Caesar's POV Rock bottom didn't seem so deep anymore. I was certain I could sink even lower. Camille, Julia, my past, and my present were all fighting for space in my head. I could have stayed there in that living room, feeling the whiskey Julia had given me work its way through my body, but the truth was that life kept happening beyond my personal problems. When my phone vibrated, it was a message from my grandmother. My mother was having another breakdown, and at the moment, I was the only one of her children who could still get through to her. I rushed out of the apartment. I'd text Julia later to let her know where I'd gone. My mother couldn't process my father's death. She'd poured all her strength and every conviction she had into blaming August for his death. It was a difficult, complicated, exhausting situation. When I arrived at my grandmother's house, she was waiting for me in the living room, distraught. "Hi. What's going on?" I asked, kissing my grandmother.

Camille's POV "Are you sure you want to do this?" Lucy asked, looking me over, probably assessing me. "I can do the performance alone." We were sitting in the car, which had just pulled into the parking lot, and I'd spent the entire drive staring out the window. "No. He's not going to ruin this for me, too." "You need to focus..." "I am focused. We're going to blow them away. Both of us, actually. I'm sure it'll be a success. The first of many performances." Lucy smiled and nodded, but she still looked concerned. I couldn't stop thinking about Caesar, no matter how hard I tried. For the past few days, I'd been fighting myself just to forget he existed. What happened at the bar had gone beyond anything I could have imagined, anything I could ever forgive. After the shock of seeing Caesar standing right there in front of me, and on top of that, demanding to know who the man beside me was as if he had any right to an explanation, things only got worse when the other woman

Camille's POV "No, you're not doing this!" Lucy shot back, her voice echoing off the walls of my messy bedroom. "Get up right now, put on something that makes you look like a goddess, and go to Lush. You're going to tell them yes. You're going to keep working there, and more than that, you're going to demand a raise." "Keep your voice down, you lunatic. My mother will hear you, or worse, my nosy cousin." "You heard me." She said it again, this time in a whisper. "You're not giving up." She said it with a conviction I didn't have. The truth was, I had nothing left. I was falling apart. Lucy had heard every detail of my history with Caesar, from the moment he entered my life to the disaster in his office. After leaving his office, I'd run home, buried myself under the sheets, and cried until my head started pounding. It was the kind of crying you keep hidden, muffled into a pillow. The kind of grief you carry for things that never even got the chance to exist, yet somehow hur

Caesar's POV From the shadows of my office, I monitored Lush through the security screens. The club was buzzing. Camille and her friend's performance had breathed new life into the place, and the crowd was already looking forward to Lucy's solo performance later that night. I watched Camille behind the bar. Things were frantic, a choreographed kind of chaos that she handled flawlessly. I felt proud of her. She wasn't just excellent at running the bar. She'd also put on an incredible pole-dancing performance. Unfortunately, I'd ruined the final moment, but I was certain her next performances would be a success, and I had no intention of getting in her way. When Fabian told me she'd agreed to keep the job, I felt an immediate sense of relief, followed by a pang of frustration with myself. I missed the days when our connection had been an easy friendship, without the weight of complications I'd created myself. To avoid gossip or an atmosphere that might drive away my best employee

Camille's POV Under the stage lights and the deep bass that made the floor vibrate, I wasn't the betrayed woman. I was nothing but movement, strength, and control. But after the final performance of the night, as the sweat cooled on my skin, reality came rushing back. The reality I'd been trying to pretend didn't exist. I walked over to the bar to start my second shift. The place was packed. Lush attracted all kinds of people. Men in expensive suits looking to forget about the financial markets, young people drawn in by the promise of a good time. On performance nights, the crowd grew even larger, including women who enjoyed trying out the pole with Lucy's help. Behind the bar, I prepared drinks with mechanical efficiency, completely focused on the orders. But in the end, it didn't matter how hard I tried to escape it. I couldn't forget that Caesar was there, like a shadow at the back of the room. I didn't need to look directly at him to know his eyes were fixed on me, and kn