The Secret That Burned Me Alive
638 Words
The sun was setting outside the towering glass windows of Celestia Luxe headquarters, painting the sky in streaks of gold and crimson. Inside, Cassandra sat at her small desk just outside Sebastian's office, typing with mechanical precision.
Her hands moved, but her mid was elsewhere - lost in the familiar labyrinth of thoughts she wished she could silence.
Because no matter how many reports she finished, calls she arranged, or meetings she scheduled, there was one truth that burned through every quiet moment like wildfire.
She loved him.
Not the way people loved sunsets or favorite songs. She loved him in a way that hurt. In a way that consumed.
For five years, she had carried that secret like a second skin, stitched to her very bones.
An it was killing her slowly.
"Cassandra."
His voice snapped her back to the present.
Sebastian stood at his door, one hand shoved into his pocket, the other holding his phone. He didn't even look at her when he spoke.
"Reschedule my dinner with Navaroo. Something come up."
Cassandra nodded quickly, hiding the way his words twisted something inside her. Rosalind Navarro again.
"Right away, sir."
He disappeared back inside without another word, the door closing with a soft click.
And just like that, she was left staring at the wood paneling, wondering how someone's presence could feel so magnetic and so merciless at the same time.
Vivienne once told her she was punishing herself.
"You're in love with a man who doesn't even see you, Cassy," her best friend had said over coffee months ago. "You're setting yourslef on fire to keep him warm, and he doesn't even notice the smoke."
Cassandra had laughed it off back then. Pretended it didn't hurt. Pretended she didn't dream about him, think about him, breathe him in every time he passed by like he carried the air she needed to live.
But Vivienne was right.
She was burning.
And the flames were invisible to everyone but her.
Hours later, the building had grown quiet. The cleaning crew was mopping floors. The echo of fostspets had faded, and Cassandra was still at her desk finishing the last of the day's reports.
The light in Sebastian's office was still on.
She knew he was there, probably scrolling through his phone, maybe texting one of the women in his endless rotation. Maybe smiling at Rosalind. Or Amara. Or whoever he was planning to take home tonight.
The thought twisted like a knife in her gut.
She hated herself for caring.
Hated that no matter how much he ignored her, no matter how sharp his words, no matter how cold his temper, she still loved him.
Loved him enough to stay.
Loved him enough to bleed silently so he would not have to.
At 7PM, Sebastian finally emerged, phone in hand, suit jacket draped over his shoulder. He barely glanced at her still sitting there, eyes tired, fingers flying over the keyboard.
"Don't stay too late," he said absently.
It was not concern. Just routine.
And yet her heart leapt like it was the first kind thing he had ever said to her.
Pathetic.
She was pathetic.
"Goodnight, sir," she whispered as he strode past, his perfume lingering in the air like the ghost of something she clould never have.
When the elevatordoors closed behind him, Cassandra sat there for a long moment, staring at the empty hallway.
And for the first time in years, she let the tears fall.
Quietly.
Alone.
Because loving himfelt like setting herself on fire every day - and pretending the flames did not hurt.
That night, lying in her bed in her small apartment, Cassandra finally admitted the truth to herself in the darkness.
She loved him.
Hopelessly. Desperately.
And it was a secret that burned her alive every single day.
- Writer
