The CEO's Dirty Secret

5. Sorry

Freya felt that special word like a stone thrown precisely at her house window, cracked but not shattered, and she had to keep smiling as if she did not hear the shards of glass scattering inside her chest.

She could not answer Karina's question because she herself did not know the answer, and even if she did, she would never be able to say it honestly.

'What makes you special, Freya? Maybe because I'm willing to open my legs for your fiancé every Friday night, Ms. Ashford. Maybe that's it,' Freya thought, smiling bitterly as she remembered how Ethan took her with such wild lust.

"Ethan, darling, let's talk inside later," Karina said, kissing Ethan's cheek gently, leaving a faint pink lipstick mark on the man's cheekbone.

"I'll get coffee first. Freya, you know where the pantry is, right? Can you accompany me?"

Freya nodded, even though every fiber in her body screamed not to go anywhere with Karina, because she knew that short walk to the pantry would feel like walking on a tightrope above a deep abyss.

"Of course, Ms. Ashford. Please follow me."

As they walked away from Ethan, who entered his office without looking back, Freya felt her back being watched from behind the closed glass door, but she did not dare to confirm it because Karina walked right beside her with the confident stride of a woman who knew she had everything: unlimited wealth, perfect beauty, and the man every woman in this city desired.

The 37th-floor pantry felt like a very cramped space when it only contained Freya and Karina. Freya took a white porcelain cup to pour the black coffee she had brewed since morning, while Karina stood near the small window with her arms crossed over her chest, her sharp eyes following Freya's every movement like an eagle patiently watching its prey. "He's a difficult man, isn't he," Karina commented suddenly, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them.

Freya held her breath for a moment before answering, choosing every word very carefully because one small mistake could open a Pandora's box that could not be closed again. "Mr. Crawford is indeed very focused on his work, Ms. Ashford."

"Call me Karina. We don't need to be formal here." Karina took the coffee cup from Freya's hand and sipped it slowly, her eyes still fixed on Freya's face as if she were searching for something hidden beneath the light makeup Freya had put on this morning. "You know, I've been engaged to Ethan for two years, and it hasn't been easy because he always keeps something to himself, like a Pandora's box he never opens for anyone. But I'm sure he'll change after we get married. Men like him just need the right woman to soften their hearts."

Freya heard clearly the weight of meaning behind every word Karina spoke—a subtle reminder that Karina was the official fiancée, the future wife, the woman Ethan would marry soon, and Freya was just a secretary who happened to work near that man. "Is there any sugar here?" Karina asked after a few moments of silence, stirring her bitter coffee.

Freya extended the sugar container with a hand that did not tremble, even though her entire body was shaking violently inside, and she saw the large diamond ring on Karina's ring finger glittering under the pantry lights, the precious stone looking so heavy and luxurious, and Freya could not take her eyes off that ring because that ring was the wall separating her from Ethan Crawford, a wall she could never tear down no matter how hard she tried. "Thank you, Freya," Karina said with a sweet smile and walked out of the pantry with her coffee in hand. "It's nice to finally chat with you. Ethan is surely in good hands."

Freya smiled and nodded, and after Karina left, she stood still in the empty pantry with both hands pressing against the cold marble counter, and she let herself breathe for the first time in the past fifteen minutes. She closed her eyes, and behind her dark eyelids, she saw again Ethan's smile for Karina, the gentle touch of that hand on another woman's waist, and the sweet whispers she would never hear for herself, and she asked herself whether she could keep doing this—keep lying in the same bed as the man who would marry another woman, keep being the dirty secret whose name was never spoken in public.

She did not know the answer, but her phone buzzed in her pocket, and when she looked at the screen, there was a short message from Ethan, sent from behind his closed office door, and the message contained only three words that made her fall silent for a very long time because she did not know whether those three words were enough to fix anything that had shattered this morning.

[I'm sorry.]