LOVE IS A DEBATE : RIVALS TO ROMANCE (Novella)🥀

Hi, my name is Adriana Belle Valencourt. I'm twenty-four, with two sisters - and yes, my name probably sounds familiar.

That's because I'm a Valencourt. My family owns Valencourt corp / ValenBeauty - the empire behind half of what lines your vanity shelf. Skincare, fragrance, luxury toiletries. If it helps someone look, feel, or smell like perfection, we sell it.

My official title is Strategic Development, for now..I have my own goals for fashion. But for now that means I spend my days in glass towers, wrapped in fashionable tailored suits or dresses, mastering the delicate choreography of legacy and profit.

To the press, I'm "Belle" - poised, calm and predictably perfect.

The truth? Beneath the grace, I'm stubborn, outspoken, and far more interested in launching my own ethical fashion line than deciding how to sell our new body lotion, I mean I love skincare but I want to expand.

Before the boardrooms - before the brand deals and press releases.. my real battleground was under fluorescent lights, stadiums and the faint buzz of microphones.

Debate tournaments. Model UN.

That's where I learned to fight... mentally. Using my wit, intelligence.

And that's where I met Beckett Ashborne.

I remember the first time I saw him - Ashborne Academy's golden prodigy, already infamous for dismantling seniors twice his age with calm, surgical precision.

He was leaning against a podium, suit immaculate, expression unreadable.

When I introduced myself, he didn't shake my hand. He smirked and said, "I hope you are better than my last opponent."

I arched a brow. Then I laughed - and told him "I hoped he'd brought better arguments than recycled arrogance."

That set the tone for the next four years.

Every tournament after that became our ritual - Ashborne versus Valencourt, we were opposites. Purely logical, statistics, fast talker. He knew exactly what to say. versus me with the passion and brains. Who says it's one or the other? I knew it wasn't.

He'd attack with precision; I'd counter with fire.

The judges called it rivalry.

Our friends called it tension.

For me it was just it was fun...a real challenge and he actually did drive me crazy sometimes. With his arrogance.

He was the only person who saw my mind first, not my face.

And I was the only person who could keep up with his.

It was almost perfect - until almost a year ago.

Until he turned his stupid brilliant mind against me. I thought it was just fun..I must've been wrong.

I thought that was the end of it. I thought I'd never have to see him again - that the memory of his voice, that precise tone that could slice through any argument, would fade with time.

But the universe or maybe just corporate irony - had other plans for me.

Two months ago, ValenBeauty entered a partnership with Ashborne International Holdings.

A merger of luxury and legacy. Beauty meets hospitality.

And in the press conference lineup for the upcoming Global Sustainability Summit, right next to my name... was his.

Beckett Ashborne.

The one man I swore I'd never debate again.

And I didn't know it then - standing under those stage lights, adjusting my blazer, pulse steady, smile rehearsed - that this time, it wouldn't just be a debate.

It would be a war.

The kind that leaves you changed.

The kind that teaches you the difference between being right and being understood.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This isn't just a story about rivalry.

It's about everything that came after it.

About how one argument can unravel - or redefine - an entire life.

This is my story.