Page 113 of Bid For Me
“No! You don’t get to talk. Not until you hear me out.” There’s a pause, and I can almost picture her poking him in the chest for emphasis. “If you hurt her again – if you eventhinkabout hurting her again – I don’t care how rich or powerful you are, I’ll find a way to make you regret it for the rest of your life. Got it?”
“Candy,” Seb tries again, but his voice is softer this time, almost pleading. “I know. I promise you, I know.”
Another pause, then her voice drops just enough that I have to strain to hear. “Good. Because she deserves better than what you’ve given her so far. And if you’re not here to make it right, then turn around and leave. Now.”
“I’m here to make it right,” he says firmly, no hesitation in his tone.
There’s a long silence, and then the sound of footsteps ascending the stairs. My heart leaps into my throat, and I stand quickly, smoothing my sweater again, as if that will do anything to prepare me for what’s coming.
A knock on the door.
I hesitate, staring at the handle as if it might bite me.
“Elle,” Seb’s voice carries through the wood, low and tentative. “It’s me.”
I close my eyes for a moment, taking one last steadying breath before crossing the room and opening the door.
He stands there, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his coat, his expression unreadable, but his eyes – his eyes are full of something raw and unguarded.
“Hi,” he says softly.
I step aside, wordlessly letting him into the apartment. Seb doesn’t move right away, standing in the doorway like he’s waiting for permission to cross the threshold. It’s strange – he’s always been so sure of himself, so commanding in every room he enters, but now, in front of me, he seems uncertain, fragile even.
I watch him, my breath catching in my throat as he slowly steps inside, closing the door behind him. His coat rustles as he drops it onto the back of the chair by the door.
His posture is stiff, like he’s holding himself together with sheer willpower. His jaw is clenched, and there’s an almost haunted look in his eyes, like he’s been carrying something far heavier than the weight of his world.
“I’m sorry,” he says, and I hear the sincerity in his voice, but it feels almost like an apology he’s said a thousand times, rehearsed. The words land with a thud between us, but there’s no fire behind them. No demands, no excuses – just the quiet acknowledgment that whatever has happened, he’s aware of it.
But is that enough?
I don’t say anything. I just keep watching him, the silence growing thicker, heavier. My hands are shaking at my sides, but I don’t move. I don’t know what I’m waiting for – maybe something in him to break, to finally be the man I need him to be.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Seb mutters, dragging a hand through his hair, his fingers gripping the strands like they might anchor him. “I know I fucked up. I know I hurt you.”
He sounds so…defeated. Like the weight of everything – the lies, the manipulation, the mess he’s made of us – has finallybroken through that mask of arrogance. I’ve never seen him like this. Not even close.
I take a slow breath, trying to steady myself. The last thing I want to do is crumble right here in front of him, but it’s hard to ignore the way he looks right now: like a man on the edge of falling apart.
Wordlessly, I tilt my head, a silent invitation for him to follow me inside as I turn and head for my sitting room. This conversation feels too weighty to have in the hallway, and my knees are shaking so hard, I think they might give out. I need to sit down.
I watch him carefully, my heart thudding in my chest, unsure whether I want to hear the next words or if I’m better off letting the silence linger. But Seb doesn’t wait for me to speak, his voice trembling as it falls from his lips as soon as I’m seated.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he says, his hand coming up to rub at his face, his eyes squeezed shut like the weight of his confession is too much to bear. “I couldn’t see past everything my father had already put in motion. I thought if I could just get through it, make it look like I was doing the right thing, then it’d all be fine.” His eyes flicker to mine, raw, almost desperate for me to understand. “I didn’t want to lose you, Elle. Not like this. But I also didn’t want to lose control of everything else…everything he built. He had me in his grip. I was suffocating under the pressure.”
My breath hitches as he pauses, his fingers gripping the back of the couch like he’s physically holding himself together, like the truth is too much for him to stand.
“I handed him over, Elle,” Seb says, his voice hoarse, as if the admission itself is a weight he’s carried for far too long. My chest tightens, my mind trying to wrap itself around his words. He’s not just talking about a small betrayal – he’s talking about the man who controlled his life, his entire family, for years.
“Asher Sullivan and I, we’ve been working together for months,” Seb continues, eyes locked onto mine now, like he’s searching for something – anything – that might give him the courage to keep going. “I couldn’t trust anyone else. The man I’ve been fighting against, the man who has been pulling my strings for as long as I can remember – he’s been committing crimes for years. Fraud, embezzlement, money laundering…you name it, he’s been involved. That, and worse. But I couldn’t just sit back anymore. I couldn’t let him use me any longer.”
My mind is spinning as I try to process what he’s just said. ItwasSeb?Hewas the one who took down his father? He was the one who orchestrated this? And for all the times I thought he was complicit in Alexander’s manipulations, Seb had been quietly working behind the scenes to end it all, for way longer than we’ve been together, to stop the very man who had been controlling us both.
This changes everything.
“I didn’t know how to explain that to you,” he murmurs, his voice cracking. “I was so caught up in the mess of it all, so afraid of losing you and afraid of my father’s retribution, that I couldn’t find the words. I was a coward. And because of my involvement with the company, I’ll be under investigation too. There will be repercussions because it’s going to be damn near impossible to prove I was innocent, so I just had to see you one last time.”
I swallow, my throat tight, but I don’t speak. My mind is racing with the weight of his confession, the shock of it making my chest feel hollow. Seb, the man who had always seemed untouchable, had been playing a dangerous game of his own. For me. For us.