All Chapters of SEDUCING THE CEO: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The days after her confrontation with the handler left Paula in a state of numbness, like she was walking through a fog that clung to her every step. It felt like everything she had built—her carefully constructed world, her mission—was now slipping away, piece by piece. But it wasn’t just the loss of her former self that consumed her thoughts. It was the guilt that gnawed at her, the constant reminder that what she had done to Akihiro was a betrayal, even if her feelings for him had become genuine.As she sat at her desk late one evening, the office empty except for a few scattered workers, Paula couldn’t shake the feeling that time was running out. She had made her choice, but she wasn’t sure if the road she had chosen would lead her to redemption—or ruin.A knock at her door pulled her from her spiraling thoughts. She turned to see Akihiro standing in the doorway, his silhouette framed by the dim lights of the hallway.“I thought you’d be gone by now,” Paula said, her voice betrayi

Days had passed since that intense phone call with Akihiro. He had been kind, understanding, but something still lingered in the air between them—an unspoken distance that neither of them could quite close. Paula hadn’t expected the world to immediately shift just because she had confessed her turmoil, but it didn’t make the weight of the silence any easier to bear. It seemed that every step she took toward a future with him only brought her closer to the past she was trying to outrun.She was starting to feel like a walking contradiction. A woman who wanted something real, something honest, but who had also spent years manipulating her circumstances, hiding behind the walls she had built for protection. Now those walls were crumbling, and the pieces were scattered all around her. And no matter how much she tried to gather them up, she knew some things could never be put back together again.Every conversation with Akihiro—every touch, every fleeting moment of tenderness—reminded her

The door to Akihiro’s office clicked shut behind her, but Paula remained frozen in the hallway. She could still feel the weight of his words, lingering like a shadow over her. It’s over. Those words kept echoing in her head, and they felt like the death knell of everything she had worked toward. The mission, the plan, the quiet manipulations—it all seemed meaningless now. She had lost him, and in doing so, had lost her purpose.Her fingers clutched at the fabric of her blouse, as though it could anchor her to something, anything, other than the sense of devastation that was settling in. It wasn’t just the failure of the mission that hurt—it was the realization that she had genuinely begun to care for him. That somewhere along the way, amidst the lies and the half-truths, she had developed feelings that she never intended to have. And now, she had ruined it all.Paula’s knees felt weak. She couldn’t stay here. She couldn’t go back to her apartment and face the emptiness of her decision

The days that followed her conversation with Akihiro were marked by a strange kind of quiet. The weight of what had happened settled heavily in the pit of Paula’s stomach. She had made a choice, and though she knew it was the right one, there was no denying the hollow emptiness that accompanied it. The truth was, she had hoped for more than just a chance to rebuild trust. She had hoped for a resolution, for Akihiro to say he could forgive her, to tell her that everything would be okay. But instead, he had asked for time—and that alone was a constant reminder of the precariousness of her situation.Paula’s life was divided into two worlds now. One was the office, where she went through the motions of her job with the same precision and focus she had always had. Her work was a constant, a routine that grounded her, even as it felt increasingly hollow. But there was no escaping the ghosts of the past that haunted her. Every email she sent, every meeting she attended, was tainted by the k

The days following the conversation with Akihiro felt heavier for Paula than any of the intense moments leading up to it. The walls she'd built—so carefully constructed around her emotions and her mission—were now cracked, and the cracks deepened with every passing hour. She could no longer escape the gnawing feeling that everything was slipping away, her carefully devised plan unraveling in ways she hadn’t expected. She had gone into this with a singular goal: stop the wedding and take control of Akihiro’s heart and business for her own reasons. Now, it seemed, her heart was being pulled into the very web she had spun.Her handler, on the other side of her mission, had called that morning. Paula hadn’t answered, even though the call was important—more important than anything else. But what could she say? The mission was spiraling out of her control. She couldn’t bring herself to do it anymore. The lines had blurred, and she couldn’t distinguish between who she was working for and who