CHAPTER TWELVE
542 Words
Chapter Twelve
Marcellus remained in his office long after the others had left. The city glittered through the wide glass panes, a restless sea of lights against the night. His desk was crowded with documents, but he hadn’t read a single page in the last hour.
His mind was elsewhere. On her.
Every time Briella’s voice reached him across the boardroom, calm and commanding, he felt the sharp pull of the past. She carried herself with a kind of polished distance now—measured words, unshaken composure. She had built walls where once there had only been warmth.
Flashback -
He remembered her younger self, sitting on the edge of a fountain, water droplets catching the sunlight as she scolded him for being late. She had thrown a pebble at him, laughing, “One day, Marci, you’ll learn that the world doesn’t wait for you!”
Back then, she was light itself—radiant, untamed, impossible not to chase.
He dragged a hand across his face, shutting the memory away.
The door clicked open without warning. Christopher strolled in, dressed sharply as always, but his expression carried the easy calm of someone who knew when to pry. He dropped into the chair across the desk, stretching his legs out.
“You look like a man trying to solve an equation with no answer,” Christopher remarked.
Marcellus gave a quiet huff of air. “Maybe I am.”
“It’s Briella, isn’t it?”
The name landed like a weight in the room.
Christopher studied him for a beat before continuing. “You freeze up whenever she’s around. You treat her like one of the staff when you both know she’s not just anyone. What is this, Marci? Are you punishing her? Or yourself?”
Marcellus’s eyes darkened. “I would never punish her.”
“Then why the distance?” Christopher pressed.
Marcellus leaned back, gaze fixed on the city below. “Because I don’t know how to stand in front of her without the years sitting between us. I left without a word. I became someone she doesn’t know anymore. When she looks at me now… it’s like she’s measuring the gap, and I don’t know how to close it.”
His voice lowered, unsteady. “Do you have any idea how many times I wanted to write to her? To call her? And yet, when the chance was in front of me… I froze. And now that I’ve finally come back, I can’t even say what I should.”
Christopher tilted his head. “Which is?”
Marcellus’s throat tightened. The words felt too raw, too heavy. “That I came back because of her. That seeing her again reminded me of everything I had lost. And that no matter how many years passed, I never stopped—” He stopped himself abruptly, fists curling on the desk.
Christopher didn’t push. Instead, he said quietly, “If you can’t find the right words, then stop hiding behind silence. She doesn’t need perfection, Marci. She just needs you.”
Marcellus shut his eyes, fighting the storm inside him.
But he wasn’t sure the man he had become was someone she could still accept.
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✨ End of Chapter Twelve ✨
- Writer
