He Never Noticed Me Until I Loved Someone Else novel Chapter 259

It wasn't that Stella was completely oblivious to his feelings.

She had sensed the subtle shifts in his behavior, the undeniable tension when he tried to pull her close.

The past few times he had attempted to steer the conversation in this direction, she had meticulously shut him down.

Because, to her, given the absolute wreckage of their relationship, dragging romance into the equation was pointless.

Jarrod didn't press her. He simply sat there, his predatory gaze completely fixed on her, a desperate, unspoken hope burning in his dark eyes.

Stella slowly lowered her gaze. "Jarrod, thank you for stepping in and defending me today, and thank you for being honest. But I can't return your feelings."

The light in Jarrod's eyes vanished, replaced by a suffocating darkness. The crushing weight returned to his chest.

"Give me a reason," he demanded smoothly.

"And don't use status and background as an excuse. I don't buy that for a second," he added quickly, cutting off her easiest escape route.

Stella took a breath and chose her words carefully. "From the very beginning, the power dynamic was broken. In the eyes of the world, being chosen by you is a miracle I should spend the rest of my life bowing in gratitude for. I despise that feeling."

She turned to look out the window again. "I am my own person. I have my own ambitions, my own breaking points. I need to be respected as an equal."

"Are you saying I've never respected you?" Jarrod's brow furrowed tightly.

Stella shook her head, turning her luminous eyes back to him. "You don't intentionally disrespect me. You just operate entirely by your own rules. You do whatever you deem correct, and you never once stop to consider if it's something I can actually live with."

She thought of how he handled Chloe. How he handled Yvette Walsh.

"I'm not trying to attack you or change who you are. I'm just pointing out that our values are inherently incompatible."

Stella let out a soft, tired sigh. "You want me to surrender every detail of my life to you. You want me to worship you, depend on you, and run to you to fix my problems. But that's not who I am. I can't provide the kind of emotional validation you demand."

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