Content Warning

This chapter contains explicit threats, psychological manipulation, aggressive language, and revelations of emotional abuse. Harassment and obsessive behaviors are addressed without being romanticized. Reader discretion is advised.

Sebastian adjusted his expensive attire with indifference. He pulled the watch with the cracked screen —the one Noah had given him— from his pocket and, as if the object could still grant him some kind of control, fastened it around his wrist.

“Listen to me, Nick,” he said with a cynical smile. “It’s not convenient for you to get involved in my affairs. You were useful in locating Noah, but that’s all.”

Nicholas raised an eyebrow, tilting his head with a smile thick with irony.

“Nick?” he scoffed. “Nicholas. For you, Nicholas, asshole. And yes, this is my business. Noah ended up with you because of my work, without knowing what kind of hell you were dragging him into.”

Sebastian sighed impatiently. He pulled out his wallet and his phone, shamelessly displaying an obscene amount of money, and extended his hand toward Nicholas.

“Tell me how much you want to stay away from him. You’ve already completed your mission. Besides, you… don’t know him. You don’t know the damage he caused me.”

Nicholas slowly shook his head. He had investigated every fragment of Noah’s life at Damien’s request, and the more Sebastian spoke, the more his blood boiled. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a dry laugh.

“I’m not interested in your fucking money.”

Sebastian’s eyes hardened.

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with, Nick. I can make you replaceable. With my lawyer’s help, I can make your professional life very difficult.”

Nicholas stepped forward. His voice dropped —cold, dangerous.

“Shut up! You have no idea who you’re dealing with. I’m one of the best in my field, and it was thanks to me that Noah got into your company. Don’t threaten me. And be clear about this: today, I have no patience.”

For the first time, Nicholas felt a flicker of guilt. He had never detected violent behavior in Sebastian. Something didn’t add up. Why search so obsessively for that man?

Sebastian lunged forward and grabbed him hard by the shirt. Around them, people began to stare; some were recording with their phones.

“I have connections,” he whispered, bringing his mouth close to Nicholas’s ear. “You may be the best nerd in my company, but don’t ever get close to what’s mine again.”

Nicholas’s hand reacted instantly, catching Sebastian’s wrist and violently shoving it away.

“Yours?” he repeated, his voice lethal.

He leaned in, not letting go.

“Noah deserves a better life. Your lawyer told me about the bullying,... and yes, in part, it was true. But he never told you why. Though, well… I don’t justify it.”

Sebastian frowned, with a curious, biting edge, as he listened to the engineer speak.

“Noah’s father was a… piece of trash, to put it kindly,” Nicholas continued, pausing before going on. “There were… threats, mockery, shame… Noah was a coward, yes,... but he was thirteen years old. He lived terrified of his own parent.”

Nicholas pulled him closer, until their noses nearly touched.

“He will never stand beside someone as unhinged as you. And the next time you talk about him like he’s your possession, you won’t be getting out of bed for a week.”

Sebastian paled slightly, but his pride would never be shaken by threats —or so he believed.

“That’s a lie,” he spat. “Damien never told me anything. He never mentioned that.”

His voice quickly recovered its brazenness.

“And even so… if I find him, I’ll force him to fall in love with me. It’s easy. His self-esteem is shattered.”

Nicholas’s jaw tightened dangerously.

“You’re wrong, idiot.”

He clenched Sebastian’s collar even harder.

“Noah is not going to fall in love with a psychopath like you.”

Sebastian burst into twisted, almost gleeful laughter.

“Me? A psychopath? Ha! If you had known him back then, you’d be on my side. He ruined my youth. Pretended to love me just to humiliate me afterward. I had never trusted anyone the way I trusted him… I thought he was the one.”

Nicholas spoke in a sharp whisper.

“You fell in love with a fantasy. And yes, Noah made a mistake… but if you had known the reason he had to act that way,” he exhaled sharply before continuing, “anyway… Noah doesn’t know me. He never will. But I’m going to protect him, even if he never knows it.”

Sebastian watched him with a slow, malicious smile, understanding something about the engineer.

“Ah… I see now. I think I understand what’s happening here. You like him, don’t you? Let me tell you something —you’ve already lost. Noah is mine. It’s only a matter of time.”

Nicholas’s expression froze as he grabbed Sebastian’s shirt even tighter.

“He belongs to you?” he repeated slowly, gripping him with brutal force.

“Listen to me carefully. If you ever touch him again… I’ll make public every piece of evidence of harassment linked to you. Your company, your reputation,... everything will go to hell. The world will know you’re an obsessive predator.”

He paused, looking at him darkly.

“And if you harass him again… I’ll break your fingers. One by one.”

Sebastian raised his hands in false surrender, noticing out of the corner of his eye a black vehicle parked not far away. Then he looked his rival up and down, recalling something his lawyer had mentioned when he hired Nicholas.

“Easy there, friend. You should watch your words, and now that I think about it… your cigarette smell… your appearance. I know things about you too,” he said with a cruel smile. “Damien told me all about you: trouble in high school, a failed marriage because of a cheating husband. A dead father, alcoholism… debts. In short, he saved you by hiring you. You just had to follow orders,... not fall in love with Noah.”

Nicholas didn’t react, but his fingers twitched.

“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” he murmured. “Not when it comes to protecting someone who has nothing to do with your delusions.”

In the distance, inside the black vehicle, Damien Sinclair watched the scene with unsettling calm. Without intervening, and without the slightest surprise. As if everything were unfolding exactly as he had foreseen.