Chapter 10 up
“Please leave the room. Now.”
The security officer’s voice was low, controlled, and left no space for negotiation. Two men in black suits stood on either side of Axel and Selina, close enough to be unmistakably threatening—polite, but firm.
Selina flinched. “What do you mean, leave? We’re invited guests!”
The officer’s expression did not change. “Direct orders.”
Axel felt the blood rush to his head. He looked around—at the row of elite guests who now pretended to be deeply invested in their champagne glasses, at the media cameras that were still rolling, and finally at the main stage that suddenly felt impossibly far away. There, Adrian Wibisana stood calm and composed, as though whatever was unfolding at the edge of the ballroom no longer concerned him.
“This is humiliating,” Selina hissed, her voice trembling with barely contained rage. She grabbed Axel’s arm. “Say something.”
Axel opened his mouth—then closed it again. Every word felt wrong. Every possible response seemed to dig the hole deeper.
“Please,” the officer repeated, this time gesturing toward the exit.
Cameras caught the moment—the flush creeping up Selina’s neck, the tight line of Axel’s jaw, their steps forced forward by a situation that offered no alternatives. Camera flashes exploded around them. The sharp clicks of shutters sounded like small gunshots, each one striking another blow to their dignity.
Whispers spread quickly.
“Isn’t that Axel Armand?”
“He’s being escorted out?”
“At Adrian Wibisana’s event?”
Each sentence cut deep.
Selina walked with her chin lifted, but her shoulders were rigid. The smile she had perfected over years of elite gatherings—graceful, alluring—had collapsed into a thin, strained line. Axel could feel the anger vibrating through her body.
When the grand ballroom doors closed behind them, the music and polished conversations were cut off instantly. What remained was a long marble corridor, cold and eerily quiet.
Selina stopped abruptly.
“What the hell was that?” she shouted, her voice echoing down the hallway. She spun around to face Axel, her eyes blazing. “Did you see how they treated us? Like trash!”
Axel took a long breath. “Selina, not now—”
“Not now?” Selina laughed sharply, the sound bordering on hysterical. “I was humiliated in front of the entire world, Axel. Investors. Officials. The media. And you’re telling me not now?”
She stepped closer, pressing a finger against his chest. “You should have defended me.”
Axel gently pushed her hand away. “I can’t fight Adrian Wibisana on his own ground.”
The name weighed heavily as it left his mouth. Even saying it felt like admitting defeat.
Selina scoffed. “So you’re afraid.”
Axel met her gaze. “I’m realistic.”
The revolving doors opened, and the night air rushed in, carrying city lights and the low hum of luxury cars waiting outside. A few guests who had left early glanced in their direction—briefly, discreetly, judgment written plainly in their eyes.
Selina clenched her clutch. “I won’t forget this,” she said coldly. “Never.”
Axel closed his eyes for a moment. His head throbbed. Beneath Selina’s fury, another image kept replaying in his mind, relentless and sharp.
Vanesa.
Standing beside Adrian Wibisana.
Calm. Upright. Untouchable.
The woman he had once dismissed now stood in a world he had never imagined for her.
“She did this on purpose,” Selina continued, her voice dripping with venom. “Vanesa. She must have enjoyed it—watching us get humiliated.”
Axel didn’t respond.
“Answer me!” Selina snapped. “Do you really think she isn’t taking revenge? Do you think she’s just innocent and silent?”
Axel turned his gaze back to the towering hotel behind them. Its tall windows reflected golden light—grand, distant, unreachable. Somewhere behind those walls, Vanesa might still be standing—accepted, protected, acknowledged.
“She didn’t need revenge,” Axel said at last, his voice low. “She just… returned to where she belongs.”
Selina went quiet for a second, then laughed loudly. “You’re defending her now?”
Axel shook his head. “I’m stating a fact.”
Selina’s expression hardened. “What fact? That she’s rich? That her father is powerful?”
She stepped closer again, lowering her voice into a venomous whisper. “Listen carefully, Axel. I don’t care who her father is. I don’t care how high she stands tonight.”
She looked him straight in the eye. “I will destroy anyone who dares to humiliate me.”
A chill crawled up Axel’s spine.
“Including Vanesa’s family,” Selina added without hesitation. “Including the Wibisana empire, if necessary.”
“Selina,” Axel warned.
“No,” she cut him off. “You may be able to accept being treated like this. I can’t.”
She turned, staring at the hotel with open hatred. “I swear it. They will pay.”
Axel remained silent. Inside him, something began to fracture—not because of Selina’s threat, but because of the realization that arrived far too late.
For years, he had believed Vanesa had nothing but her name. A woman who depended on him. Easy to leave. Easy to forget.
Tonight shattered that illusion.
Vanesa was not the woman he had discarded.
She was the woman who had let him go—and stepped into a world where even Axel Armand had to bow his head.
Selina climbed into the car with a sharp movement, slamming the door shut. “Get in,” she ordered.
Axel hesitated for a moment before following. As the car pulled away, he looked back one last time at the hotel.
His gaze lingered there—on the building that had witnessed his fall, on the world that had quietly closed its doors to him, and on the woman now standing on an entirely new summit.
Anger and regret twisted together in his chest.
And for the first time that night, Axel Armand understood exactly what he had lost.