The look Rex gave her was heavy, loaded with the kind of disdain n usually reserved for cockroaches. Elodie didn’t need a manual to translate it. You’re trash. Sienna’s a saint. She’d seen that look a thousand tis.
So she didn’t flinch. She didn’t drop her eyes. She just stared right back, cold and empty, then deliberately looked away as if he were a piece of uninteresting architecture.
Her heels clicked sharply on the marble as she walked past them. She walked parallel actually, close enough that her shoulder almost brushed Rex’s arm, treating them like they were invisible furniture.
Rex actually froze mid-step.
He’d expected sha. A guilty flush, averted eyes, sothing. He hadn’t expected this glacial indifference. It threw him off balance. A sneer tugged at his mouth. Unbelievable, that’s what his face said. The audacity.
Logan Brown, trailing behind like a lost puppy, looked confused. He watched Elodie strut past, then looked at his daughter, waiting for a reaction.
Sienna didn’t give one. Her steps didn’t falter. If anything, her spine straightened. She just kept walking, her gaze fixed on the revolving doors ahead.
Outside, the heat of the day was dying. And there, leaning against the hood of a matte-black SUV, was Dante.
He was checking his watch, looking bored and dangerous. When he looked up and saw the group erging, his eyes flicked over them. He saw Rex. He saw Logan. He saw Sienna.
And he saw Elodie.
His eyes t hers for a fraction of a second. No smile. No nod. Just a blank assessnt, like he was checking traffic before pulling out. Then his gaze slid off her and locked onto Sienna. The change was instantaneous. The boredom evaporated, replaced by a sharp intensity.
Elodie felt her stomach twist with a sick, familiar lurch.
Don’t look. Don’t you dare look.
She kept her head high, walked straight to her silver coupe, and slid into the driver’s seat. She punched the start button, the engine roaring to life a little louder than necessary.
As she pulled out of the slot, she had to pass them. Her eyes darted to the side mirror.
Dante had moved. He wasn’t leaning anymore. He was right there, hand on the back door of the SUV, pulling it open for Sienna. He said sothing, and Sienna looked up at him with that soft, fragile look. He waited until she was settled, his hand brushing a stray hair from her face, before he shut the door.
Elodie slamd her foot on the gas. The tires screeched slightly as she rged into traffic.
Johnny flew in Friday afternoon. He tossed his bag on the floor and flopped onto the sofa.
"Rex Hardin?" he asked, after Elodie had given him the five-minute debrief. "The guy who looked at you like you killed his puppy?"
"The very sa," Elodie said, not looking up from her laptop.
Johnny laughed. It was the laugh he used when he decided to crush soone’s stock price. "Perfect. In that case, we don’t need to cooperate with him anymore. It’s better to avoid seeing him and getting annoyed. Tell procurent to blacklist him."
"Already done," she said.
"Good girl."
Saturday afternoon. The sun was slicing through the blinds. The dress for the banquet was laid out on the bed, it was a slash of erald silk.
Bzzt. Bzzt.
The phone on the nightstand vibrated.
It was Liora. Elodie stared at the na. The screen went dark. Then, ten minutes later.
It rang again. She let it ring. And ring. And ring until it went to voicemail.
She wasn’t angry. She wasn’t sad. She just felt... static. A radio tuned between stations.
Liora had called three tis this week. Elodie hadn’t answered once. She told herself it was for the best. The kid was better off without her mucking things up. But every ti the phone buzzed, her chest got tight.
This ti, it wasn’t a call. It was a text.
Liora: Mom? Nonna is making lasagna. I saved you a piece. Are you coming to dinner?
Elodie picked up the phone. Her thumb hovered over the screen.
Don’t reply, the logical part of her brain said. If you reply, she’ll think there’s hope. Be the bad guy. It’s cleaner this way.
But then another text ca through.
Liora: Dad said I should keep trying. He said if I call enough, you’ll eventually pick up. Is that true?
Elodie’s breath hitched.
She dropped the phone face down on the mattress. The erald dress shimred in the sunlight, looking cold and beautiful and completely empty. She sat on the edge of the bed, put her head in her hands, and for the first ti all week, she let herself feel like garbage.
EARLIER THAT AFTERNOON
The master bedroom was a ss of discarded clothes. Dante stood in front of the floor-length mirror, adjusting the cuffs of his tuxedo jacket.
On the bed, Liora lay on her stomach, kicking her legs in the air, her socks sliding down her ankles.
"Dad," she said, twisting her head to look at him. "Are you going to pick up Aunt Sienna soon?"
Dante’s hands stilled for a fraction of a second. "Yes."
"Then you’ll co back early tomorrow and take to play?"
"Okay."
Ten minutes later, the front door clicked shut.
8:00 P.M.
The Grand Ballroom of the St. Regis was a galaxy of chandeliers and champagne flutes. The hum of conversation was just a low, sophisticated thrum.
Then the double doors opened.
The hum didn’t die, but it shifted. Heads turned. Conversations paused mid-sentence.
Dante Wilson stood in the doorway. He wore black tie like it was a second skin, his expression unreadable, his presence sucking all the oxygen out of the room.
But it was the woman on his arm who drew the eye.
Sienna wore a gown the color of crushed rubies. It clung to her fra, the silk shimring with every breath. She looked pale, ethereal, like a ghost haunting a ballroom.
Dante leaned down, whispering sothing in her ear. Sienna smiled, it was just a small, shy thing and squeezed his arm.
The ballroom was already humming when Harry, Levi, and their group arrived, drinks in hand, scanning the room. Near the entrance, Rex, Jimmy, and Yves had just set down their coats and were doing the sa.
The atmosphere shifted.
Dante and Sienna had walked in.
Rex’s eyes locked onto Sienna instantly, the cynicism in his face lting into sothing raw and admiring. She was wearing ruby red, a striking contrast to the sea of black tuxedos.
"Is that Raven?" Jimmy murmured, nodding toward the couple.
Yves followed his gaze and let out a low whistle. "Yes. She’s gorgeous and captivating, right?"
Jimmy looked at her for a mont longer, taking in the pale skin, the dark hair, the way she held herself like she might break and then deliberately turned away. He took a sip of his drink. "Doesn’t matter. She’s Dante’s."
Matteo’s influence was undeniable. It was physical. People seed to part for him before he even reached them. Within minutes, he and Sienna were swallowed by a crowd of suits and silk, a vortex of handshakes and forced smiles.
That’s when the double doors opened again.
Johnny. And Elodie.
They were fashionably, painfully late. Harry, watching from the sidelines, narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t been sure Elodie would show. She hated these things. But there she was, hanging off Johnny’s arm.
Levi, standing next to Harry, felt his stomach do a complicated flip. He hated her. God, he hated her. But he couldn’t deny the way the light caught the sharp line of her jaw, the clean, captivating aura she had that made everyone else in the room look like smudged charcoal sketches.
All that glitters is not gold, Levi thought, forcing himself to look at his shoes.
Rex had seen them too. The admiration for Sienna vanished, replaced by a sneer so fast it looked painful.
Yves, however, was still staring, awestruck. "Wait, who is that with Johnny? She’s... wow. She’s really sothing."
Rex made a sound of disgust in his throat. "That’s Elodie Miller. Don’t waste your ti."
"The one from Cole?" Yves asked, surprised. "She doesn’t seem the type to..."
"To what?" Rex snapped. "To be a viper? Trust . I saw it two days ago. She looked Sienna right in the eye after humiliating her and walked away like she was stepping over trash."
Yves looked genuinely confused. "No way. She looks too classy for that. Maybe there’s so history between her and Miss Brown that we don’t know about?"
"I don’t care if they were sisters in a past life," Rex spat, turning his back on her. "Just because there’s a grudge doesn’t an she can take it out on innocent people. It’s pathetic."
Jimmy stayed neutral, swirling his scotch. "Well, she’s here. And she’s with Johnny Gray. So maybe keep your voice down."
Over by the bar, the current was just as strong.
Cole was the hot topic of the year. Everyone wanted a piece of Johnny. He moved through the crowd like a politician, shaking hands, laughing at jokes. Elodie stood half a step behind him, silent, her expression bored but her eyes missing nothing.
"Mr. Gray, you’re killing it! The CUAP project was genius!" soone shouted.
"Johnny, when’s the IPO? You gotta let us in!"
"Is it true you’re moving into Bellini Pack territory?"
Johnny held up his hands, grinning that shark grin. "Whoa, whoa, easy. You’re all going to make blush. Cole’s success today is the result of our entire team’s efforts."
He scanned the crowd, found Elodie leaning against a pillar, and crooked a finger at her. She pushed off the pillar and walked over, smooth as oil.
Johnny draped an arm around her shoulders. The crowd went quiet. They all knew she was his right hand, but they didn’t know what she did. They didn’t know her true identity.
"Especially Elodie," Johnny said, his voice carrying. "Her contribution is indispensable."
A ripple of whispers. She was ghost engineer. The one who solved the unsolvable.
"Whether referring to the previous CUAP or the two recent projects, the core technology has been handled by her," Johnny added, leaning into the mic soone was holding. "Though her identity can’t be disclosed, emphasizing her importance is still acceptable."
He looked at Elodie. She didn’t smile. She just gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
From across the room, Rex watched the scene, his face stone.
"Elodie?" Yves choked on his drink. "That’s Elodie? The tech genius is... her?"
"It explains it," Jimmy said quietly. "The arrogance. Smart people are always arrogant."
"She’s not smart," Rex lied, his jaw tight. "She’s just cruel."
But the damage was done. The room was buzzing. Elodie Miller wasn’t just Johnny’s girlfriend. She was the brain. And as she turned to whisper sothing in Johnny’s ear, catching Rex’s stare for a split second, her eyes were cold, clear, and utterly unbothered.
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