Passing Through His World

It was the celebration party for Coles third consecutive Southport Racing Championship victory. It was also the night he had promised to propose to me.

Instead, with a bright smile on his face, he pulled a petite, shrinking girl into the spotlight.

Let me introduce the real hero of the night, Cole announced, his voice booming over the music. "If Sienna hadn't guided me through my rehab training, I would never have returned to the track."

He pulled her closer, his arm draped casually around her waist. "From today onwards, she will be my exclusive physical therapist. The twenty-four-seven kind of companionship, you know?"

My eyes widened in shock. Cole caught my gaze, a mocking smirk playing on his lips.

The crowd erupted into rowdy cheers, though a few people shot me teasing, sympathetic looks.

"Twenty-four-seven? Won't Cindy have a problem with that?" someone shouted.

Cole just laughed, waving a hand dismissively. "Cindy is very generous. Aren't you, babe?"

I stood there, frozen in silence.

Halfway through the party, I pulled him aside. He reeked of expensive alcohol.

"Cole, stop this. You need to stop messing around."

He reached out, his fingers gripping my chin. He let out a dark chuckle.

"What? You're allowed to have your male best friend, but I can't have a female one?"

Fury flickered in my eyes. "That is enough."

"I have told you countless times. Gabriel is just my brother."

"Brother."

Cole chewed on the word slowly, his eyes darkening with something unreadable. "Sounds so intimate, doesn't it?"

His grip tightened slightly. "Cindy, you barely ever call me 'babe' anymore. You always claim you're too shy for pet names, yet you seem perfectly comfortable being so sweet with someone else."

My eyes widened. I couldn't believe such insulting words were coming out of his mouth.

This was the man who used to call me his innocent angel, untouched by the world. Whenever anyone cursed around me in the past, he would instinctively cover my ears and whisper, Cindy, don't listen.

A sharp pain pierced my chest.

Seeing the redness rimming my eyes, Cole froze. A flash of regret crossed his face.

He opened his mouth to say something.

But in the next second, my phone started ringing.

The name Gabriel flashed relentlessly on the screen.

I turned away from Cole immediately and answered it. Behind me, I heard a self-deprecating scoff.

"I'm such a damn fool."

His heavy footsteps faded into the background noise of the party.

"Cindy? Is everything okay?" Gabriel asked, instantly picking up on the tremor in my voice.

I swallowed hard, forcing down the lump of acidity in my throat. "I'm fine. How is my mom?"

"Her condition is stable for now, but she'll need another round of chemo. Don't worry, Cindy. I will do absolutely everything in my power to make sure Aunt Sarah recovers."

I murmured a soft thank you and hung up.

Six months ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I ran into Gabriel at the hospital by pure chance. My mother had once been married to his father, making us step-siblings for a brief period. After their divorce, we lost touch.

I never expected him to become an oncologist.

For the past year, Cole had been suffering from severe PTSD after a horrific crash on the track. I didn't want to add to his burden, so I kept my mother's illness a secret.

Because of a few late-night calls from Gabriel, Cole became convinced I was cheating.

He started making snide remarks, turning paranoid. He even started showering other women with attention just to get back at me.

Now, he had overcome his trauma and won the championship. I decided it was time to tell him the truth.

I took a deep breath, calming my racing heart.

Suddenly, a loud commotion drew my attention to the other side of the room.

I looked over just in time to see Cole gently wiping red wine off Sienna's dress with a napkin. He then looked up, glaring fiercely at a woman holding a wine glass.

"An accident? Are you blind?" Cole snarled.

The woman stamped her foot in frustration.

Sienna waved her hands frantically, her voice trembling. "I'm fine, really. I can clean it myself."

She grabbed the napkin, dabbing at her dress. She said she was fine, but huge tears began rolling down her cheeks.

Cole immediately panicked. "Hey, don't cry. I'll make her pay for this, okay?"

He stepped forward, his eyes cold as ice as he stared the woman down. "No one bullies my people and gets away with it."

The woman panicked. "It wasn't me! She bumped into me!"

When Cole got angry, he lost all sense of reason. Afraid he would cause a scene that would ruin his career, I rushed forward and grabbed his arm.

"Cole, calm down. Don't make this a big deal."

He violently yanked his arm out of my grasp. His voice was absolute zero.

"Since when is my business any of yours?"

My hand hung suspended in the air.

The entire room fell dead silent.

Everyone in Coles inner circle knew how much he adored me.

Back in high school, we lived on opposite sides of the city.

One winter night, I casually mentioned over the phone how much I was craving warm cinnamon rolls.

He drove across the entire city in the freezing cold just to bring them to me.

When he arrived, shivering but beaming, he pulled a warm paper bag from inside his leather jacket. "Almost burned my chest off keeping these warm for you."

Seeing my tears, he panicked. "Cindy, why are you crying? I was joking, they weren't hot at all!"

When it came time for college applications, he handed the decision to me. "Wherever Cindy wants me to go, I'll go. You own me for life."

His friends used to tease him, calling him my loyal puppy.

He just smiled, completely unbothered. "It's my absolute honor."

The memory burned. The back of my hand, where he had slapped it away, stung. My chest felt tight, as if the air was being sucked out of the room.

I lowered my hand and stared at him, my voice steady. "Cole, I'm saying this one last time. Stop making a scene."

He didn't even glance at me. He took Sienna's hand, stepped forward, and addressed the terrified woman.

"Get on your knees, apologize to Sienna, and I might let this slide."

Cole wasn't just the hottest star in the racing world. He was the sole heir to the wealthy family behind the circuit. This woman couldn't afford to cross him.

Humiliated, she dropped to her knees, apologized to a crying Sienna, and ran off in tears.

Cole patted Sienna's head with sickening tenderness. "Don't cry. It's no big deal."

Whispers began to spread through the crowd like wildfire.

"He really seems to like that therapist."

"Is the golden couple finally over?"

"To be fair, Sienna stuck by him through his worst year. Hard times reveal true love."

"Yeah, I haven't seen Cindy do a single thing for him lately."

Cole heard every word. He raised an eyebrow at me, his eyes saying: See? Everyone agrees with me.

I sighed. "Cole, we need to talk. I have something to tell you."

Seeing the seriousness on my face, he shrugged and started walking toward me. But Sienna suddenly grabbed his arm.

She clutched her stomach, her face turning pale.

Cole's demeanor shifted instantly. He caught her as she stumbled. She whispered something in his ear, and without a second of hesitation, he scooped her up in his arms.

"Cole!" I shouted after him.

He ignored me completely, striding out of the venue as if he were deaf.

My heart felt like it was being plunged into a bucket of ice water. Cold and suffocating.

The sympathetic looks from the crowd felt like slaps across my face.

Cole used to say, The world is big, but Cindy is the biggest. Even if you wanted my life, it's yours.

Yet now, he was leaving me behind for someone else.

Early the next morning, Cole returned home, looking exhausted.

He spotted me sitting on the living room sofa. He paused, noticing the dark circles under my eyes.

"Didn't sleep at all?"

"Cole, we need to talk."

"Fine. Talk. What is it?"

He collapsed onto the opposite sofa, his gaze burning into me.

"You've misunderstood everything between me and Gabriel. I've been in contact with him because my mother is sick, and he's her doctor."

I poured my heart out, explaining everything in detail.

After a long silence, he tilted his head. "That's it?"

His reaction was not at all what I expected. My throat went dry. "You..."

"I thought it was something important," he chuckled. "By the way, I have some news too. I've decided to let Sienna move in. As my therapist, she needs to monitor my health twenty-four-seven."

He waved a hand toward the hallway. "Give her your room. You can take the guest bedroom."

I frowned, standing up abruptly. "Cole, what do you mean..."

"This showed up in my email," he interrupted, his voice turning cold.

A stack of photos was thrown onto the coffee table.

They were pictures of Gabriel and me meeting privately.

Sitting in a coffee shop, Gabriel's hand near my cheek. Walking down the street, Gabriel's arm around my shoulder.

And finally, sitting in a car, Gabriel appearing to kiss me.

My pupils dilated. "It's not what it looks like, Cole. You have to listen to me..."

He stood up, grabbing the back of my head. His grip was so tight his knuckles turned white.

"Your excuses are pathetic, Cindy. If you want to play the bad girl, you should take some lessons."

His lips curled into a cruel smile. "Don't worry. I'm not breaking up with you. If you want to play games, I'll play with you."

Sienna really moved in.

In the house Cole and I had shared for five years, the scent of another woman began to linger.

When we first moved in, Cole gave me the master bedroom with the best sunlight.

He had said, Our Cindy deserves the best of everything.

Now, I was kicked out, and the room was given to Sienna.

With a simple claim of being "allergic to pollen," Sienna had Cole throw away all the flowers I had carefully cultivated for years.

Sienna loved spicy food. Suddenly, every meal on the table was loaded with chili peppers, completely ignoring the fact that I couldn't handle spicy food at all.

My best friend was furious when I told her. "Why haven't you dumped him yet?"

"Cole just misunderstands me," I replied, a bitter taste in my mouth.

I firmly believed he was doing this purely out of spite.

It was just like when his mother abandoned him for another family. Years later, no matter how much she begged him to visit her, he refused. Even on her deathbed, Cole never showed up.

He was a man of extremes.

During this time, I was quietly investigating who took those photos.

The photographer was incredibly opportunistic.

Gabriel brushing a bug out of my hair was framed as him caressing my face. Gabriel pulling me out of the way of a speeding scooter was framed as him embracing me.

The most ridiculous one was the "kiss" in the car. Gabriel was just leaning over to check the side mirror, but the angle made it look like a kiss.

The motive was clear. Someone wanted to destroy my relationship with Cole.

Following the digital footprints, I finally found the person who hired the photographer.

I never expected it to be Sienna.

I found them sitting in a cafe. Sienna was taking something from the man's hands.

She smiled, a malicious glint in her eyes. "I want more photos. As many as possible. I want Cole to completely loathe that bitch Cindy."

In that moment, fury eclipsed my reason.

I marched up to their table. "So it was you who hired someone to stalk me!"

Sienna paused, looking at me with wide, innocent eyes. "Cindy? What are you talking about?"

I looked down at the flash drive she had just taken. I lunged forward to grab it, but she pulled back quickly.

"Cindy, this is mine! What are you doing!"

In the struggle, Sienna fell to the floor.

Suddenly, a furious roar echoed through the cafe.

A strong force shoved me aside. My lower back slammed hard into the sharp corner of a nearby table. The blinding pain brought instant tears to my eyes.

"Cindy, have you lost your mind!"

Cole stood protectively in front of Sienna, glaring at me with raw anger. "Why are you bullying Sienna!"

I swallowed the pain, looking at Cole with red-rimmed eyes. My voice shook with grievance. "She hired someone to stalk me! I just heard them talking about it!"

Cole frowned, looking back at Sienna for an explanation.

Sienna handed the flash drive to Cole, her eyes welling up. "I didn't do anything. This is the photographer I hired for you. He took pictures of your last race for the club's website."

The photographer immediately chimed in, opening his laptop. "You can check the drive right now, sir. We aren't lying. This crazy lady just showed up and accused me of stalking her."

Cole plugged the drive into the laptop. The screen lit up with high-quality photos of his race cars.

I was speechless. "But I heard them talking about me just a second ago. Cole, you have to believe me."

"Believe you? Why on earth would I believe you?"

"Because you're too busy sneaking around with other men?"

Cole's gaze swept over me, filled with contempt.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried perfectly to the onlookers.

Mocking, curious glances shot toward me like arrows. I felt as if I were standing naked in the middle of the room, swallowed by intense shame.

I had been in a situation like this before.

When I first started my writing career, a senior author falsely accused me of plagiarizing her work. No one dared to offend the industry giant, so they all pointed their fingers at me.

Public opinion crushed me.

At a prominent publisher's gala, everyone looked at me with disgust.

Just as I was about to flee in tears, Cole arrived like a knight in shining armor. He slammed a stack of evidence on the table for everyone to see.

He pulled me into his arms, his voice firm and unwavering. "Cindy did not plagiarize. She is the most dedicated writer I have ever met, and I will not allow anyone to slander her!"

That night, he fought the world for me.

But today, he was the one pushing me into the fire.

My heart contracted violently. For a second, I forgot how to breathe.