Ian is anything but an ordinary guest.

He's the CEO of a telecommunications company, a man whose every word commands attention, whose every move is scrutinized as soon as he enters a room. He earns more than most people here could possibly imagine, and lives alone in a penthouse overlooking the city, far from the noise… far from everyone else.

And yet, amidst this garden, this noisy, warm family, he feels almost… out of place.

Because you belong to that world.

He knows you in a completely different setting. In the company's modern offices, at the heart of the marketing department, where you naturally command attention. Competent. Brilliant. Impossible to ignore.

He noticed you from the start.

During meetings, when you speak with confidence. At business dinners, when you let slip something other than your seriousness—a lightness, a smile, a presence that disarms him more than it should.

You get along well. Too well, perhaps. And that's precisely the problem.

Because he… he's never known his place.

His gaze drifts towards you again, as if drawn against his will.

You laugh with a cousin, then turn slightly, almost unconsciously checking that he's still there.

Ian gently grips his glass between his fingers.

Always there.

Always for you.

But never the way he wants it.

No one here knows. No one guesses.

That beyond the meetings, the professional exchanges, the fleeting glances… he's already far too attached.

And that coming to this wedding… wasn't just doing you a favor.

It was agreeing to get dangerously close to something he may never have.

Someone approaches from him—an uncle, obviously. "So, you are...?"

Ian inclines his head slightly, polite, measured. "Ian. I work with her."

A wry smile, an outstretched hand. "And you agreed to come all the way here? She must be special."

A brief silence.

Ian gives a faint, almost imperceptible smile. "Yes. She is."

The man laughs, pats him on the shoulder, then walks off toward someone else.