Chapter 358: Standing too close.
Sarah moved with unhurried steps, her heels barely whispering against the floor as she circled the room like she owned it. Like she owned me.
Her fingers trailed over the edge of my desk, grazing the neat stack of contracts, her smile small and knowing. "You vanish to Spain for weeks," she murmured, almost conversational, "dragging her away as you please, like a doll you can pull off a shelf whenever it suits you. And you think it’s fine to pretend?"
I ignored the bait, leaning back in my chair, my voice flat. "Why are you here?"
She didn’t answer. Her reflection flickered in the glass wall as she turned, her head tilting with mock innocence. "You ignored my calls Mr. Roman. Even after I warned you the first time. And then I hear— Kael Roman whisking her away again. Tell me..." her eyes sharpened, "what exactly were you up to with Aria this time?"
"It’s none of your business."
She stopped. The smile stretched into something ugly, disbelief dripping from her voice as she echoed me, softly mocking: "None of my business?"
The sweetness snapped, the mask falling away in an instant. Her eyes hardened, the air thickening as that sinister aura rolled off her in waves.
She stepped closer. Each stride deliberate, closing the distance until her perfume wrapped around me like smoke. Her voice climbed, words breaking into a jagged spiral:
"You’ve been the wall between us. From the moment you appeared, it’s been Kael this, Kael that. Do you know what it’s like to watch her eyes shift every time your name is mentioned? To know that every part of her world bends around you now? Everything has been about you."
Her voice cracked, then smoothed into a threat, low and cutting. "Sir... You shouldn’t be playing hard to get with me. Not when we’ve already shared such a blissful, passionate night together." Her lips curled. "It would be... tragic... if Aria were to ever find out."
My fists clenched, my nails cutting crescents into my palms. My voice was ice. "Aren’t you ashamed of this? To call yourself her best friend and stoop to hell."
"Yes," Sarah said easily, her tone almost serene. "And that’s exactly why I’m doing this. Because Aria means more to me than you could ever imagine. More than you’ll ever understand in your lifetime."
Confusion edged into my chest, unwelcome, twisting. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Her laugh was soft, humorless. "Don’t act dumb. You’re itching to get rid of me... I can see it. But you’re scared. Scared of how it would turn out. Scared to see Aria lose her spark again." Her eyes glimmered. "And you should be. Because if you try anything funny Sir, I’ve already prepared a video. A perfect little clip of our wild night together. Imagine Aria’s face when she sees you gripping my waist and slamming into me like your life depended on it."
The words landed like a blade. My pulse stuttered, then roared. A video.
A fucking video?
The crack in my chest hardened into steel. I rose slowly, every inch of me towering over her, my shadow swallowing her figure against the desk. My voice dropped into a lethal growl. "I could kill you right here, Sarah. Snap your neck and bury you under my office, and no one would ask a fucking question."
Her smile didn’t waver. She leaned in, her voice honey-laced poison. "But you won’t. Because you’re fucking coward. Because you know Aria has already lost too much. First her mother. Then her father—ripped from the past only to die in front of her. If her precious best friend were to die next, do you think she’d survive it? Do you think you could survive watching her shatter again?"
Silence. My chest heaved once, fury and helplessness colliding. I couldn’t dispute it. Not without lying to myself.
My tone went razor-flat. "If you have nothing meaningful to say to me, get the hell out."
Sarah tilted her head, lips curving sly. "Meaningful? Oh, sir. I’m here to give you a way out. For a price, of course."
Before I could demand her terms, the doors swung open again.
Ash stepped in.
Her sharp eyes scanned the room instantly, me standing too close to Sarah, Sarah’s body angled toward mine like she’d won something. Her gaze narrowed, suspicion flickering beneath the calm mask she wore.
"Am I interrupting?" Ash’s tone was smooth, but her eyes were blades.
I straightened immediately, cold as stone. "You are. But it doesn’t matter. We were done."
Sarah’s smile slipped back into its innocent veneer as effortlessly as breathing. She turned, strutting toward the door with a cat like ease. "Ashlyn. Always a pleasure to see you."
Ash said nothing back and simply nodded, just watched her leave, her jaw tight. The moment the doors shut, her eyes cut to me.
"Why the hell was Sarah in your office?" She didn’t bother to hide the suspicion in her voice. "Standing too close."
I forced the tension out of my shoulders, my tone clipped, precise. "Whatever you’re thinking is not the case."
Her brows lifted, arms crossing slowly. "Then tell me what I should think."
I stepped around the desk, putting the polished oak between us, every movement deliberate. "Think that we were having a discussion about work."
Ash studied me, unblinking. "That’s quite the thinking for me to do when all I saw was you letting her breathe the same air as you."
My patience frayed. "Drop it."
The command snapped through the room like a whip. Cold. Absolute.
For a moment, her jaw clenched, testing me. Then, finally, she exhaled, easing into one of the seats opposite my desk. "Fine."
Her tone cooled, businesslike. "I heard you came back from Spain. Which meant Aria must be back too. I thought about visiting her first, but I figured I’d stop here." She folded her legs, slipping seamlessly into corporate precision. "It’s time to discuss the end of our oversight on Zephyrcore."
The word cut through my head like static. Zephyrcore. Months of collaboration, strategy, sleepless nights negotiating the R&D bottlenecks—neuro-interface prototypes, endless testing, calibration cycles. And now the device was done. Completed. Fully tested. Ready for launch.
Her family and mine would still be bound by the larger investment alliance, but the oversight partnership... her and I personally steering the project through development at her personal request... was finished.
She adjusted the cuff of her blazer, her gaze sharp. "We’ve carried it through from prototype to market-ready. The launch team can handle it now. Which means, technically, we’re out. You and I. Done overseeing."
Her words rolled over me, but Sarah’s presence still clung to the room like smoke. That cloying perfume. Her threats. That video.
A wave of nausea brushed the back of my throat, the edges of my vision tightening. I locked it down with the same iron control I always had, my expression unreadable.
"Good," I said, voice steady. "Then that Chapter’s closed."
Ash tilted her head, watching me a beat longer, as if she could sense the static humming under my skin. But she didn’t push. She only leaned back, perfectly at ease, while I fought to keep the dizziness buried.
I told myself it was temporary. Just Sarah’s poison still lingering in the air.
I just had to survive the next few hours.
And I’ll see Aria.
And nothing else would matter again.