Chapter 269
Chapter 269:
I didn’t flinch. I sat on the sleek, modernist sofa, my legs crossed at the ankle, and lifted my paper cup of lukewarm water to my lips. There were no crystal glasses here, no sparkling water with lime. This was a holding pen for corporate warfare, and I was the one holding the keys. Stark fluorescent lighting hummed overhead, a sharp contrast to the heat of the anger I knew was about to spill into the room.
Dominic Thorne stepped through the doorway first. He didn’t look like a man entering a room; he looked like a storm front making landfall. His jaw was set so hard I could see the muscle ticking beneath the skin, a rhythmic pulse of suppressed violence. He wore his tailored suit like armor, but his eyes were wild, sweeping the room until they landed on me.
He didn’t speak. He just jerked his head to the side.
A bodyguard shoved Seraphina Miller into the room.
She stumbled, her high heels catching on the industrial gray carpet. She pitched forward, catching herself on the arm of a mesh office chair before she could hit the floor.
She looked diminished. The Seraphina I knew—the one who preened for cameras and clung to Liam’s arm like a decorative vine—was gone. In her place was a woman whose designer dress was wrinkled, whose hair was fraying at the edges, and whose eyes were wide with a terror that felt, for the first time, genuine.
She clutched her Hermes bag to her chest as if it contained her last remaining organ. Her knuckles were white, the skin stretched tight over bone.
“Sit,” Dominic barked at her.
Seraphina flinched as if he’d struck her. She didn’t sit. She stood frozen, her gaze bouncing between Dominic’s furious face and my impassive one.
Dominic checked his watch. It was a Patek Philippe, worth more than the funding for the entire trainee program. “I don’t have all day, Seraphina. You have a debt to settle. And I have a board meeting to salvage p>
“Dom, please,” she whispered, her voice cracking. She tried to summon tears, blinking rapidly, her lower lip trembling in that practiced, pitiful way that used to make Liam melt. “She set me up! I didn’t mean to p>
Dominic leaned in close to her. He didn’t yell. He dropped his voice to a whisper that carried more threat than a scream ever could. “Your mother’s gambling debt in Macau is currently sitting at three million. The sharks there don’t take payment plans. They take fingers p>
The color drained from Seraphina’s face like a magic trick. She let out a small, strangled sound.
“Apologize,” Dominic commanded. “Now p>
𝗥𝘦𝗮𝗱 𝘸𝗶𝘁𝗁оut іո𝘵еr𝗿𝗎𝗽𝘵iо𝘯𝘴 𝗈n 𝖻𝘦.𝖼𝗈𝗺
I finally looked up, setting my paper cup down on the laminate table. I arched one eyebrow, waiting.
Seraphina turned to me. Her eyes were filled with venom—a hatred so pure it was almost impressive—but her survival instinct was stronger. Her knees bent. Slowly, agonizingly, she lowered herself toward the floor.
Thud.
Her knees hit the thin carpet. It wasn’t graceful. It was the heavy, clumsy collapse of pride.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, staring at the generic pattern of the rug.
I picked up my cup again, inspecting the rim. “I didn’t hear you. And my time is expensive, Miss Miller. Every second you waste is billed at a premium rate, and I have a dance class in twenty minutes p>
Seraphina’s head snapped up. Her face flushed a blotchy red, humiliation burning up her neck like a fever. She gritted her teeth so hard I could hear them grind.
“I said I’m sorry!” she screamed, the words tearing out of her throat.
I checked my nails. They were bare, stripped of polish per the academy’s strict dress code. “Apology accepted. Now, the compensation p>
Seraphina gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “Compensation? You want money? From me p>
Dominic raised an eyebrow, looking at me with a flicker of interest. He hadn’t expected this. He thought the humiliation was the payment.