The Miracle of You

Christian’s smile faltered slightly.

“So, you mean to say that only Michael McGregor will have your heart?” he said. “No one else?”

“Who even said that I’m in love with him? He’s just my friend and nothing more,” Camille said flatly. “I love him, yes, but not romantically. He’s a precious person to me.”

Christian suddenly let out a hollow laugh.

She looked at him warily. “What’s so funny?”Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

He shook his head and let go of her chin. “Nothing. I just find it amusing, the way you keep lying even to yourself.”

That ruffled her feathers a bit. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you telling me that everything he did for you didn’t touch your heart even a little? That when the two of you reunited after so many years, your heart never skipped a beat? That you never once thought of him as an attractive man?” He laughed again. “You may fool yourself, Miss Parker, but not me.”

Camille shook her head, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. “You’re wrong,” she said, her voice quivering the slightest bit. “I do not appreciate you drawing such conclusions about my own feelings. Stop it. It’s none of your business.”

“Of course it is. You are my fiancee now. We are engaged to be married, so it is definitely my business. What a foolish question.” He leaned over and started to whisper in her ear. “Like I said, don’t act like a fool. Your defensiveness is getting old, honestly. You should learn to be honest with your feelings, just like you are with your feelings towards me.”

With that, he stepped back, turned around, and then left the kitchen, leaving her standing there, gaping at him.

Her hands clenched into fists.

‘No,’ she thought to herself. ‘He’s wrong. He’s just trying to manipulate me again.’

‘Well, I’m not falling for it! Fuck him.’

Once again, she tried not to think too deeply about the implications of his words.

Maybe she was just afraid of the enormity of what he was suggesting, because there was no way…

There was simply no way she could accept that she was in love with Michael.

Not in a situation like this.

It would only make her life more chaotic and complicated.

***

Christian Callahan was not the only thing that turned Camille’s life upside down. Since that night, she could barely keep her thoughts from wandering towards Michael. It was also becoming difficult to resist the temptation to call him and talk to him, even just for a brief moment.

She had recently increased her workload and productivity so that she wouldn’t have to think about these two men too much.

However, it only added more stress to her plate.

It seemed that there was a lot to review and research with their recent collaboration with Haynes-McGregor Industries. She had to prepare a detailed presentation by next week and go over every detail with the employees to make sure everything went smoothly.

Because of this, she tended to meet with Grady a lot, and she knew that Christian had arranged it especially for her.

Working with Grady was going surprisingly well. She was a meticulous worker, and Grady was even more so. They were compatible when it came to working together as their ideas meshed well, and they also had good communication between them.

Grady provided a lot of useful resources for her to review. He was pleasant to talk to and offered more insight into the project than she did, which embarrassed her a bit.

Then again, Grady was the more experienced one compared to her, so it was understandable.

The two often worked overtime. Grady never initiated personal conversations with her at first, but over time, they grew closer and Camille began to see him as a father figure of sorts. Or maybe like a kind uncle who looked out for her from time to time.

Whenever she felt sleepy during their late-night meetings, either at the Callahan Group or over at Haynes-McGregor Industries, Grady would make her a hot cup of coffee. Embarrassingly, she would also fall asleep while working on the project, and Grady would never wake her, instead just draping his coat over her body and letting her sleep while he continued working.

One night, it was late, and they were still working. The office was quiet, with only the low hum of the air conditioner and the occasional sound of typing on keyboards filling the room.

Camille sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I’m done with this report,” she said in relief. “Though I still need to revise the previous ones.”

Grady smiled slightly. “Shall we take a break?”

“I could use it, sure.”

“All right. I’ll go brew us another pot of coffee.”

Camille had tried a few times to insist that she be the one to make them coffee, but Grady often used his age and seniority to win the argument, so she had no choice but to let him.

It felt good, though. Gone was the stifling atmosphere of being with her boss and replaced by a comfortable air between two professionals.

At least she was spending more time with Grady now compared to Christian. Christian had several meetings left and right this month. Right now, he was on a business trip, and he told her to stay behind and continue working on the project.

If she were to be honest, she was relieved that she didn’t need to accompany him.

Since their conversation that day, he never mentioned the engagement party again, which suited Camille just fine. After all, it was never her intention to make things any more public than they already were. The constant whispers, speculation, and articles online were a massive headache, so she decided to just avoid social media altogether.

Anyway, her brothers already knew, and she looked a lot different than she had in the past – which she did on purpose – so she wasn’t too worried about her photos somehow being leaked and reaching her adoptive parents. As far as she could remember, they never had much of an association with the Callahans anyway.

But whenever she thought about the conversation with Christian that day, she also remembered the look on Michael’s face when they met at the cafe. His gentle and reserved gaze. The understanding expression on his features.

He had asked questions, but didn’t pry too much. Still, she felt guilty. Aside from Christian’s insinuations that night, Camille was plagued by another worry in her mind.

Thinking about Michael lately made her heart twist in pain, and when she thought back to the words she had told him, the guilt only grew worse. It never felt good to deceive him.

She felt sick just remembering herself telling Christian details about Michael’s family and friends. It made her feel like a terrible friend.

She had already come this far, so she knew that regrets were useless.

‘When all of this is over, I promise I’ll apologize to him in person and explain everything,’ she thought to herself, taking a deep breath.

‘If he gets mad at me, I’ll accept it. I’ll accept all of his negative emotions and try to make it up to him somehow.’

‘I just hope that he’ll forgive me someday.’

‘Because if I lose him, too… I would never be able to forgive my own self.’