Selene told herself it had just been a chance encounter.
Cyrus Navarro, passing through the slums for some unfathomable reason, stopping at the café on a whim. That was all.
But deep down, she knew better.
Because three days later, her manager called her into the back room, his face tight with nerves. He didn’t look her in the eye when he spoke.
“I’m sorry, Selene. You’re fired.”
Her stomach dropped. “What? Why? I’ve never been late, I cover extra shifts—”
“It’s not about your work.” He rubbed the back of his neck, sweat glistening there. “Orders came from above. Said you’re no longer welcome here.”
“From who?”
He hesitated, then lowered his voice. “Navarro’s people. Don’t ask me why. I can’t afford trouble with them.”
The words hit like a slap. Selene stood frozen, anger prickling under her skin. “You’re just throwing me away because someone snapped their fingers?”
Her manager winced. “Selene, please. I have a business to run. Get your things and go quietly, before—”
Before. The unspoken word lingered like poison.
She left without another word, her apron clenched in her fists. The streets outside were their usual chaos—hawkers shouting, children darting between carts, the constant hum of machinery from the factories. But everything looked sharper, harsher.
Cyrus’s face haunted her. Don’t run, Selene. I’ll always find you.
By the end of the week, she understood what he meant.
Everywhere she went, doors slammed shut. The diner across the street—“Sorry, no vacancies.” The garment shop—“We don’t need extra hands.” Even the laundry owner, who had once begged her to help during rush season, suddenly claimed she wasn’t fit for the job.
It wasn’t coincidence. It was a net tightening.
On the fifth day, she found an envelope slipped under her grandmother’s door. Inside: a neatly folded note, and a business card embossed with gold.
The note read:
You shouldn’t have to struggle anymore. Come see me. – Cyrus
Her hands shook with fury. She wanted to rip the note to shreds, to burn it, to scream. But her grandmother shuffled in from the bedroom, coughing lightly.
“Selene? What’s wrong?”
Selene shoved the note behind her back, forcing a smile. “Nothing, Lola. Just junk mail.”
But that night, when she lay awake listening to her grandmother’s wheezing breaths, the weight of the note pressed against her chest like a stone.
Cyrus was cutting off her air, one thread at a time.
The next morning, she found him waiting.
He leaned against a sleek black car parked just beyond the alley, too polished for the filth around it. His suit was immaculate as always, his smile sharp enough to draw blood.
“Good morning, Selene,” he greeted as though they were old friends.
Selene gritted her teeth. “Stop following me.”
“I’m not following,” he replied easily. “I’m waiting. There’s a difference.”
She tried to push past him, but his hand shot out, gentle yet unyielding as it closed around her wrist. “You don’t have to keep fighting,” he said softly. “I can give you everything you’ve been denied. Comfort. Security. A future.”
Selene yanked her arm free. “I don’t want your future. I want my own.”
His smile didn’t falter, but his eyes hardened. “You think the world will let you have that? You think these people care if you starve or break? You saved me once, Selene. Let me return the favor.”
Her heart pounded, but she forced her voice steady. “What you call a favor feels like a cage.”
Something flickered in his gaze—amusement, maybe, or irritation. “A cage?” He leaned closer, his breath warm against her ear. “Then perhaps you’ve forgotten how fire feels. I’m only keeping you safe.”
She shoved him back, trembling. “Stay away from me.”
But even as she said it, she knew he wouldn’t.
Two nights later, she returned home to find groceries stacked neatly at the door. Imported brands, expensive meats, fruits she hadn’t tasted since childhood. A note sat on top, scrawled in his bold handwriting: For your grandmother.
Her grandmother’s eyes lit up. “Selene! Where did this come from? How generous—”
Selene snatched the note and shoved the bags aside. “We don’t need this.”
But the truth gnawed at her. They did need it. Every peso counted. Every meal mattered. And that was exactly why Cyrus chose this path—he knew where her armor cracked.
She lasted another week before the pressure became unbearable. No jobs. No income. Her grandmother’s health worsening. And Cyrus’s shadow always there—on the street corner, in the whispers of neighbors, in the weight of silence whenever she asked for work.
Finally, with fists clenched, she marched into the High District.
The streets transformed as she crossed the invisible border: from rust and grime to marble and glass. Towers gleamed like monuments to greed, their reflections slicing the sky. Guards in crisp uniforms patrolled, their eyes scanning for slum-dwellers like her.
Cyrus’s estate loomed at the end of a tree-lined road, gates wrought with iron and arrogance. She stood before them, heart hammering, and pressed the intercom.
A voice crackled: “Name?”
“Selene Aragon.”
There was a pause. Then the gates swung open without question.
As she stepped inside, dread pooled in her stomach.
Cyrus was waiting on the steps, smiling as if he had known she would come all along.
“I knew you’d see reason,” he said warmly, extending a hand. “Welcome home.”
Selene stared at him, the memory of a boy in flames flashing in her mind. Back then, she had pulled him from fire.
Now, she feared she had walked straight into it.
