---
Chapter 53 – Snap
Ethan's POV
I always thought love was a one-time thing.
A rare accident I survived once, barely. After Arya, I didn't think it could happen again. I had tried to change for her. Tried to be something other than what the world expected from Ethan Lantel — the cold, rich, untouchable CEO.
But Arya didn't choose me.
She chose Damon.
And I had to live with that.
So I buried whatever was left of the boy who believed in love. I returned to the only thing I knew how to do well — working, sleeping with women I'd never call again, drinking enough to forget her laugh, and pretending that none of it mattered.
Until Amara.
God, Amara.
She wasn't supposed to be anything.
Just a night. A blur. A mistake.
But from the moment I opened my eyes and saw the spot of blood on the sheets, I knew something had shifted.
She'd given me something no one else had.
And I… walked away.
I convinced myself it meant nothing. She was a stranger. A body. A need I satisfied and discarded like all the rest.
But then she showed up — as my assistant.
And the universe laughed in my face.
For months, I watched her pretend I didn't exist outside the job. Watched her smile when she handed me schedules. Watched her avoid my gaze during meetings. Watched her laugh at other people's jokes but never mine.
It annoyed me. Confused me.
But it didn't break me.
Not until the day I saw her with him.
---
She was laughing.
That was the first thing I noticed. A real laugh. One that made her eyes crinkle and her lips curve like they used to when she smiled against my neck.
And then she kissed him.
I didn't expect it.
I didn't want it.
But I saw it — her mouth pressed to his like it belonged there. Like she'd moved on. Like I had never touched her at all.
Something inside me clenched.
I wanted to drag her away from him. I wanted to grab her arm and remind her who kissed her first. Who held her that night when she trembled. Who made her gasp his name like a prayer in the dark.
But I didn't move.
I just stood there. With a blonde hanging on my arm and a hollow ringing in my ears.
Because she was just a one-night stand.
Right?
That's all she was.
So why the hell did watching her with him feel like a knife twisting in my chest?
---
Since then, I've tried to keep my distance. To bury the fire she lit inside me. But every time she walked into my office, head high, smile cold, lips untouched by mine — I wanted to scream.
She doesn't talk to me unless it's about work now.
She barely even looks at me.
She's mad at me — I can tell.
And what infuriates me the most is that I don't know why it bothers me this much.
Maybe because I didn't think she'd actually move on. Maybe because deep down, I thought she'd always be there — quiet, waiting, still hurting.
But she's not.
She's his now.
And that... that's when I snapped.
---
It was a week after the kiss.
I saw them again — this time at a café I used to love. They were holding hands across the table. Her head was tilted as she listened to him speak, that same dreamy look in her eyes that used to be mine.
Something inside me shattered.
I canceled all my meetings that afternoon. Stormed out of the office. Took my car and drove around aimlessly until the city blurred.
I should've said something that day I saw her kiss him.
I should've stopped pretending I didn't care.
Because I did.
I do.
And now… I'm not sure if it's too late.
---
That night, I went home alone.
No girls.
No noise.
Just me. And the sound of my heart beating in my ears.
I poured myself a drink but didn't touch it.
I stared at my phone but didn't call her.
Because what would I even say?
"Sorry I made you think you didn't matter?"
"Sorry I treated you like a mistake when you were the only real thing I've felt in years?"
I don't know how to say those things.
But I'm starting to understand something now — something terrifying.
Amara isn't a one-night stand.
She never was.
And if I don't do something now… I'm going to lose her for real.
And this time?
It will break me.
--