Love me after the lie

Chapter 3

Chapter Four

Xander

Four Years Ago

She wasn’t supposed to be there.

I told her I’d be working late—finalizing the Brazil acquisition. But when I walked into the penthouse at 11:42 p.m., her shoes were by the door. Heels off. Keys in the dish. Home.

I should’ve felt relief. Instead, I felt the slow, sharp sting of dread.

Veronica was still in the bedroom.

I didn’t speak. Just froze in the hallway as Selene came around the corner in one of my old T-shirts, hair tied back, eyes sleepy and soft—until they locked on the shadow behind me.

Veronica stepped forward like she belonged there.

Selene’s expression didn’t break right away. It cracked slowly, like glass under pressure.

“I came to surprise you,” she said quietly.

No rage. No tears. Just those five words.

Veronica had the nerve to smirk. I could’ve sworn she wanted Selene to see.

“Selene, it’s not what it looks like.”

Lame. Weak. Utterly useless.

“Isn’t it?” Her voice dropped. “Because it looks exactly like what it is.”

She didn’t scream. She didn’t throw anything. She just turned.

And I did nothing.

I stood there. Stunned. Ashamed. A coward in his own body.

“Selene—” I started, reaching for her.

She recoiled like I’d burned her.

“You touched her with the same hands you promised me forever.”

That’s when the tears came—just one, sliding down her cheek like a knife made of salt.

Then she was gone. The door slammed behind her like a gavel, and I knew.

I’d just sentenced myself to life without her.

Xander

Present Day

The door closed behind her like it had four years ago—soft, final, cruel.

Selene had left me twice now. And somehow, this second time stung worse than the first.

I stared at the empty chair across from my desk. Her perfume still lingered—jasmine and fire and memory. It clung to the air like a ghost refusing to leave.

She hadn’t yelled. She hadn’t cried. She hadn’t given me anything I could fix.

She’d just looked at me with those eyes—unreadable, untrusting and asked the kind of questions that weren’t really about business at all.

She wanted to know if I still bled.

And I did.

God, I did.

I turned to the window, hands in my pockets, jaw clenched so hard it hurt. The city buzzed beneath me—millions of people moving on with their lives. I couldn’t. Not until I found a way to make her see the truth.

The thing no one knew—what no one ever let me say.

I didn’t sleep with Veronica.

Yes, she was in my bed that night.

Yes, it looked exactly like the nightmare Selene had lived with ever since.

But that was the lie.

And the worst part? I let Selene believe it.

I let her walk away because I thought I didn’t deserve to chase her.

Now she’s back. And I see it in her eyes—she doesn’t just want answers. She wants closure. Maybe revenge. Maybe justice.

But I want her.

I always have.

And if I only get one more shot, I’m not wasting it.

Even if I have to tear my own secrets apart to earn it.