[Hazel]
“So, Eden, what do you say? Deal?”
Elijah’s voice from the past echoed in my mind like an unwelcome ghost, dragging me back to a moment I had tried so hard to bury, to forget, to ignore—the moment he truly disappointed me.
Back then, when I worked as his secretary, I admired Elijah with a kind of innocent devotion. He carried himself with quiet confidence and effortless charm, a man who seemed to possess the world without ever needing to reach for it. He was my idol—someone who embodied ambition, sophistication, and brilliance. Everything he did felt larger than life, and I was constantly in awe of how seamlessly he commanded every room he entered.
But even the brightest stars have shadows.
There was a day—one I wish I could erase—when the image I had built of him came crashin
