What Could Have Been

"Some stories begin with a confession. Ours began with a Board Meeting."

Anastassia Jade Cortez is the woman everyone calls when something goes wrong.

A law graduate awaiting her second shot at the Bar, Jade has built a reputation as the company's golden standard-drafting policies, navigating crises, mentoring lawyers, and delivering speeches with the kind of confidence that commands a room.

Competence has always been her greatest strength.

It is also her safest hiding place.

Atty. Tristan Dale Carruzo prefers order.

A former law school basketball MVP turned meticulous Board Secretary, he believes in structure, professionalism, and keeping his personal life separate from his work. Known for his calm demeanor and careful judgment, Tristan is the last person anyone would expect to become the subject of office gossip.

Especially his own.

When their professional paths begin crossing through Board Meetings, policy presentations, legal matters, and an increasingly intertwined circle of colleagues, neither expects anything beyond mutual respect.

But sometimes the smallest moments leave the deepest marks.

A handout requested after saying it wasn't needed.

A souvenir carried home from another country.

A remembered injury.

A passing concern.

A conversation that lasts less than a minute.

Surrounded by eccentric coworkers, overprotective bosses, office politics, and the endless demands of corporate life, Jade and Tristan find themselves becoming familiar with someone they never intended to notice.

And perhaps that is where the most dangerous stories begin.

Not with love.

Not with promises.

But with possibility.

A story about respect, timing, ambition, boundaries, and the quiet spaces between what happened and what could have happened.

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Inspired by true events.

Because sometimes reality writes the most unbelievable stories of all.