The photo leaked overnight.
Arabella woke up to her face everywhere.
Gossip sites. Social media. Office group chats. Even the security guard had it pulled up when she walked into the building that morning.
"CEO Cassian Vale seen with mysterious blue-dress beauty at last night's exclusive ValeCorp Gala."
Only a few people knew who she really was.
Now the world was catching up.
---
"Office Barbie's getting bold," Lena muttered under her breath, loud enough for everyone near the coffee station to hear.
Arabella didn't flinch.
She just poured herself a cup of coffee — black, no cream — and looked Lena straight in the eye.
"I don't need to get bold, Lena," she said calmly. "I was born visible. You just started paying attention."
---
She didn't see Cassian all morning.
Then, just after lunch, his assistant approached her desk like she was delivering a verdict.
"Mr. Vale would like to see you. Now."
Arabella followed her to the top floor.
The doors opened to Cassian's private office — massive, glass-walled, and colder than an iceberg in space.
He stood by the window, hands in his pockets, back straight. The skyline lit his silhouette like a king in exile.
"You should've told me about the photo," he said without turning around.
"I didn't leak it."
"I didn't say you did."
Silence.
The kind that holds a thousand unsaid things.
Arabella stepped forward. "Why did you send me the invite?"
Still, he didn't look at her. "Because I knew you'd show up and steal every ounce of attention from the board."
"So it was a test?"
"No."
He turned to face her then.
"No test."
Their eyes locked. That heat again. The slow-burning fuse between them.
"You looked..." He trailed off, voice quieter now. "Like someone I didn't deserve."
Arabella's heart twisted.
For all the coldness he wore like armor, there it was again — that boy underneath the CEO. The one who gave her a plastic tiara when they were ten and promised her a fairytale.
She moved closer. Close enough to see the flicker in his gaze.
"Cassian... why did you marry me?"
He didn't speak.
Didn't move.
But his jaw tightened. Like the answer hurt.
Then:
"You were the only thing that ever felt real."
Arabella blinked.
"That was before," he added quickly, backing off. "Before we grew up. Before everything got... complicated."
Her chest clenched.
"So what now?"
Now his eyes softened. Only a little.
"You're not the girl I remember," he said. "You're smarter. Tougher."
"I had to be."
"I know."
Another beat of silence.
Then he reached for something behind his desk — a black velvet box.
He handed it to her.
Inside: a necklace. Simple. Diamond and sapphire. Not flashy. Not Barbie.
Royal.
"Wear it to the investor dinner next week," he said. "It's not for show. It's because you belong."
Arabella met his eyes.
For the first time… it felt like they weren't pretending.
---
Outside his office, Arabella opened her phone. The messages were piling up.
The last one was from an unknown number:
"Careful, sweetheart. Not all fairytales end with love. Some end with ruin."
Her heart skipped.
Was it Lena?
Or someone else watching?
Either way, she wasn't backing down.
She had pink heels, a diamond heart… and now, she had purpose.
---