The Cracks Appears

POV: Leonard Knight

Leonard barely glanced at the morning headlines as his car slid through the heart of Velmont. But Miles’s silence across the seat told him enough.

“Say it,” Leonard said, not looking up from his tablet.

Miles cleared his throat. “Selena’s name is trending. For the third time this week.”

Leonard’s jaw flexed. “For what?”

“A gossip blog ran a piece claiming she’s the reason you’ve been ‘distracted’ at recent meetings. That she’s clinging to the KnightTech brand to salvage her father’s declining label. Another insinuated your marriage is a PR stunt.”

Leonard’s eyes finally lifted. “Based on?”

“Speculation. Cassandra’s fingerprints are all over it. Quiet leaks to the right sources. Nothing hard to trace, but enough to stain.”

Leonard closed his tablet and set it aside.

He should’ve expected this.

Cassandra didn’t throw tantrums. She orchestrated takedowns.

And Selena—Selena hadn’t asked for any of it.

The thought struck him harder than he expected. She’d walked into this marriage with eyes wide open, but this? This wasn’t part of the deal.

“What did Selena say?” he asked quietly.

“She hasn’t commented. She’s… handling it,” Miles replied, choosing his words with care.

Leonard nodded once, but something in his chest coiled tighter.

The car pulled up to the KnightTech building, cameras flashing as always. Selena had avoided the press since the wedding. Let him take the front.

But today, she was there—waiting by the entrance in a powder blue coat, chin lifted, expression calm.

For someone raised on magazine covers, she wore discomfort like a well-tailored glove.

“Mrs. Knight!”

“Selena, any comments on the rumors?”

“Is your marriage to Mr. Knight purely business?”

She didn’t flinch. She didn’t stop.

She simply stepped forward and took Leonard’s arm.

He didn’t expect it, didn’t prompt it. But she did it anyway.

A silent statement: I’m not hiding.

And he found himself… impressed.

Inside the elevator, silence stretched between them. She adjusted the sleeve of her coat, not meeting his eyes.

“You didn’t have to come today,” he said finally.

“I did,” she replied, soft but steady. “If I don’t show my face, it looks like I have something to hide.”

Leonard studied her. The lift doors slid closed. “You’re not used to this kind of scrutiny.”

Selena gave a half-smile. “Actually, I am. Just not this kind.”

He frowned.

“In fashion, we get called fake, shallow, privileged. But this?” she exhaled. “This feels more… calculated.”

He didn’t speak.

She turned to him. “Is it Cassandra?”

He met her gaze. For a second, he thought of denying it. But she deserved more than evasion.

“Yes.”

Selena nodded slowly, unsurprised. “She’s good at playing innocent.”

“So are you,” he said quietly.

Selena blinked. “Was that a compliment?”

“An observation.”

But it was a compliment. He hadn’t meant to say it aloud.

The elevator chimed.

As they stepped out, a passing assistant greeted them, her eyes flickering between them with more curiosity than respect.

Selena noticed.

“I can handle whispers,” she said under her breath. “But I won’t let them define me. Or us.”

Us.

A word that felt foreign in his world.

Leonard paused. “You shouldn’t have to handle them at all.”

Selena looked at him. “You didn’t marry a shadow, Leonard. And I’m not going to act like one.”

He almost smiled.

Almost.

By afternoon, the press storm hadn’t died—but Selena didn’t retreat. She attended a partner luncheon, made small talk with investors, even smiled when someone clumsily mentioned “young love.”

Leonard watched from across the room, arms crossed.

She was polished. Charming. Effortlessly poised.

But he saw the tightness in her jaw, the slight tremble in her fingers when she set her glass down.

And he realized—she was performing.

Not for the media.

For him.

Because this marriage wasn’t just hers to survive—it was his, too.

That evening, back at the penthouse, he found her in the study, curled on the window seat with a book she wasn’t reading.

He leaned against the doorway. “Tiring day?”

Selena glanced up. “It’s been worse.”

He raised an eyebrow.

She offered a weak smile. “Okay, that’s a lie.”