Content Warning

This chapter contains intense emotional confrontation, psychological abuse, profanity, non-consensual physical contact, manipulation, implicit threats, and traumatic memories. Reader discretion is advised.

Noah Harper barely remembered fragments of those years.

Blurred faces. Overlapping voices. Emotions he couldn’t place into any logical order. But there was one thing he knew for certain: if Sebastian was standing in front of him with that kind of hatred, then it had been his fault. At some point in his youth, he had been cruel. He had hurt someone without considering the consequences.

And now he had to face it.

Noah lowered his head, humiliated.

“I had an accident,” he confessed quietly. “A crash… on my way to college. Since then, I forgot parts of my past. Not all of it. Just fragments. That’s why… it’s hard for me to remember.”

But Sebastian didn’t respond right away; his expression hardened. He stepped forward and grabbed Noah’s chin roughly, forcing him to raise his gaze. His fingers pressed with contained violence.

“Years have passed,” he said through clenched teeth. “But I remember it perfectly. Every word and every gesture, Noah.”

He looked at him with contempt.

“Don’t talk to me about amnesia. I don’t believe that shit!”

Noah didn’t struggle, even though the contact deeply unsettled him. His heart pounded hard. He wanted to pull away, but he knew doing so would only make things worse.

“I’m not trying to justify myself,” he said in a soft, conciliatory voice. “I know I hurt someone. And if it was you… then I did something terrible.”

He swallowed and continued.

“I know apologizing isn’t enough. But I want to… make amends. Somehow.”

Sebastian looked at him with absolute coldness.

“Redemption doesn’t work like that,” he replied. “Your apologies make up for nothing. There are debts that can’t be paid.”

He squeezed Noah’s face harder and with his other hand grabbed him by the waist, pulling him closer abruptly.

“This isn’t over.”

Noah’s eyes widened, clearly nervous.

“Wait… what are you doing?! L-let me go. No, Mr Cr… Sebastian!” Noah pleaded, his voice tense. “We can talk. We can… find another way.”

Sebastian smiled, savoring his fear and the control.

With an agility that left Noah disoriented, he cornered him against the wall, invading his space, pressing his body against his, relishing every second.

“This is only the beginning.”

Noah turned pale.

“This won’t change anything,” he said with difficulty. “What you’re doing doesn’t fix the past.”

But his boss leaned toward his ear.

“You’re going to pay,” he whispered. “For everything.”

Noah shoved him with all his strength and ran toward the door. He barely managed to touch it when Sebastian caught him by the arm. His grip was firm, furious… and disturbingly pleased.

“Sebastian,… stop! Seriously, I can change,” Noah begged. “If you ever saw me as something good… look at me now.”

Sebastian didn’t respond, but his gaze was dark and guarded.

“Stop,” Noah continued, breathing with difficulty before pushing on. “You’re becoming what you hate most. If this is justice or revenge, it’s destroying you.”

“Don’t be like the ones who hurt you.”

For an instant, Sebastian fell silent, listening to his pleas. Somehow, Noah’s words struck him harder than he was willing to admit. His smile faded.

There was vulnerability there. Brief and fleeting.

Then the hatred returned, and he released him abruptly.

“It’s already too late.”

“It’s not!” Noah insisted, not looking away. “Look at what you’ve achieved. You have power. A company. A life I could never reach.”

His voice trembled.

“Don’t destroy everything… or yourself… over something that happened years ago. If I could go back, I would never have hurt you.”

Sebastian looked at him in silence. Something inside him cracked, and he smiled bitterly.

“My reputation doesn’t matter to me,” he whispered. “I’ve already lost too much and… you were the beginning of it.”

He felt trapped in an old hatred. One he had never known how to let go of.

Noah wasn’t a man who cried or broke easily, but in that moment, he wished he could prove —to him somehow— that he had changed.

Not to save himself, but to keep Sebastian from destroying himself completely.