All Chapters of From my Bully to CEO: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

PastGrayson's POV Selene was looking at her phone when I stopped in front of her. She looked up, visibly startled at seeing me. She’d been desperately trying to contact me the entire past week. The uncountable missed calls on my phone were proof enough that she’d lost sleep over me more than she’d done over her admissions.“Grayson-” she whispered, her voice catching in her throat. “What…Are you okay?”She stood up from the edge of the fountain and I took a step back. Distance was everything I had or I would have shattered.She stared at me and it took her barely a second to recognize the look on my face. She’d seen it before. She was acquainted with it all too well.It was the look of destruction and it was all the warning I could afford.I also knew - painfully, aching - that she would not heed it.“You don’t have to do this, Vexley,” she said softly. “You don’t have to do anything he told you to.”“But I do,” I said. My voice sounded flat, unfamiliar. “I want to.”She opened her

PRESENTGRAYSON’S POV:Her words hit harder than a blade. Every apology I’d rehearsed over the years suddenly felt useless.“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “There isn’t a word strong enough for what I did to you. For what I cost you.”She put the glass down on the table hard enough to make it rattle.“Your sorry doesn’t change the past, Vexley,” she said. “Doesn’t change the fact that I suffered for years because of you.”I swallowed hard, forcing myself to meet her eyes. “I don’t expect forgiveness. I just… I needed you to know I never stopped being sorry.”She shook her head, her eyes glossy with unshed tears. “Your words mean nothing to me, Grayson. It’s too fucking late.”“Sel-”“I loved you.” Her voice broke on the word. “I fucking loved you. Do you even realize that?”I flinched, her words stealing my breath. Because it sounded like resignation, like a past she’d never go back to.“I trusted you,” she went on, voice rising. “Again and again. Even when I knew better. Even when you hadn

PRESENTSELENE’S POV:Corey looked like he’d walked straight out of a meeting.I stepped aside to let him in, closing the door behind us.“What was so important you had to schedule an emergency meeting?” I asked, gesturing toward the sofa.He had only ever been in my home once—back when we’d struck our deal. During our fake dating, we’d only met in cafés or at Aurum, just to keep up appearances.I watched him tilt his head, taking in the old portraits on the walls, the sweeping staircases, the intricate stonework of Beverly Manor.“Would it be so hard to believe if I said I wanted to see you?” he asked, turning toward me with a half-smile tugging at his lips.I blinked, caught off guard by the sudden shift. Even during our ‘dates’, Corey had been strictly professional. He had never touched me unless absolutely necessary, and he had never made a comment that felt out of bounds.I opted for directness as I said, “It would be, yes.”“Then you don’t really know me, Miss Hale,” he said, a

PAST SELENE’S POV: “Shit, I can’t find my phone,” I exclaimed, patting my pockets again just in case. “Check your bag,” Maya said from beside me as I unzipped my bag and searched through the stuff i’d thrown in there. “Don’t hear any ringing,” she said, showing me her phone to tell me she was calling me. “Did you leave it in the locker room? Or probably the swim room?” “Maybe,” I said, my nerves jittery. “I’ll go check.” “You want me to come with you?” She called after me. “No, I'll be fine,” I yelled back. “Meet you outside.” I took off before she could argue, heart hammering as I ran toward the swim room, praying my phone hadn’t been stolen. The swim room was plunged in darkness - the winter kind of dark where even the dull sunlight from the glass roof overhead wasn’t enough. I looked around the room and my mind went unbidden to the difference between the first time I’d been here to now. It’d been four months since then. The swim team had won two inter state tro

PASTGRAYSON’S POV:I didn’t know weekends could be this tortuous before I’d gone and kissed Selene.And kissing wasn’t even the problem. I’d kissed girls before and it hadn’t meant anything. I hadn’t waited for their texts or replayed their smiles in my head. I hadn’t suffered for a glimpse of them in a crowded hallway.It was the feelings that were making everything so complicated. I wasn’t supposed to feel. It wasn’t supposed to happen. Not with Selene Hale. Not with anyone. That was how I stayed salvageable in my father’s eyes.With Selene, I’d always known that distance was the only answer. If I could make her hate me, maybe I could bury what I felt before it tore me apart.But I wasn’t successful at even that.Instead, I’d told her I wanted to kiss her—said the thing I’d been dreading out loud. I didn’t know what possessed me. And then she’d kissed me, and every coherent thought had vanished like it had never existed at all.Two days had gone by and I was still a mess of contra