Leonidas’ hard, stern gaze finally softens, his face still unreadable. “Didn’t you say you’ve been dying to try that new Italian place that just opened? I already got us a reservation through Uriel.”

Clementine huffs a frustrated sigh and steps right around him. “I’m too stressed out to eat right now.”

Leonidas catches her arm gently, tilting her chin up with his palm. “Let me check if those mouth sores are acting up again. You’ve been eating garbage out there with no one to cook for you. Come home.”

Clementine stares into his deep, dark eyes. The concern looks totally genuine.

Some days, she swears he’s got a split personality.

Ice cold when he’s distant, burning hot when he’s sweet. And she’s right in the middle of this messed up emotional tug-of-war.

She yanks away from him. “You’re the reason I’m stressed out. Just divorce me, and I’ll be fine again.”

Leonidas’ mouth presses into a hard, thin line. “Don’t even think about it.”

A white Bentley glides to a stop right in front of them. Mckenna steps out, holding a big bouquet of soft pink tulips. “Congrats on the new job.”

Clementine accepts the flowers with a thank you.

Mckenna glances over at Leonidas. “Uncle, I booked a private room to celebrate Clementine. You wanna come along?”

Leonidas stares at the pastel bouquet in silence for a beat, then turns back to Clementine. “You sure you want to go with her?”

Clementine hesitates. “Mckenna, I’m so wiped from work. Let’s do it another day, okay? I’ll host, we can invite everyone.”

Even though she was dead set on getting a divorce, she didn’t want to burn bridges or ruin her reputation around the city.

Leonidas’ shoulders relax just a little.

That’s when a red sports car screeches to a halt right in front of them, driven by a woman in oversized sunglasses that hide half her face. “Hey, Clementine!”

Clementine’s face lights up. “Liberty! You’re back!”

“Hell yeah I am. And I’m ready to drag you out to dinner to celebrate your soon-to-be freedom.”

Clementine and Liberty had been attached at the hip since preschool, all the way through high school. A year ago, Liberty got shipped abroad for grad school—word is she wrote three tearful goodbye letters begging to come home before her dad finally caved.

Liberty’s little comment makes Leonidas frown so hard, you swear he could crush a fly between his eyebrows. Liberty swallows nervously, but she’s Uriel’s sister, and Leonidas’ oldest friend. She doesn’t back down.

Clementine ends up picking Liberty’s car. Mckenna jokes, “Looks like ‘Lady Marshall’ takes this round.”

As the two women pull away, Leonidas stands and watches them go, his silhouette sharp against the setting sun.

The three of them head to that buzzing new Italian spot. Even with a reservation, there’s still a wait, no way around it.

Parking’s a nightmare, so Mckenna heads off to hunt for a spot. Liberty, who’s both impatient and dying for the bathroom, tells Clementine to drop her brother’s name to skip the line.

The place is owned by one of Uriel’s friends, but the hostess takes one look at Clementine’s casual outfit, assumes she’s just causing trouble, and ignores her completely.

Clementine’s about to just leave when she overhears a woman in a sharp blazer picking up a pre-order for “Mr. Lopez,” listing off every dish by name.

Clementine freezes, her mouth pressing tight.

The name “Lopez” paired with “Mr.” is one of a kind in this city.

She squints a little, and realizes that’s Samara’s personal assistant—Yasmin, right?

“One moment please,” the hostess says, checking her system and calling Leonidas to confirm the order. Seconds later she’s smiling at Yasmin. “Your order will be right up.”

Clementine huffs a bitter laugh, but her eyes start to burn.

See? The same man who just fussed over her ten minutes ago is already arranging another woman’s dinner.

Are all men secret masters of multitasking, just built to juggle whatever comes their way?

Yasmin feels Clementine staring, turns, and gives her a polite little smile, like they’re total strangers. But any idiot knows Yasmin’s been to the Lopez family estate a hundred times—she’s definitely met Clementine before.

Clementine catches a flash of open challenge in Yasmin’s eyes.

But she’d already made up her mind to move on. Who Leonidas prioritizes shouldn’t hurt her anymore.

She’s just getting ready to leave when three tall men walk in, with Leonidas right at the front.

He spots his assistant Yasmin immediately, and she greets him. “Mr. Lopez… Ms. Stephens, if you’re in a rush, we can push your order to the front.”

Just then, the packed takeout order arrives.

Leonidas explains it simply. “Samara wanted to try this place’s food. Let her take this one first—they can whip up another set fast.”

His words couldn’t be clearer: Samara comes first.

Clementine thought she was past the pain, but her heart still twinges anyway.

She tries to play it cool, handing Mckenna a shopping bag. “This shirt is for you.”

Leonidas grabs her arm hard, voice sharp. “Who was this supposed to be for? You’re giving away something I bought for you?”

Clementine yanks her arm out of his grip. “Don’t make a scene here, Mr. Lopez. If you want one, I can grab you another one anytime.”

The two men with Leonidas snicker.

A muscle throbs in Leonidas’ temple. That’s twice today she’s flipped his own words right back on him. How had he never noticed how sharp she was before?

Before the standoff can go any further, Mckenna and Liberty’s table is ready, so Clementine walks away.

In the private dining room, Liberty cackles when she hears the whole story. “Hell yeah! That’s exactly how you treat a jerk. Clem, that shirt you bought couldn’t have worked out better if you planned it.”

For the record, the shirt wasn’t actually meant for Leonidas at all—it was always Mckenna’s. He’d spilled water on his old one earlier that day, so Clementine stopped to grab him a new one to change into later.

Mckenna chuckles. “Who knew a plain shirt could be such a perfect power move?”

Laughter bubbles through the whole room.

Meanwhile, the air in the private room next door is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Leonidas pours himself vodka, one hand on the glass, the other clamped around the bottle, refilling the second it’s empty. He hasn’t touched a single dish on the table, and he’s already halfway through the bottle of top-shelf vodka.

Barrett, one of the guys with him, taps his knuckles against the table. “Hey, man. Did we come here for pasta or for you to drink yourself into a meltdown?”

Leonidas says nothing. Barrett sighs. “You’re this twisted up over Clementine, your niece? Word around town is she’s been making noise about divorce lately.”

Leonidas looks up. “We’ve been married two years.”

“Alright, alright, Clementine it is. But if you don’t love her, just cut the cord. Save everyone the headache.”

Leonidas’ gaze goes dark as pitch.

Unfortunately, Barrett’s too oblivious to drop it. He nudges Uriel, who’s sitting next to him. “What d’you think, Uriel?”

Uriel shoves his elbow away. “Don’t drag me into your crap.”

“Hey, I just—” Barrett stops, the pieces clicking into place. “Wait a minute. You actually love her? Then stop acting like a stubborn jackass and do something about it.”

Leonidas looks down at his glass. He wants to love her, god knows he does. But every time he looks up and sees her looking right through him, like she’s waiting for someone else, he can’t help but shut down and pull that cold, cold mask back on.

Clementine Stephens pulled an all-nighter gaming with Liberty Marshall before they finally headed back to their shared apartment, ready to keep the marathon going. After her shower, she stepped out just as Liberty headed in—then the doorbell rang.\n\nFiguring it was the set of pajamas Liberty ordered online, Clementine didn’t think twice about it and opened the door. She froze, completely caught off guard by who was standing there.\n\nThree men filled the doorway, with Leonidas Lopez at the front, leaning lazily against the doorframe. His gaze locked straight on Clementine, who was only wearing a fluffy bathrobe, her hair twisted up in a towel, the smooth skin of her neck bare to his eyes.\n\n“This drunk mess is your problem now,” Barrett Lee said, shoving Leonidas hard forward.\n\nOff-balance, Leonidas stumbled right into Clementine. She didn’t have time to step out of the way, and ended up catching him full in her arms. A sharp wave of alcohol mixed with that familiar cedar scent rolled off him, and she inhaled before she could stop herself.\n\n“What are you doing here?” Liberty stepped out, her voice sharp with disapproval that landed straight on Clementine. “Clem, have a little self-respect, would you?”\n\nBewildered, Clementine pushed Leonidas away. “What did I even do?”\n\nLiberty snapped right back: “Why were you sniffing him?”\n\n“I was breathing! Can’t I breathe? If I didn’t I’d be dead, right? I was just breathing normally,” Clementine shot back.\n\n“Not inhaling this guy’s scent you weren’t,” Liberty declared. But her protest got cut off when Uriel Scott clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her back out the door, Barrett politely clicking it shut behind them.\n\nNow with nothing to lean on but the entryway wall, Leonidas frowned at her. “Do I really annoy you that much?”\n\n“Yeah, you do. Now please leave,” Clementine said flatly, turning for her bedroom. If she could just lock herself in there, whatever stubborn stunt he pulled wouldn’t be her problem. Stubborn as Leonidas was, he couldn’t bug her behind a closed door.\n\nBut he caught her wrist and tugged her right back into his chest. “I want the shirt.”\n\n“What shirt?”\n\n“The one you gave Mckenna.”\n\n“Tell Samara to buy you one,” Clementine retorted, yanking her phone out of her pocket. “And tell her to come get you.”\n\nLeonidas’s eyelids flickered, and he plucked the phone right out of her hand. “If you don’t like her, I’ll stop seeing her so much.”\n\n“Don’t bother,” Clementine said, smirking sharp. “Go see her, sleep with her—none of my business. Just be careful the first three months. That baby’s still fragile. Wouldn’t want to lose your brother’s only kid, would you? That’d leave you without even this lousy excuse to cling to me.”\n\n“Clementine!” Leonidas’s eyes burned red with raw emotion. “What do you even think I am to you?”\n\nClementine tilted her head, cool as anything. “I think you’re a portable space heater, a detail-obsessed gentleman, and a therapeutic power bank.”\n\nSilence thickened the air; tension always hung over them like a storm cloud. But the quiet got shattered by a voice blaring from the phone Leonidas was still holding.\n\n“Leonidas, are you fighting with your wife again?”\n\nIt was Samara Woods, on the line he’d stolen.\n\n“Everything’s fine,” Leonidas mumbled, already moving to end the call.\n\nSamara’s voice kept going, sweet as saccharine: “Your wife’s young, you should be more accommodating to her.”\n\nClementine scoffed. That line was too perfect, too smooth—implied she was young, unreasonable, always starting drama over nothing. It wasn’t the first time, either. Samara always got to be the calm, rational one, while Clementine got painted as petty and hot-headed. She used to bite her tongue to keep the peace, but she didn’t have any patience left for it now. “You’re so right, you’re absolutely right—total saint, aren’t you…”\n\nBefore she could spit out the rest of her cutting words, Leonidas leaned down and captured her lips in a brutal kiss, thumb mashing the end call button at the same time.\n\nHis kiss was intense, tangled up equal parts punishment and wild, unbridled emotion. One of his hands curved soft against her back, like he was trying to soothe the very anger he’d stoked.\n\nClementine’s eyes fluttered shut. What was she doing?\n\nThe stupid illusion that he loved her wrapped around her again, just like it always did. For years, she’d tortured herself with this back and forth—convincing herself he cared, then tearing that belief apart, driving herself almost crazy with it.\n\nShe pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move an inch.\n\n“Leonidas!” she cried, frustrated and desperate.\n\nFinally he let up, his breath coming ragged and fast. But the girl in front of him, her chest heaving with anger, held no warmth for him—only sharp irritation.\n\nHow could this be? Hadn’t she always been captivated by him?\n\nClementine wrenched free and darted for her bedroom, moving like she was running from the plague. It left Leonidas, always so cool and in control, defeated for the very first time.\n\nHe yelled after her, “Did I lose my physique? Am I out of shape? What is it you don’t like?”\n\n“Get out!”\n\nIn the hush of the night, Clementine fell asleep and dreamed.\n\nTwo years ago, the Stephens family was on the edge of bankruptcy. Her father Desmond had brought her to the Lopez mansion, calling in the life-saving debt Leonidas’s grandfather owed their family, begging for the old marriage contract to be honored.\n\nLeonidas’s face that day had been cold as a winter gale, his icy demeanor enough to freeze anyone mid-step. Clementine clutched the hem of her dress, nervous out of her mind—terrified of both his rejection and his acceptance.\n\nMarried life wasn’t as terrible as she’d feared. Even though he was distant and indifferent, he never cut her off from anything she needed materially. She told herself if they just kept living together, eventually he’d fall for her.\n\nBut the scene shifted. She was following Leonidas into a grand ballroom. Under the dazzling chandeliers, her heart ached at the sight of her brother-in-law’s blood pooling across the marble floor. Leonidas knelt at his brother’s side, straining to catch his last words.\n\nSuddenly, from the cluster of waiting waiters, someone lunged forward, a knife aimed straight for Leonidas’s unprotected back. Without thinking, Clementine stepped in front of him.\n\nLuckily, police got there in time to disarm the attacker. But the man hated her for ruining his plan, and as they dragged him away, he kicked her hard in the stomach.\n\nAlmost at the exact same time, Leonidas’s brother drew his last breath, and Samara fainted from shock. Leonidas let go of Clementine instantly and rushed Samara out, not even glancing Clementine’s way.\n\nWhen the ambulance pulled up, the police tried to help the doubled-over Clementine into it, but Leonidas’s cold words stopped them: “She doesn’t need it.”\n\nConfused, the police eventually got Clementine to the hospital anyway, but the doctor said it was too late.\n\n“Clem, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up…” Leonidas sat on the edge of her bed, brushing the tears off her cheeks. They just kept coming, endless.\n\nSlowly, Clementine opened her eyes.\n\nLeonidas kissed the tears as they spilled from the corners of her eyes. “What were you dreaming about? Tell me.”

Leonidas Lopez ground the question out between clenched teeth. The name that had haunted her dreams had now become his waking nightmare.

"Leonidas," Clementine Stephens started, her voice thick from crying, "thank you for your patience all these years. Let's split up peacefully."

The warmth in Leonidas's eyes vanished completely.

Clementine swiped away her tears and kept going, soft and steady, "I’ve always been the one stubbornly clinging to you, shameless as it was. You’ve probably gotten used to me hanging around like a persistent shadow."

"But every single night, that bed feels so empty."

"Please just let me go. Give me my freedom."

"Then you can focus all you want on Samara Woods."

"Leonidas, I’m begging you…"

Only the bedside lamp cast a dim, hazy glow over the room. She said every word with a calm, unshakable resolve. Leonidas stared at her hard, his gaze growing darker and deeper by the second.

A storm was brewing, ready to break loose at any moment.

Who knows how much time slipped by before he suddenly reached out, pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck, and tucked it in around her carefully. "Get some sleep," he said, before standing and leaving the room, flipping off the bedside lamp on his way out.

In the darkness, Clementine let out a long, shaky breath.

The next morning, she woke up to the mouthwatering smell of cooked food.

When she stepped out of her bedroom, she immediately spotted Leonidas in the open-concept kitchen, moving around the stove. His sky-blue shirt was rolled up to his elbows, showing off the hard muscle of his forearms as he flipped food with a spatula like he’d done it a hundred times.

Clementine had never seen this side of him before. She’d never once caught him cooking.

Like he sensed her watching, he turned toward her. "Go wash up, then eat."

His tone was calm, just as commanding as always—classic Leonidas.

Everything felt totally normal, the only odd one out was her, putting on a one-woman show with no audience.

After freshening up, Clementine headed straight for the front door. Just as she bent down to slip on her shoes, he lifted her clean off the ground and set her down at the dining table. "No breakfast, no leaving."

Seething quietly, Clementine ate her breakfast, then got into Leonidas’s car. He drove himself, pulling up right in front of the research institute.

Clementine reached for the door handle, only to hear the sharp click of the locks clicking shut.

She twisted back around, ice in her voice. "What do you think you’re doing?"

Leonidas leaned in closer, his brush brushing lightly against hers, his voice a low, rough murmur. "You can go run off and have your little adventure. But you’ll always come back home in the end."

Clementine ground her teeth. "Let me out."

Leonidas said nothing. He just unlocked the door, his gaze steady as he watched her walk away.

He knew she’d been wronged through all this.

She could act out, throw all the tantrums she wanted. But divorce? It was never going to happen.

With her skill, work ethic, and natural charm, Clementine quickly made a name for herself among the industry power players.

That afternoon, the head of the Ascendancy team called out sick, so Engineer Garza asked Clementine to stand in for him at a meeting with the CEO’s office, representing the Ascendancy Group.

The elevator whisked them straight up to the top floor, where Leonidas’s second secretary, Amy Moon, was waiting by the office door.

Right before they stepped inside, Engineer Garza clutched his stomach. "Oh, sorry—something’s come up, I need to step out for a minute."

Amy pointed him toward the restroom, then turned to Clementine with a polite smile. "Go on ahead in."

Amy’s only job was to greet guests, and she didn’t recognize Clementine. She assumed she was just a new intern, so she kept her distance and kept it cool.

Clementine clutched her folder tight to her chest. She had zero desire to be alone with Leonidas. But the janitor was mopping the hallway during break, and loitering by the door felt way too awkward, so she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Even after two years of marriage, she’d never once set foot in Lopez Industries. She never would’ve guessed her first visit would go down like this.

The office was done up in minimalist style, neutral tones of gray, white, and blue that matched Leonidas perfectly—noble, distant, understated luxury.

The air carried a faint scent of cedar, exactly like the one that clung to him. It reminded her of those recent nights where he’d sneak into her bedroom just to kiss her, the scent sticking to her pillow all night, haunting her, impossible to forget.

The main office was empty—Leonidas wasn’t there—and two takeout containers sat on the coffee table in the lounge area.

Clementine was just about to find a spot to wait when the door to the private break room suddenly swung open.

Samara Woods stepped out. She was wearing an ivory Victorian-style dress, pearl earrings peeking out from behind her hair at her collarbone, radiating that polished, elegant vibe everyone loved about her.

Except the top two buttons of her dress were undone.

The pale skin underneath left nothing to the imagination.

"Clementine?" Samara’s eyes widened, a flash of panic darting across her face before she quickly spun to yank the door shut behind her.

But in her rush, she fumbled. The door bounced off the frame and hung wide open.

Clementine hadn’t even cared what was inside the breakroom before, but now her gaze drifted in.

Instantly, her blood turned to boiling acid in her veins.

Right there on the bed, directly across from the door, a man’s black dress shirt and suit pants were tossed haphazardly across the covers. A pair of men’s boxer briefs lay crumpled at the foot of the bed.

"Leonidas is so busy, I sometimes come in to help him tidy up. Don’t mind me," Samara chirped as she gathered the clothes and carried them into the bathroom.

Then she turned to straighten out the sheets.

When she lifted the quilt, a pair of nude stockings fluttered down to the floor.

Clementine’s breath caught in her throat. She froze solid.

Samara seemed to catch what just happened, and rushed to apologize. "Sorry, my stockings snagged earlier, so I took them off…"

The office temperature was perfectly comfortable, but Clementine felt an icy chill crawl up her spine and settle in her bones.

She could talk a big game all she wanted. But when faced with the proof right in front of her, cold unease spread through every inch of her.

Clementine hurried straight out of the office, and ran straight into Leonidas right by the elevator.

She didn’t even lift her head, but her nose picked up that familiar cedar scent. Instinctively, she shoved him back hard. "Get away from me! Don’t you touch me."

Uriel Scott was right behind Leonidas, along with half a dozen other top executives.

Uriel waved a hand at them, and in seconds, they’d all melted away quietly, leaving the two alone.

"What’s going on?" Leonidas reached out to catch her arm.

Clementine flinched back like she’d been burned. "You and Samara can play whatever sick games you want. Just keep them contained, don’t drag me over here to gawk at them. I never knew the untouchable Mr. Lopez had such… trashy tastes."

Leonidas’s face went dark as thunder. "Some things are better discussed in private. Don’t forget where we are."

"What place? When you were screwing around in there, why didn’t you care about the place then?"

"Leonidas, whatever you and Samara get up to isn’t any of my business. Just don’t drag me into it."

"My eyes are too delicate to stomach this garbage."

"Clementine!" Leonidas roared, furious. His hand lifted, hovering in the air like he was about to strike her.

Clementine didn’t back down an inch. She lifted her chin to face him, defiant, fire blazing bright in her eyes.

A part of her almost ached for that hand to come down—

To shatter the wavering resolve she’d fought so hard to hold onto for days.

To break the years of tangled, messy love she could never cut loose on her own.