Chapter 48 Chapter 48
Chapter 48
“Be at the Castellan Enterprise by 9 p.m. on Saturday.”
That was the message Richard personally sent to Ethan.
The notification popped up on his phone screen. He read it once, and before he even realized what he was doing, he threw the phone to the floor.
It hit the tiles with a hard sound and slid until it stopped at the doorway right where Celine’s feet stood.
She had just stepped into his office.
Celine bent down slowly, picked up the phone, and looked at the cracked corner of the screen. She didn’t say anything yet. She just looked at the phone, then at Ethan.
He didn’t even notice her at first.
His anger was running ahead of his thoughts. His chest kept rising and falling like he was trying to fight something inside him. The more he thought about Richard’s message, the more heat burned under his skin.
He grabbed the documents on his desk and flung them across the room. Pages scattered everywhere. Some floated down gently. Some slapped against the floor. The sound echoed around the office.
Celine didn’t move. She just stood there, watching him.
Then Ethan slammed both hands on the desk once, twice, again. He didn’t even care if he bruised himself. His breath sounded uneven. His jaw tightened until it looked painful.
That was when Celine rushed toward him.
“Mr castellan, stop,” she said quickly as she grabbed his wrists.
.
He jerked his head up, surprised. That was when he finally realized she was in the room.
He looked at her really looked at her.
Her hands wrapped around his wrists.
Her eyes full of concern, not fear.
Her voice steady, even though he was losing control.
He wanted to shout. He wanted to push her away and continue breaking something anything to quiet the noise in his mind. But the moment he saw her face, something inside him dropped, like someone pulled the anger right out of him.
His eyes softened without him meaning for them to.
“Stop, Mr. Castellan… you’re hurting yourself,” she said again, her voice low, almost like she was trying not to startle him.
She wasn’t scared of him.
She wasn’t judging him.
She was… worried.
He didn’t know what to do with that.
Her hands were still holding his. Her grip was firm but gentle. His pulse was wild under her fingers, and he knew she could feel it.
He didn’t say a word.
Neither did she.
For a moment, they just stayed like that the room scattered with papers, his desk a mess, his breathing loud, her hands steadying him.
Then, slowly, he pulled his hands out of her grip. Not harshly. Not fast. Just… gently.
Like he didn’t want to hurt her.
He turned away, unable to keep looking at her because he knew exactly what would happen if he did his anger would fold into something else, something he wasn’t ready to face.
He walked past her, opened the door, and left the office without saying a single word.
Celine stood still, her heartbeat loud in her own chest. She watched the door close behind him. She swallowed hard. She didn’t know what to think or what to feel.
And he was trying so hard to hide it.
\---
Ethan walked fast, almost like he was escaping something. His footsteps echoed through the hallway of the building. He didn’t greet anyone. He didn’t look at anyone. He just kept moving until he reached the parking lot.
He unlocked his car, got in, and shut the door. The silence inside the car almost felt strange after the storm he had created in his office.
His hands were shaking.
He leaned back in the seat and rubbed his face with both hands. His head felt like it was squeezing itself. His thoughts were running over each other. Richard’s message. The meeting. Amelia. The wedding talk. The company. The pressure. His father’s expectations. His mother agreeing. The business deals. Isabelle's trauma.Everything piling on top of him.
And then Celine.
The way she held his hands.
The way her voice gentled him even when he didn’t deserve it.
The way she looked at him like she saw more than he wanted to show.
He reached into the small compartment under the armrest and brought out a familiar small bottle. The pills doctor lui gave him to “calm his mind,” as they called it.
He opened the cap with a slight tremble, poured out two pills, and swallowed them dry.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
“Why does she…” he whispered to himself before stopping.
Why does she affect him like this?
Why does she make him feel something when he doesn’t want to feel anything?
Why does she look at him like he’s not the monster he knows he used to be?
Why does she care enough to rush to him?
Why does her voice get through to him when nothing else does?
He didn’t understand it.
He rested his forehead on the steering wheel. The pills usually kicked in after a while.
They didn’t solve anything, but they calmed the storm enough for him to think.
He could still feel her hands on his.
Still see her standing there in his office.
Still hear her saying, “You’re hurting yourself.”
Nobody talked to him like that.
Nobody touched him like that.
Nobody calmed him like that.
She was supposed to be just an employee.
Just someone who worked under him.
Someone he could ignore if he needed to.
“Why does she… do this to me?” he finally said out loud, even though he wasn’t expecting an answer.
But the thing he wanted the pills to erase the image of her refused to go away.