Wrapped in Sebastian's coat, Cora finally broke. The composure she had held together inside the house shattered the second the door closed behind her.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, and her shoulders shook violently as tears streamed down her face. "I am sorry you have to see me like this."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Sebastian replied, his gray eyes softened with quiet concern as he looked at her.

He did not try to fix it. He did not offer empty reassurance. He just stood beside her in the falling snow, and his steady presence became the only thing keeping her upright.

For the first time that night, someone was focused on what she needed instead of what Eyan wanted.

"Let me drive you home," he offered after a while, "You should not be alone right now."

Cora nodded, her lips trembled as she wiped her face with shaking hands.

The drive to her apartment was silent. Sebastian's driver kept his eyes on the road while his phone buzzed nonstop in the cup holder with board emails from the Brooks & Calloway Group. Even on Christmas night, the CEO's inbox never slept.

When they reached her building, Cora fumbled with her keys and nearly dropped them twice. Her hands were shaking too hard to fit the key into the lock, and her vision was blurred with tears.

Sebastian gently took them from her and opened the door for her, and that was why he went inside. He did not want to leave her sobbing alone on a dark staircase.

Inside, her apartment was still waiting for a future that no longer existed. Wrapped presents sat neatly under the tree with careful handwritten tags for Eyan, holiday recipes were taped to the fridge for the dinner she had planned to cook for him, and framed photos from happier years lined the shelves. The fairy lights were still blinking.

Cora stared at them, and her breath caught painfully in her throat.

Then she dropped to her knees and ripped the paper off the first box. "I spent months picking these," she choked, her hands shook as she tore through the wrapping with desperate force. "Months."

Sebastian knelt beside her without a word, and he opened a garbage bag and held it out for her. He did not tell her to stop. He did not tell her to keep anything for later. He understood that she needed to clean away the life she thought she was building, and he simply shared the burden.

When the floor was finally clear, exhaustion hit her all at once and she collapsed onto the couch. Her eyes fluttered shut before she could even say goodnight, Sebastian pulled the blanket from the armrest over her shoulders.

He stayed on the far side of the living room for another hour, answering a few urgent emails on his phone while he made sure she was truly asleep and breathing evenly.

He slipped out just after five in the morning so she would not wake up embarrassed to find him there. The doorman in the lobby recognized him immediately.

An hour after he left, Cora's own phone lit up on the coffee table and woke her.

It was a photo from Vanessa. Vanessa was lounging in Eyan's penthouse wearing the expensive watch Cora had worked overtime to buy for his birthday, and she was smiling proudly into the camera.

The caption read, "Looks even better on the woman he actually loves."

Cora stared at it for a long second, and her jaw tightened as a sharp flash of hurt crossed her face. Then, instead of replying, she hit block. It was a small decision, but it was the first time that night she chose to protect her own peace.

Later, another message came through.

It was from Eyan. "Thank you for handling tonight maturely. Let's not make things difficult. I want us all to move forward peacefully," he texted.

Cora read it twice, and her eyes hardened with cold disbelief. There was no apology and no concern for how she was coping. He was more worried about his image as the CFO than the pain he had caused.

She deleted the message without answering, and she refused to give him even a single word of comfort.

The following morning, her phone would not stop vibrating. Cora sat up in bed with her heart racing, and for a painful second she thought Eyan had finally changed his mind.

It was not Eyan. It was dozens of calls from unknown numbers, DM requests, and journalists tagging her on X.

Overnight, the video of Sebastian leaving her building at dawn had gone viral.

Cora opened the first article with shaking hands, and her face drained of color as she read the headline.

"Has CEO Sebastian Brooks Fallen for His Best Friend's Woman?”

The Man Who Chose My Side

"Look she's here. Damn she didn't even take a break, looks like she wanted it over by herself."

Cora heard the whisper the moment she stepped into the lobby of Brooks & Calloway Group. She had arrived an hour early to avoid it, but the lobby was already half full.

"Good morning," she murmured to two associates from finance.

They glanced at her and quickly looked away. Cora kept walking toward the executive wing, where her desk sat right outside the CEO's office because she was Sebastian's executive secretary.

Vanessa was already in the pantry near her desk, stirring her coffee.

"Are you okay?" she asked lightly, and her emerald eyes softened with concern. "These people have been talking since morning. They are judging you for being with Sebastian. I told them heartbreak makes everyone act differently. Some of us just need another shoulder to lean on, right?"

"I am fine, thank you," Cora replied, and she tried to keep her voice even.

"I defended you, you know," Vanessa added sweetly. "People can be so judgmental after a breakup, and I told them to give you space."

"I did not know I needed defending," Cora whispered, and her fingers tightened around her laptop.

"Of course you do," Vanessa insisted, and she smiled as she brushed past Cora's desk. "We all do sometimes."

Cora sat down and opened Sebastian's calendar, but the weight of every glance on the executive floor made it impossible to focus.

In the department meeting, Eyan's chair was empty as CFO and the team started without him. Vanessa waited until Sebastian's name appeared on the quarterly deck.

"Mr. Brooks has handled all this press so gracefully," she remarked. "Though the media was also right, some women recover remarkably fast when another wealthy man is waiting to catch them at work."

The table went silent.

"Are you talking about me, Vanessa?" Cora questioned, and her voice trembled slightly despite her effort to stay calm.

"Why would you think it was about you? I was just saying what the media is talking about," Vanessa countered, and her smile stayed perfectly pleasant. "I was just making conversation."

The conference room door opened right then and Sebastian walked in. He rarely attended the marketing sync as CEO.

"I heard there was gossip about conduct on my upper floor," he stated calmly, and his gray eyes swept the table. "Let me clear it up."

His gaze lingered on Cora for a second before hardening again.

"Personal attacks have no place in my company," he warned. "Anyone targeting my secretary will answer directly to me, regardless of their position. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Mr. Brooks," the team murmured in unison.

Eyan pushed open the door to Sebastian's office right after the meeting without knocking. His office was directly across the hall and he had arrived after the meeting. He had just heard the whole day from Vanessa.

"What was that?" he demanded. "Why are you being so protective of Cora in the media and inside the company? You are making me look like the villain in front of the whole company."

"You did that yourself on Christmas, it's not that I lied about anything," Sebastian retorted.

"I am your best friend," Eyan snapped, and his brown eyes flashed with fury. "She reports to you. You are taking advantage of her while she is vulnerable and confused."

"And who made her vulnerable?” Sebastian clapped back. “You humiliated her in front of both our families," Sebastian argued, and his voice dropped with disappointment. "You lost the right to decide who gets to stand by her. Now stop complaining!"

Eyan stared at him in disbelief, "You have never spoken to me like this in twenty years," Eyan uttered.

"And you have never given me a reason to," Sebastian answered.

Neither apologized, and the silence between them was heavier than any argument they had ever had.

Cora packed her bag and headed toward the side entrance because reporters were still camped at the main doors. Sebastian was already waiting there with his car idling behind him.

"You will not get past them alone," he offered quietly. "Come on."

"I do not want to cause more trouble for you," Cora confessed, and her hazel eyes filled with hesitation. "You have already done too much, and everyone is already talking."

"You are not trouble," he assured her, and he held the door open. "Do not ever think that."

They stepped out together and the reporters rushed forward instantly.

"Mr. Brooks, are the rumors true?" a reporter shouted. "Cora, did you cheat on Eyan with his best friend?"

Cora tensed, expecting him to step back and deny everything.

Sebastian opened the passenger door for her and waited until she was inside. Then he turned toward the cameras.

"Nobody has cheated, some things are just not meant to be. Miss Vieamore is under my protection," he declared. "That is all you need to know."

Inside the car, city lights blurred past as silence stretched between them.

"Why are you doing all of this for me?" Cora whispered, and her voice broke. "You do not have to risk your reputation. I am not worth all this mess."

"Do not say that," Sebastian murmured, and his hands tightened around the wheel. "Someone should have stood by you a long time ago."

"Thank you," she breathed, and tears gathered in her eyes despite her efforts. "For today. For not letting me face them alone."

"You do not need to thank me," he responded, and his gray eyes softened as he glanced at her.

As he pulled up outside her apartment, neither of them noticed the black luxury sedan parked across the street with its lights off.

Inside it, Eyan sat in the driver's seat, watching them.

"So this is how it is now?" he muttered to himself, and his brown eyes stayed fixed on the way Cora looked at Sebastian. He was not sure why he was feeling it, but one thing was sure…..he did not like Sebastian around Cora….at all!