Three Years as His Pet, I Found My True Love

Chapter 7 The Last Goodbye

I fully expected Sebastian to fly straight back to Nechyae after the concert.

So when I walked into the apartment the next evening, I was shocked to see the kitchen lights on. Sebastian was already preparing dinner.

I stood in the doorway for a moment before pasting on a bright smile and walking over. "What's cooking tonight? Steak again?"

I glanced down at the dining table with a smile, only to freeze.

It wasn't filet mignon and red wine. It was my absolute favorite, seafood soup.

A tremor ran through my heart. "Why did you make this today?"

"I won't be making steak anymore," Sebastian replied casually, not looking up. "Try it."

I stood perfectly still, glancing down. My eyes accidentally landed on his phone resting on the counter. A text from Vivian glowed brightly on the lock screen.

Vivian: I don't want to be like anyone else.

A sharp, violent tug yanked at my chest. I sat down at the table in silence.

I lowered my head and sipped the soup, but every swallow tasted more bitter than the last.

After just two bites, I heard him speak, "I'm flying to Jeflurg with Vivian tomorrow. Don't contact me for the next few days."

I knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to spend his birthday entirely uninterrupted with Vivian.

It had been exactly the same for the past three years.

I forced the corners of my mouth up. "Okay."

My total compliance seemed to please him. He looked at me with a rare, genuine smile. "I'll bring you back a gift from Jeflurg."

"You don't need to," I said.

I looked up, meeting his gaze deeply, and offered him one final smile. "Happy early birthday, Mr. Sterling."

I kept smiling, holding his gaze without blinking.

As our eyes locked, I saw the look in his eyes darken considerably.

He stood up and walked over to me, his tall frame casting a long shadow that blocked out the overhead light.

From this angle, I could only see the sharp, devastatingly handsome lines of his face backlit by the glow.

Then he leaned down. The cold came off him in waves, wrapping all the way around me.

But his kiss burned.

He kissed my face, then trailed down to the tender skin of my throat.

Lost in the heat and the wanting, he scooped me up into his arms and carried me toward the bedroom.

I clung to his neck the entire way. I didn't even need to open my eyes, but every step we took and every inch of this apartment we passed appeared vividly in my mind.

During my first year as his kept woman, he had taken me to his sprawling estates, his ultra-modern penthouses, and his luxury villas.

Standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows of Floule's tallest skyscraper, he had once told me, "Point to a building, and it's yours."

But I had chosen this place, the most unremarkable apartment.

Because back then, he felt like the ordinary love and the home I had been so desperately craving.

The bedroom curtains were drawn tight, leaving the room so dark that I could barely make out his face.

When he laid me down on the mattress and reached over to turn on the bedside lamp, I aggressively pulled him back down, kissing him fiercely. "Just like this, Sebastian..."

Just like this, I would allow myself to indulge one last time.

It was the very first time I had ever called Sebastian by his first name. My voice was heavy with breath, sounding like a desperate whisper.

He let out a low chuckle and deepened the kiss with a punishing intensity.

It was the most passionate night we had shared in three years.

By the end of it, we were both completely exhausted and drifted off to sleep.

A split second before he lost consciousness, he instinctively pressed a soft kiss to my cheek.

When I woke up the next morning, he was already gone.

I got out of bed and started washing up when my phone buzzed with a text from Harper.

Harper: Your flight is at 3 PM. Are you packed? I'm coming to pick you up.

Packed?

I looked around the apartment. It was completely bare. Every single trace of my existence had been thrown into a dumpster by Sebastian half a month ago.

I pulled my gaze away and typed back.

Chloe: You can come get me now.

I had already handled everything else over the past few days. All I had left here were a few sets of clothes.

After grabbing my small duffel bag, I took out the deed to the penthouse and the bank card with the five million dollars. I walked into the study and placed them neatly on his mahogany desk.

I had traded three years of memories for these two items, and now, I was leaving them exactly where they belonged.

I took one final look around the empty living room, a faint, genuine smile gracing my lips.

"I've always been grateful to you for pulling me out of the dark when I was at my lowest. But I don't think I ever actually thanked you," I whispered.

Now, stripped of my title as his kept woman, I could finally stand on equal footing with him.

I could finally smile and say, "Thank you, Sebastian."

Even though we would never see each other again.

Even though he couldn't hear me.

But some departures didn't require a goodbye.

I opened the front door, cast one last glance over my shoulder, and gently pulled it shut behind me.

*****

At that exact moment, halfway across the city, a sleek Rolls-Royce slammed hard on its brakes.

The contract in Sebastian's hand slipped and fell to the floorboards. He frowned sharply.

"My apologies, Mr. Sterling," the driver said nervously, glancing in the rearview mirror. "A child darted out into the street."

He quickly added, "We'll be arriving to pick up Ms. Fox momentarily."

Sebastian gave a dismissive hum and bent down to retrieve the folder, an inexplicable wave of anxiety suddenly gnawing at his chest.

For a fleeting second, he felt an overwhelming urge to call me. But he quickly brushed the thought aside.

At 3 PM, Sebastian's private jet touched down in Jeflurg.

At that exact moment, my commercial flight back home took off from the runway.

Twelve hours later, Sebastian was standing in a lavish chateau, attending the grand birthday banquet Vivian had thrown for him.

Amidst the clinking of champagne flutes, he glanced down at his phone, finding that I actually hadn't sent him a single text. His brows knitted together in annoyance.

Meanwhile, my plane touched down in Nechyae. The moment I walked out of the terminal, an agent from the research facility approached me.

"Welcome aboard," the agent said, handing me a sealed box. "This is your new secure phone. We're heading straight to the laboratory."

I thanked him, took the device, and climbed into the waiting car.

Reaching out, I firmly pulled the car door shut.

*****

Two days later, Sebastian returned to Floule a day earlier than scheduled.

Sitting in the car, Carter glanced at the mountain of haute couture and luxury bags piled in the passenger seat. "Don't worry, Mr. Sterling. I'll have these delivered to Ms. Fox as soon as possible."

"They're for Chloe," Sebastian corrected coldly.

Carter looked surprised. "Didn't Ms. Love mention she didn't care for the luxury brands from Jeflurg?"

I had said I didn't want anything. But Sebastian distinctly remembered my bookmarking these exact items in a fashion magazine months ago.

He pulled his gaze away from the window. "Draft a new contract for her. Bump her allowance from $300,000 to $500,000. Bring it to the apartment tomorrow."

When Sebastian unlocked the door to his apartment, it was impeccably clean, exactly as he had left it.

He walked into the kitchen, mechanically prepared dinner, and set the table. Then, he sat down and waited.

He waited from dusk until the dead of night, but I never showed up.

Staring at the seafood soup that had long since gone cold, he looked sullen, the look in his eyes turning absolutely glacial.

Losing his patience, he pulled out his phone, his face set in a furious scowl, and dialed my number.

The line rang once.

Before the reprimand could even leave his lips, a robotic, automated voice echoed against his ear. "The number you have dialed is no longer in service."