Elouise Herring POV:
The night was a blur of accusations. Axel, fueled by Bryn's performance, dragged me into his study. He didn't yell. He didn't need to. His voice, icy and controlled, cut deeper than any shout. The punishment wasn't physical, not in the way I remembered from that one time, but it was brutal nonetheless. He stripped me of every remaining professional tie, every last shred of my reputation within the Horne Group. He locked me out of my personal work accounts, my designs, my contacts. He systematically erased me from the professional life I had painstakingly built.
"You will not work. Not for me. Not for anyone in this city," he stated, his eyes devoid of emotion. "You will stay in this penthouse. And you will reflect on your behavior."
The words felt like physical blows, each one landing squarely on my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs. I stood there, silent, numb, watching him dismantle my life, piece by agonizing piece. It was a slow, deliberate execution of my dreams.
My mind drifted back to a memory, years ago. I had been sick, a nasty flu that left me weak and shivering. Axel had canceled all his meetings, stayed by my side, feeding me soup, wiping my brow. He' d held my hand, murmuring reassurances, his touch gentle, his eyes full of tenderness. "I'll always take care of you, Elouise," he' d promised, his voice thick with devotion. "You're my everything."
Now, his everything was a fragile, manipulative intern. And I was just an inconvenient truth, a shadow he needed to erase.
A sudden, sharp pain flared in my abdomen. I gasped, doubling over. The room spun. The floor rushed up to meet me. I felt a faint, fleeting sense of Axel' s hurried footsteps, a hand on my shoulder, a moment of genuine alarm in his voice. Then, darkness.
I woke up later, still in the study, on the plush rug. Axel was kneeling beside me, a glass of water in his hand. His face was pale, his brow furrowed with a semblance of concern.
"Elouise? Are you alright?" he asked, his voice softer than it had been all night. "You fainted."
I pushed myself up, my head throbbing, my body aching. "I'm fine," I mumbled, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.
He handed me the water. "Look, I'm... I'm sorry if I was harsh. But you need to understand, Bryn is fragile. She's young. This business is cutthroat. I need to protect her." His apology felt hollow, a formality, not genuine regret. It was an apology for his perceived harshness, not for the devastation he had wrought.
"And me?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "What about me, Axel? Who protects me?"
He looked away, his jaw tightening. "You're strong, Elouise. You always have been. You can handle it." He stood, dismissing my pain, my collapse, my very existence.
"So, what's her punishment, Axel?" I asked, a bitter laugh escaping me. "For lying? For framing me? For wearing my clothes and trying to poison your mind against me?"
"Punishment?" He scoffed. "She made a mistake. She's naive. She's learning. There's no need to be vindictive." He paused. "I've told her to be more careful. That's enough."
Enough? My hands clenched into fists. "Enough? She accused me of poisoning her! And you believed her! You destroyed my career based on her lies, and you think telling her to 'be more careful' is enough?"
"Elouise, stop this!" he snapped, his facade of concern crumbling instantly. "You're being irrational. This is precisely why I need to keep you away from the office. You're unstable."
Unstable. The word hung in the air, damning and final. My anger, a hot, desperate thing, surged.
"Get out," I said, my voice rising. "Get out of my sight, Axel. I can't look at you anymore."
He stared at me for a long moment, then turned and left, the heavy door clicking shut behind him. The silence was deafening, suffocating. I wrapped my arms around myself, the pain in my abdomen a dull throb. I sank to the floor, hot tears streaming down my face.
But as the tears flowed, something shifted. A cold resolve settled deep within me. I would not cry for him again. Not one more tear. He wasn't worth it.
For the next few days, Bryn's taunts ceased. There was a fragile, unsettling peace. Axel sometimes lingered in the doorway of my study, his eyes scanning me with a strange, unreadable expression. He' d offer a half-hearted, "Are you doing better, Elouise?" But before I could even reply, a text from Bryn would pull him away, a new crisis, a new need for his "protection." He was always choosing her. Always.
I watched him go, a pang of something akin to pity in my chest. He was so easily manipulated, so blind in his need to control and protect. But the pity quickly turned to a cold, hard ache. He had chosen. He had made his bed.
Late one night, through the thin walls of this gilded cage, I heard their laughter. Then, hushed whispers. Then, unmistakable sounds. Sounds of intimacy. Sounds of a man and a woman in the throes of passion. Sounds that used to be ours.
My breath hitched. My entire body went cold. It wasn't just a project. It wasn't just an intern. It was real. They were real. And I was nothing.
The last flicker of hope, the last ember of love for Axel, was brutally extinguished. He had not just broken my heart; he had obliterated it. There was nothing left but dust. And in that dust, a new Elouise was stirring. One who would not be silenced. One who would not be broken again.
