Chapter 2

　　I stood in the plaza before the Villarreal Group headquarters, my gaze fixed on the glass-and-steel tower that soared above the clouds with imperious indifference. Its grandeur seemed to quietly underscore just how small I was in this place. But I curled my fingers into a fist at my side, pushing the feeling away before it could take root. I have to be able to stand on my own two feet, I whispered to myself, a private act of courage. I knew, with clear and unsentimental certainty, that I could not remain beneath the shelter of the Villarreal family forever.

　　I had to be independent. I had to be capable of earning my own living. Because one day—when that day finally came, the day I would have to leave and step out of their grand house for the last time—I refused to be adrift. I would already have built a foundation solid enough to hold the weight of my own life.

　　With a long, steadying breath to settle the storm inside me, I walked through the lobby doors. A measure of calm returned. After all, I had earned my place here entirely on my own merits, passing every rigorous stage of the selection process without a single whisper of nepotism or inside help. Recalling that, my confidence thickened and quietly reasserted itself. I could do this. I could handle whatever new responsibilities awaited me.

　　But that composure evaporated the moment I stepped into the main corridor. My stride came to an abrupt halt, merging with a dozen other employees who had simultaneously pressed to the sides and bowed their heads in deference. At the far end of the hallway, Javier—my foster brother, now the company's CEO—was advancing with his characteristic authority, each step measured and commanding. There was no warmth in his expression—only the familiar mask: rigid, cool, impenetrable.

　　Yet it was not Javier's aura of intimidation that stole the breath from my lungs. It was the woman beside him.

　　She moved with effortless, curated grace—her figure striking, her presence polished to a high shine. Her hand was draped possessively over the sleeve of Javier's blazer, a gesture that managed to look both natural and proprietary all at once. I knew who she was. Adriana. The woman who was set to become Javier's wife in a matter of months—or perhaps weeks; I didn't know the exact timeline, nor did I particularly want to. What I did know was the diamond cluster that caught the light on her ring finger: undeniable, dazzling, and irrefutable proof that they were officially engaged.

　　They looked like they had been made for each other. Adriana came from one of the most distinguished conglomerate dynasties in the country and was a celebrated model whose face had graced the covers of every major fashion magazine. Comparing her to me felt like measuring the sky against the earth—she, radiant and limitless up above; and I, down here, nothing more than a destitute orphan taken in out of pity.

　　"Good morning, sir …" I added my voice to the chorus of formal greetings from the surrounding employees, folding my hands in front of me and lowering my head as deeply as I could. I did not dare look at him. I was terrified my eyes would betray everything—every feeling, every boundary Javier had laid down so coldly between us that very morning.

　　Javier walked the length of the corridor without so much as a sideways glance, dismissing every greeting with the absolute indifference of a man who had long since stopped noticing the lesser world around him. The moment his measured footsteps and the sharp click of Adriana's heels faded toward the executive elevator, the whispers erupted around me like a dam giving way.

　　"Mr. Javier and his fiancée are so perfectly matched, aren't they? He's so handsome, and she's just stunning."

　　"Absolutely! And she's a famous model on top of everything else. They're a perfect fit. Can you imagine their children? The genes would be flawless."

　　"Right—and they're both only children from incredibly wealthy families. Once they marry, this company is going to be number one without question."

　　Without realizing it, I had pressed both hands into fists at my sides until my nails bit into my palms and turned my knuckles white. Everything they were saying was an absolute truth. An incontestable fact. So why—why did simply hearing the words feel like being struck squarely in the chest? The pain was real and physical, as though an invisible blade were slowly, methodically stripping the skin from my heart.

　　Time moved quickly inside the marketing division's workspace. I was genuinely grateful to find myself with a team that was reasonably welcoming. They guided me patiently through my first steps as a newcomer. Of course, even behind that friendliness, I was perfectly aware of the few pairs of eyes that tracked me with barely concealed contempt—the predictable resentment that senior employees sometimes harbored toward anyone fresh and new. I chose to ignore it, and buried myself instead in the mountain of documents on my desk.

　　"Who's willing to take this divisional financial report up to Mr. Javier's office?" the division head called out from his central cubicle, cutting through the ambient hum of keyboard clicks.

　　I said nothing, feigning deafness. My focus remained locked on the computer screen in front of me, working through a data entry task I'd been handed an hour before. A strained silence settled over the room—not a single senior member volunteered. Evidently, presenting oneself before Javier on the executive floor was something everyone quietly dreaded, given his reputation for being utterly without mercy.

　　"Oh, I'm absolutely swamped right now, my work is still piling up. Just send the new girl up with it," one of the senior women said, her voice carefully calibrated to sound lazy and unbothered. Naturally, that pointed remark forced my head up from the screen.

　　"Me?" I repeated, pressing a hand to my chest to confirm.

　　"Yes, you go ahead and deliver that file, Camila. It's just a drop-off—take it to his secretary on the upper floor, and then you can come straight back," the division head confirmed, endorsing the suggestion without the slightest reluctance.

　　I sat motionless for a beat. My fingers curled slowly around the edge of the desk, quietly grounding myself against the sudden, violent racing of my pulse—all of it triggered by nothing more than hearing his name spoken aloud. But I had no choice. How could I possibly refuse a direct instruction from a superior on my very first day?

　　With a leaden reluctance and a heart full of tangled feelings, I accepted the thick company-branded folder. I hugged it tightly to my chest, as though the thing might serve as some sort of armor for the fragile parts of me, and then made my way with slow, heavy steps toward the elevator that would carry me to the uppermost floor. The executive suite of the CEO.

　　Ding.

　　The elevator doors slid open on the highest level. The atmosphere up here was markedly different—quieter, more rarified, as though even the air knew it existed on a separate plane. I followed the route the division head had described, walking down a corridor of gleaming marble toward the secretary's desk positioned just outside Javier's office. All I had to do, he'd said, was hand the documents directly to the secretary.

　　But when I arrived, the chair behind that imposing desk sat empty. The secretary was nowhere to be found.

　　I stood stranded in the silent corridor, at a genuine loss. Where was I supposed to leave this? I couldn't simply turn around and walk away without any resolution, nor could I abandon a document this sensitive on an unattended desk. After a moment of anxious deliberation, I made my decision: I would knock and deliver it to Javier directly. After all, the heavy door before me was already ajar—standing open by a narrow few centimetres.

　　I crossed the floor in careful, soundless steps. But just as my hand rose to knock, every joint in my body went rigid. My heart seized—stopped dead in its rhythm—as my eyes, entirely against my will, caught what lay beyond that thin sliver of open door.

　　Inside the expansive office, Javier had Adriana seated in his lap on the leather sofa. His strong hands gripped her slender waist with open possessiveness, while she had wound her arms around his neck. Right before my eyes, the two of them were locked in a kiss—deep, unhurried, and searingly intimate.

　　The scene I had only ever encountered in my worst nightmares was now playing out in merciless, high-definition reality.

　　Watching them, the oxygen around me seemed to vanish entirely. My chest compressed, leaving behind a constriction so crushing that drawing breath became a conscious effort. My head swam, and my vision softened and blurred as a transparent film of tears began to quietly collect along my lashes.

　　I knew this was absurd. I knew I had no right to feel shattered in the way I did. Wasn't this nothing? Weren't they simply two people in love, officially engaged and soon to be married? What they were doing was the most natural thing in the world.

　　I tried to anchor that logic firmly in my mind, tried to smother the storm raging inside my chest. But my heart, obstinate and ungovernable, refused every peace offering. The pain spread with swift and efficient cruelty, dismantling every wall I'd carefully constructed since morning.

　　With hands that trembled violently, I pressed the folder harder against my chest and bit down on my lower lip—hard enough to sting—so that not a single sound of grief could escape me.

　　But why does it hurt this much, God? Why does loving him have to cost this much? I cried inwardly, mourning the wretched fate of a heart trapped in the labyrinth of a forbidden love that would never, in any lifetime, find its way out.