The Other Woman
529 Words
Chapter Eight: The Other Woman
The invitation was unexpected.
An embossed cream card delivered to her desk the next morning.
No name, just a location and time:
> The Orchid Room. 3 PM.
> Come alone.
Elsie stared at it for a long time.
She knew who sent it.
She went anyway.
---
The Orchid Room was sleek, cold, and expensive—floor-to-ceiling windows, the clink of crystal, a pianist in the corner playing something sad and slow.
And there, in the center, sat a woman who looked like she owned the air around her.
She had platinum hair, red lips, and wore a high-neck black dress with diamond cuffs. Everything about her screamed old money and trained elegance.
She didn’t rise when Elsie approached.
Just looked her up and down.
“So. You’re the secretary.”
Elsie sat across from her. “And you’re…?”
The woman smiled, but there was no warmth.
“Celeste Laurent. Former fiancée of the man currently f*****g you.”
The words landed like glass shattering.
Elsie didn’t flinch.
Celeste leaned in, voice like silk. “Tell me, did he take you on his plane yet? Bend you over his desk? Let you think you're special?”
Elsie’s hands curled under the table. “Why did you ask me here?”
“Because I was once you. And when he’s done consuming you, he’ll spit you out too. Damian Blackthorn doesn’t love. He possesses.”
“Maybe I don’t want love.”
Celeste’s smile sharpened. “Then you’re dumber than I thought.”
---
Elsie left the restaurant shaking.
Outside, her phone buzzed.
Damian.
> I know where you are.
> She doesn’t speak for me.
> Come home.
---
But when she got to the penthouse, she didn’t find him in the kitchen. Or the living room.
She found him in his private gym.
Shirtless. Gloved. Beating the hell out of a punching bag.
His knuckles were raw.
“Damian—”
“I told her to stay away from you,” he said between hits.
She watched in silence as he finished his set, breath ragged.
Then he turned to her.
“She’s not wrong,” he said finally. “I do ruin things. I have ruined things. But you’re different.”
Elsie’s voice was quiet. “Am I?”
“I see you. Not just your body. Not just your mouth. I see your hunger. You hide it behind your blushes and books—but it’s there.”
He moved toward her.
And this time, she didn’t back away.
He cupped her jaw.
“I won’t lose you.”
---
He took her in the gym, raw and fast, up against the mirrored wall.
No tenderness.
Just teeth and heat and fury.
And when she came, he didn’t stop.
> “You don’t belong to my past,” he growled into her throat.
“You’re the future I never thought I’d get.”
---
Afterward, as they lay tangled on the gym mat, he whispered:
“She’s not finished. Celeste always plays long games.”
Elsie touched his bruised knuckles.
“Then let’s make her wish she never started.”
- Writer
