War God is Back for his Mother

Chapter 5: Small Matter

Selena Sterling pulled her hands back and rubbed her wrists. The sting of rejection sat heavy on her chest. She stared at Alex Crown's back for a moment, searching for the right words. Guilt was there, buried underneath the exhaustion and the ache in her neck. She knew she had been wrong. She knew leaving on their wedding night looked bad.

But then something clicked in her mind. Her eyes brightened. She reached into her bag and pulled out a sleek black box tied with a gold ribbon.

"Here," she said, holding it out to him. "I got this for you on the way back. It's from the Rosetti boutique on Fifth Street. Limited edition. They only made two hundred of these in the world."

She opened the box. Inside, resting on dark velvet, was a high end watch with a platinum face and sapphire crown. It must have cost more than most people earned in a year.

"I know I messed up last night," she said. Her voice softened. "This is my way of saying sorry. Try it on. It'll look perfect on you."

Alex Crown looked at the watch. He did not touch it. He did not reach for it. He studied it the way a person studies something completely meaningless, then placed the box on the side table without opening it further.

"I have no use for it," he said.

Selena's face tightened. She had expected the gift to work. It always worked. A nice dinner, an expensive present, a soft apology wrapped in something shiny, and things would go back to normal. That was how they operated. That was the deal.

She had lowered herself. She had gone to a luxury store while exhausted and sleep deprived, picked out something special, and brought it back to him with genuine remorse in her heart. What more did he want from her? What else was she supposed to do?

The guilt in her chest hardened into frustration.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "Why are you making such a huge deal out of one night? I went to the hospital because someone I care about was bleeding internally. I came back. I apologized. I bought you a gift. What else do you want me to do? Get on my knees?"

Alex did not turn around.

"I stayed up all night in a hospital chair," she continued, her voice rising. "My neck is killing me. My back hurts. I haven't showered. I haven't eaten. And the first thing I did when I left that hospital was think about you. I rushed to the hotel. You were gone. No call. No text. Nothing. And now I come home and you're standing here giving me the silent treatment like I committed some kind of crime. Over what? Over one night? Is this really worth a cold war between us?"

Alex Crown turned around slowly.

He was smiling. But it was not a warm smile. It was the kind of smile that comes right before something breaks.

"A small matter," he repeated. His voice was quiet. Almost amused. "You think this is a small matter."

"It is a small matter. Dennis was in the hospital. I went to check on him. That's it."

"That's it." He nodded slowly. "Let me ask you something, Selena. If I collapsed in a hospital on someone else's wedding night, would you expect their wife to leave her husband in bed and come hold my hand until morning?"

"That's different."

"How? How is that different?"

"Because Dennis doesn't have anyone else. He's alone. He doesn't have family in this city. He doesn't have a wife or a girlfriend to take care of him. All he has is me."

"All he has is you." Alex let those words hang in the air between them. "Do you hear yourself? Do you hear what you just said?"

Selena pressed her lips together. Something flickered behind her eyes. Guilt. Doubt. But it passed quickly.

"You're twisting my words."

"I'm repeating your words. There's a difference."

"Alex, I love you. I married you. Yesterday. In front of three hundred people. I chose you. I have never cheated on you. I have never done anything to betray you. Not once. Dennis and I are colleagues. He works for me. I look after him because he's physically weak and he pushes himself too hard. That's the extent of it. There is nothing romantic between us. Nothing."

She grabbed his arm and held on tight. Her eyes were wide and earnest. She meant every word. That was the worst part. She was not lying. She genuinely believed what she was saying. She had no idea that the truth was more complicated than she was willing to see.

Alex looked down at her hands gripping his arm. Then he pulled free.

"If that's true," he said coldly, "then fire him."

Selena went still. "What?"

"Fire Dennis Doom. Cut him off completely. No more calls. No more late nights. No more hospital visits. If he's really just an employee, then replace him. You can find another assistant in a week."

"I can't just fire him. He hasn't done anything wrong."

"He's done everything wrong. He has been a problem in this marriage for six months. Every fight we've had in the past six months has been because of him. Every single one. The only solution is to remove him from our lives entirely."

"That's insane. You're asking me to destroy a man's career because you're jealous."

"I'm asking you to choose your husband over your assistant. The fact that you think that's insane tells me everything I need to know."

Selena's mouth opened, then closed. She shook her head. "You're overreacting. You're being paranoid and suspicious over nothing. There is no problem between me and Dennis. The only problem here is you refusing to trust me."

Alex Crown let out a short, bitter laugh. He took a step closer to her. His eyes were sharp and cold.

"Two months ago," he said. "We were supposed to fly to the coast together. You and me. A weekend trip. Just the two of us. We were standing at the airport gate. Boarding was in twenty minutes."

Selena's face changed. She knew where this was going.

"Dennis called you. One phone call. And you grabbed your bag, told me to go without you, and ran out of the airport like the building was on fire. You left me standing there alone like a dog waiting at the door for an owner who's never coming back. You drove to his apartment and you stayed there. All night."

"He was in a car accident! He broke his leg and two ribs because he was driving to a project site for the company. It was a work injury. I was his boss. I had a responsibility."

"You had a responsibility to me too. But that one never seems to count."

"That's not fair."

"Fair?" Alex's voice dropped lower. "Let me tell you about fair. One month ago. The company celebration banquet. Two hundred employees in the room. Your entire staff watching. And what did they see? They saw their CEO wrapped around her assistant like a dog in heat. Dennis Doom had his arms around you and his mouth on yours. In front of everyone."

Selena's face flushed red. She looked away.

"That was an accident," she said quickly. "Everyone was drunk. Dennis lost his balance and grabbed me when he fell. We both went down. The kiss was completely accidental. He didn't mean to do it. He apologized the very next day. He felt terrible about it."

"An accident." Alex repeated the word like it tasted rotten. "A grown man accidentally falls onto his boss's mouth. At a party full of witnesses. And you believed that."

"Because it was the truth."

"It was a performance. The same performance he puts on every single time. The crying. The apologizing. The 'I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to.' He plays you like an instrument and you let him because you refuse to open your eyes."

"Stop it. You're being cruel."

"I'm being honest. For the first time in six months, I'm being honest. And you can't stand it because deep down you know I'm right."

Selena's eyes were wet now. She blinked hard and looked away from him. Her hands were shaking slightly at her sides.

"You always do this," she said. Her voice was tight and strained. "You drag up every old argument. Every past mistake. You store them away like ammunition and fire them at me whenever we fight. The airport. The banquet. Things that happened weeks ago. Things that were already resolved. Things Dennis already explained and apologized for. Why can't you just let them go? Why do you have to be so petty about everything?"