Chapter 102: The fight

JK walked over to Selen, stopping right in front of her. He reached down, gently taking her glass and setting it on the table beside her so that he could take her hands.

"The point is, the choice is yours. If Kent is a boundary you can not cross, we walk away today and we build the studio. But if you can face those ghosts, this assignment gives your kids the absolute best medical and environmental care possible, and it cements your career on an international stage." He said.

"What does your gut tell you?" He asked her. Selen looked at her very best friend, the internal chaos finally settling. She hated Kent, but she loved her children more than she feared her past.

"I told Alejandro to call the embassy. And my answer when they call back will be yes" Selen said quietly. JK nodded and squeezed her hands, his smile warm and reassuring. "Then we start packing. Let’s show England who Selen Williams is." he said with a full smile.

*****

While Selen was returning from making the life altering decision, there was a slowly growing fire in her home- both Clancy and Newton had come at the same time to see the kids and they both ended up having their long awaited confrontation.

The both of them walked on egg shells around each other from the moment Clancy returned. And now, as they stood in the dining room, they could not control themselves since the kids were not there to make them act like mature adults.

When Selen let herself into her apartment, the heavy silence she expected was entirely absent. Instead, a sharp, low voice cut through the foyer from the dining room.

"You think you can just wander in here and cross whatever line you want, Newton?" Clancy said, his voice was laced with a quiet, dangerous fury.

"She was finally finding her footing, and you had to come back into her life after everything that you have done, so you can mess with her." Newton retorted. Selen froze near the entrance of the dining room, her heart rate increasing.

She moved quietly toward the hallway, staying just out of sight. "It does not concern you, Newton," Clancy replied, his tone dismissive and perfectly cool. "What happens between Selen and me stays between us. I have been trying to win her back, and a kiss does not change that fact" he said.

"You have no say in her personal life. You are the father of her kids. Nothing more." Newton retorted. Selen’s breath hitched.

The kiss? She had spent the last forty-eight hours trying to figure it out. But it was the timeline that suddenly clicked into place, striking her like a physical blow.

Clancy had kissed her the very next evening. He had not done it out of genuine, spontaneous affection, like she had imagined. He had done it because he found out about Newton. It was a reaction. A territorial claim.

The realization turned into pure anger. She rounded the corner into the dining room, her heels clicking sharply against the hardwood.

Both men snapped their heads toward her.

Clancy stepped back, his eyes widening slightly, while Newton maintained his guarded, aristocratic composure.

"Selen," Clancy started, taking a step forward. "How long have you-" but she interrupted him

"Shut up, Clancy," Selen snapped, her voice shaking with anger. She marched straight toward him, her eyes flashing with anger.

"You kissed me. The day after he did. And all this time I thought it was because you actually because you genuinely something real. But you did not, did you? You only did it because he did it first. It was a competition to you."he said.

Clancy’s jaw tightened. "That is not true, Selen. I was trying to show you that I was-"

"You kissed her?" Newton asked with a shocked and angry expression. "Selen, are you okay?" He asked and took a step toward her but she put her hand forward, signaling him. He then halted in his steps.

"What is that supposed to mean? Selen, is that the man you want to be with?" Clancy asked her. He was angry that the first reaction from anyone, even if it was Newton, after hearing that he kissed her was to ask if she was okay.

Selen interrupted in a harsh laugh. "If I wanted to be with Newton, I would be with Newton! At least he does not hide behind some pathetic excuse of protecting me when he’s just trying to score points!" she whispered-yelled at him.

The words spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them. The room went dead silent. Selen’s heart dropped as she realized exactly how it sounded. By trying to weaponize Clancy’s hypocrisy, she had accidentally insinuated that she actually wanted to be with Newton.

Newton’s posture straightened immediately, a faint, victorious glimmer appearing in his dark eyes. Clancy looked as if he had been struck, his expression hardening into pure betrayal.

Before either of them could speak and twist her words any further, Selen threw her hands up, cutting the suffocating tension in the room.

Clancy looked down. He knew he had lost his chance the moment he let his rivalry with Newton dictate his actions.

Newton, however, did not look defeated at all. He remained quiet, his eyes locked onto Selen as she gathered her things from the table. Her angry declaration from moments earlier was still echoing perfectly in his mind- "If I wanted to be with Newton, I would be with Newton".

To Newton, her yelling was not a rejection of him. It was a tactical retreat from Clancy. She had defended him in the heat of the argument, and in his mind, that meant the truth had finally slipped out. She had chosen him, she just was not ready to admit it to Clancy yet.

Selen caught the subtle, knowing look on Newton’s face and felt a chill run down her spine, realizing the dangerous assumption he was making. But she did not have the energy to fight him on it now.

She had an international relocation to manage, three seven-year-olds to announce the news to, and a skeleton-filled county named Kent waiting for her.