Chained by Betrayal: Trapped in Forbidden Embrace

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Ellie’s POV

"Damn it!" Sebastian’s voice quavered. His gaze fixed on the door, he turned his head toward it, and our eyes locked. Every fractured shard of my world is scattered. He knew I’d seen every one of those moments.

I watched the blonde roll off his lap. I fixed my face in an impassive mask—he would not read my pain.

She vanished. He held my stare—he had shattered my illusion. The burden of betrayal bore down on my heart.

Her sweat shimmered on his skin—a trace I could not overlook. Our eyes locked for a moment in a blaze of anger. The proof was irrefutable, edged as sharply as shards of glass.

A vise-like knot twisted in my gut. I felt utterly undefended. A slender strand of relief coursed through me—I would see to it that he never walks away from that wound. Yet that fleeting relief soon morphed into dread: the test must be taken at once.

Is that the correct word? I spoke in an even tone. Within me, betrayal deepened.

A jolt widened his eyes, and he gave no defense for his body. With a breath caught in a hushed choke, he gasped: “Oh my God… Oh my God—that’s nothing at all like it seems.

Naturally, it was nothing at all like it seemed. Rage surged, quickly followed by misery that pulsed through me. At my most vulnerable, I caught sight of him—bare and laid bare. I fractured on the edge, my emotions tumbling one after another.

My pulse throbbed; pain tightened my lungs. Nausea hit. The room was suffused with the shards of shattered trust.

I offered no response. I twisted my body where I stood and pushed headlong down the stairs, resolute that the tears burning in my eyes should remain unseen.

I stretched out my arm to the meeting files on the table and hauled them close. Even with my head spinning, I had to concentrate. I had to guard against this spilling into my work.

Sebastian swept up the stairs, but I knew I couldn’t remain. I couldn’t stay to watch him try to repair what he’d shattered. I needed no clarification. Even if I wasn’t sure I wanted it, I demanded the truth.

I draped my bag across my shoulder, tightened the strap, and longed for solid ground.

I took a steadying breath and slipped the door open. The softest of breezes touched my cheeks, yet the tempest still roiled within me.

Sebastian’s voice hunted me down. “Ellie! Ellie!” His anguish seared; his panic pressed on me.

I kept moving, stopping neither to pause nor to turn around. I pressed on, my broken heart constricting with every step.

I looped the block, never caught sight of him, flagged a cab, and slid inside without a word.

The cab moved off. The engine’s low murmur disappeared beneath the deafening din in my mind. Only then did my world start to crumble. Sobs engulfed me, and a muffled moan slipped past my lips.

I clapped my head between my hands and let the pain consume me. Everything I’d once cherished and dreamed of felt shattered and gone.

Now what was I, for heaven’s sake, to do? I would never raise my eyes to him again; I would never uphold that façade again.

I’d never been prepared for this.

In the rear-view mirror, I caught the cabbie’s gaze, and he extended a tissue. That one gesture was the first thread to intertwine with my lifeline. I held back any hint of thanks, took the tissues, and steeled myself for the blow to come.

Silence draped the car. He let me cry, seated there amid my thoughts, unable to chart my next move.

Ultimately, I handed him the office's address. While my life cracked into shards, an unshakeable sense of duty carved its way through the numbness. Oliver depended on me. I simply could not afford to take a day off. Now, my professional life was all that stood between me and nothingness.

Drawing my car into the office’s parking lot, I drew a long, steadying breath. I did not want to fake it, yet I had to. The work simply had to keep advancing.

I had long envisioned owning a home—perhaps with Sebastian. I never pictured he could let me down. Once I pictured myself in a house with a family, but that vision has slipped away. My hopes seemed eternally beyond my grasp.

I uttered a quiet “thank you,” set my fare beside the driver, and stepped out of the taxi. I wiped my eyes a final time and set to the task of recomposing myself.

I drew a deep, steadying breath, squared my shoulders, and stepped into the office, ejecting every other thought along the way. I had to concentrate. I resolved to make certain that Oliver never saw me fall apart.

I slipped my fingers into my pocket and drew out my phone, embracing it as I wondered how Sebastian was coping with the upheaval. I could not care. I couldn’t even remember his name.

I had better get to the meeting. I had a job to do.