you get into F&G?" She leaned over, pressing the toe of her shoe down on one of the documents I was reaching for. "People like you have no business being here."
People were watching.
I didn't look up. My hand stopped at the edge of the document.
My heart was pounding.
Three years ago, it was exactly like this. Her standing over me. Everyone watching. No one saying a word.
"Can't understand me?" Vivian pressed down harder. "I'm talking to you."
Three years ago, I would have stayed silent and waited for her to move her foot. But I wasn't afraid anymore.
I looked up. "Move your foot."
"What did you just say?"
"I said, move your foot."
"Who do you think you are?"
I held her gaze. "What you're standing on is an internal F&G document. If it gets damaged, are you prepared to answer for that?"
Vivian's smile stiffened.
She glanced down at her foot, then at the people around her.
At that moment, the elevator doors slid open.
Dmitri and Theo stepped out.
My heart skipped a beat.
He saw it.
