She Was Never The One: The CEO's Regret

“Adrian, please, can you just listen to me for once?” Sera's voice trembled as she stood across the living room, trying to keep herself composed despite the anger in his face. 

The argument had already gone on for several minutes, and from the way Adrian stared at her, it was clear that he had no intention of letting her explain herself. “I have told you before, I never meant for what happened to Celine to happen. I would never deliberately hurt my own sister.”

Adrian scoffed, his expression hardening as he looked at her. “Your sister?” he repeated bitterly. “Don't stand there pretending you care about her now, Sera. If you truly cared about Celine, she wouldn't have ended up like this. She wouldn't have lost the life she had, and she wouldn't have disappeared from everyone who loved her.” Sera's lips parted as she tried to respond, but Adrian continued before she could get a word out. “You always have an explanation ready, but you never take responsibility.

 You were there that day, Sera. You know exactly what happened, and yet you still expect me to believe you had nothing to do with it.”

Sera lowered her eyes, her fingers tightening against each other. She had heard the accusation so many times that it should have stopped hurting by now, but Adrian had a way of making every word feel like the first time. “I never said I didn't regret what happened,” she said quietly. “I regret it every day, but that doesn't mean I caused it.” She looked up at him, her voice softer now. “You've never allowed me to explain anything. You've already decided that I'm guilty, so what would be the point of saying anything?”

Adrian's jaw tightened. “Because maybe if you had been honest from the beginning, I wouldn't have spent all these years looking at the woman who destroyed Celine's life.” 

He moved closer, his voice dropping into something colder. “Do you know what Celine meant to me? She was the only person who ever made me feel like I mattered. She was the one who saved me when we were young, the one person I trusted completely, and then you took everything from her.”

Sera's face went still with those words, but she said nothing. There were truths Adrian had never known, truths she had carried alone for years, but this was not the moment she could bring herself to reveal them. Adrian had already made up his mind about her, and the more she tried to defend herself, the more convinced he became that she was simply looking for another excuse. 

She swallowed the words that threatened to rise to her lips and lowered her gaze again, silently enduring the anger of the man she had once hoped would someday understand her.

Adrian's expression remained cold as he watched her struggle to hold herself together. “You know what hurts the most, Sera?” he asked, his voice quiet but cruel enough to make her fingers tremble. 

“If it had been you lying there after that accident, paralyzed and unable to live the life you wanted, maybe I wouldn't have hated you this much. Maybe I would have spent every day trying to make things better for you. But it wasn't you. It was Celine. The person who had already given me everything when we were young. The person who saved my life when no one else cared enough to do it.” 

His eyes hardened as he looked her over. “And somehow, after all that, you still found a way to take her place.” 

Sera's eyes filled with tears, but Adrian did not soften. “You became my wife while the woman who deserved everything was somewhere suffering because of you. Tell me, Sera, how am I supposed to look at you and not see the person who ruined her life?”

A tear slipped down Sera's cheek before she could stop it. She quickly wiped it away, but more followed, and this time she made no effort to hide them. “Then why did you marry me?” she asked, her voice barely steady. “Why did you ask me to marry you if looking at me is so unbearable?” 

Adrian's lips curled without warmth. “Don't flatter yourself. You accepted the contract because you wanted something from me, didn't you?” The accusation made her lower her head. “You knew exactly what you were doing when you signed it. You thought becoming my wife would somehow change the way I felt about you.” 

He stepped closer, forcing her to look up at him. “You thought that if you stayed beside me long enough, I would forget Celine and start loving you instead. That was your mistake.” Sera's lips trembled. She had entered that marriage believing the contract might finally give her the chance to tell him the truth, to stay close enough for him to see the woman she really was instead of the person he had made her out to be.

 She had believed that once he knew her better, once he saw that she had never wanted Celine hurt, perhaps his hatred would fade and something else could take its place. Instead, the marriage had become the very thing that broke her.

She had known Adrian did not love her when she signed those papers, but she had still held on to the hope that things could change. She remembered how carefully she had agreed to every condition, telling herself that a contract was only a beginning and that perhaps, with time, he would finally understand why she had accepted it. She had been willing to endure his distance, his coldness, even his anger, because losing the chance to be near him had seemed worse. 

But Adrian had made his own promise the moment she signed. He had looked her in the eyes and vowed that if she had truly been foolish enough to marry him after what happened to Celine, he would make sure she regretted every day of it. Sera had still signed. She had believed she could change his mind. She had never imagined that the marriage she entered hoping to be understood would become the place where she lost every piece of confidence she once had.

“Why can't you look at me for once?” she finally asked, her voice breaking as she wiped at her cheeks. “Why is everything always about Celine? Celine did this. Celine suffered. Celine deserves this. Celine deserves you.” She gave a small, shaky laugh that disappeared almost immediately. “What about me, Adrian? What am I to you?” 

For the first time, her voice carried something more painful than fear. It was exhausting. “I've spent years standing in front of you, and you still look through me like I'm nothing. No matter what I do, I'm never enough because I'm not her.” Adrian's face remained unmoved. “Because you aren't Celine,” he said simply. “And you never will be.” The words landed harder than a slap. 

Sera went completely still, tears continuing to fall as she stood before the man she had once been willing to endure everything for. Adrian turned away from her as though her tears were nothing more than an inconvenience, leaving her to stand there with the weight of everything he had just said.

Adrian stared at her tear-streaked face, but there was no sympathy in his eyes. “Maybe that's what you've always hated about her,” he said. Sera's brows drew together, and she slowly shook her head. “What are you talking about?” 

Adrian gave a humorless laugh. “Don't act like you don't know. From the time you were girls, Celine was the one everyone loved. She was the one your parents protected, the one they worried about, the one who received the attention you were always desperate for. And instead of accepting that, you turned your resentment against her.” 

Sera's face paled. “That's not true.” Her voice was barely audible. Adrian continued as though he hadn't heard her. “You were jealous of her, Sera. You hated watching her have the affection you never thought you received. Maybe that's why it became so easy for you to hurt her. Maybe that's why you were willing to go as far as you did.” Sera's lips parted, but no words came. He had taken something she had spent years trying to hide and turned it into another weapon against her.

“I never hated Celine,” she whispered, tears spilling freely now. “I never wanted what happened to her.” Adrian stepped closer. “Then why was she the one left paralyzed while you walked away?” His voice hardened. “Why did she lose everything while you continued living your life? Why did she disappear after that, while you stayed here and became my wife?” Sera shook her head desperately. “I didn't do it.” “You always say that.”

He looked away for a moment before turning back to her. “But if Celine had been the one standing where you are now, I wouldn't have spent a single day making her feel unwanted. I would have protected her. I would have given her everything.” His eyes settled on Sera again. “Instead, I got you.” The words broke whatever little composure she had left. She covered her mouth, trying to hold back a sob, but Adrian only watched her with the same cold expression.

Sera lowered her hands slowly. “I loved you,” she said, her voice trembling. “That's why I agreed to marry you. I thought... I thought if I stayed with you, maybe one day you'd finally see that I wasn't the person you believed I was.” She swallowed hard. “I thought the contract would give me time. Time to prove myself. Time for you to know me. I didn't know I'd be signing myself into something that would make me hate myself every day.” 

Adrian's expression barely changed. “Then perhaps you should have thought about that before you signed.” He moved toward the door, leaving her standing behind him. “You made your choice, Sera. Now live with it.” His hand had barely touched the doorknob when his phone began to ring.

Adrian glanced at the screen. The number was unfamiliar. He answered after a brief hesitation, stepping outside the living room but stopping only a short distance away. The door remained slightly open, leaving Sera close enough to hear his voice.

 At first, his expression showed nothing. Then his posture changed. “What did you say?” he asked quietly. Sera wiped at her tears, staring toward the doorway. Adrian listened again, his face slowly losing its coldness. “Are you sure?” A pause. His fingers tightened around the phone. “Where is she?” Another silence followed, longer this time, before Adrian spoke again, almost

unable to believe what he had heard. “Celine... She's back?”