Rejected At Christmas, Chosen By His Billionaire Best Friend

Wrapped in Sebastian's coat, Cora finally broke. The composure she had held together inside the house shattered the second the door closed behind her.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, and her shoulders shook violently as tears streamed down her face. "I am sorry you have to see me like this."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Sebastian replied, his gray eyes softened with quiet concern as he looked at her.

He did not try to fix it. He did not offer empty reassurance. He just stood beside her in the falling snow, and his steady presence became the only thing keeping her upright.

For the first time that night, someone was focused on what she needed instead of what Eyan wanted.

"Let me drive you home," he offered after a while, "You should not be alone right now."

Cora nodded, her lips trembled as she wiped her face with shaking hands.

The drive to her apartment was silent. Sebastian's driver kept his eyes on the road while his phone buzzed nonstop in the cup holder with board emails from the Brooks & Calloway Group. Even on Christmas night, the CEO's inbox never slept.

When they reached her building, Cora fumbled with her keys and nearly dropped them twice. Her hands were shaking too hard to fit the key into the lock, and her vision was blurred with tears.

Sebastian gently took them from her and opened the door for her, and that was why he went inside. He did not want to leave her sobbing alone on a dark staircase.

Inside, her apartment was still waiting for a future that no longer existed. Wrapped presents sat neatly under the tree with careful handwritten tags for Eyan, holiday recipes were taped to the fridge for the dinner she had planned to cook for him, and framed photos from happier years lined the shelves. The fairy lights were still blinking.

Cora stared at them, and her breath caught painfully in her throat.

Then she dropped to her knees and ripped the paper off the first box. "I spent months picking these," she choked, her hands shook as she tore through the wrapping with desperate force. "Months."

Sebastian knelt beside her without a word, and he opened a garbage bag and held it out for her. He did not tell her to stop. He did not tell her to keep anything for later. He understood that she needed to clean away the life she thought she was building, and he simply shared the burden.

When the floor was finally clear, exhaustion hit her all at once and she collapsed onto the couch. Her eyes fluttered shut before she could even say goodnight, Sebastian pulled the blanket from the armrest over her shoulders.

He stayed on the far side of the living room for another hour, answering a few urgent emails on his phone while he made sure she was truly asleep and breathing evenly.

He slipped out just after five in the morning so she would not wake up embarrassed to find him there. The doorman in the lobby recognized him immediately.

An hour after he left, Cora's own phone lit up on the coffee table and woke her.

It was a photo from Vanessa. Vanessa was lounging in Eyan's penthouse wearing the expensive watch Cora had worked overtime to buy for his birthday, and she was smiling proudly into the camera.

The caption read, "Looks even better on the woman he actually loves."

Cora stared at it for a long second, and her jaw tightened as a sharp flash of hurt crossed her face. Then, instead of replying, she hit block. It was a small decision, but it was the first time that night she chose to protect her own peace.

Later, another message came through.

It was from Eyan. "Thank you for handling tonight maturely. Let's not make things difficult. I want us all to move forward peacefully," he texted.

Cora read it twice, and her eyes hardened with cold disbelief. There was no apology and no concern for how she was coping. He was more worried about his image as the CFO than the pain he had caused.

She deleted the message without answering, and she refused to give him even a single word of comfort.

The following morning, her phone would not stop vibrating. Cora sat up in bed with her heart racing, and for a painful second she thought Eyan had finally changed his mind.

It was not Eyan. It was dozens of calls from unknown numbers, DM requests, and journalists tagging her on X.

Overnight, the video of Sebastian leaving her building at dawn had gone viral.

Cora opened the first article with shaking hands, and her face drained of color as she read the headline.

"Has CEO Sebastian Brooks Fallen for His Best Friend's Woman?”