Sweet Hatred Chapter 208: Cold

His voice stopped . Colder than usual.

I turned around, keeping my face still even though my stomach twisted in that stupid way it always did around him.

He didn’t look at .

He just walked past and said, "Follow ."

No pause. No softness. No question.

Just a command and my feet moved without my permission.

We reached his office. He sat down. I didn’t.

I stood there with my arms crossed, trying not to show how my skin was screaming, how just being in the sa room as him made everything ache.

"Why did you call in?" I asked keeping my voice as neutral as possible.

He slid a file across the table.

"New project," he said. "You’ll coordinate the next phase of the Lexum-Mira integration. I want proposals by Friday."

My heart, which had been stupidly hoping for sothing, anything... else, deflated like a balloon punched in the gut.

Lexum-Mira.

That was it? No teasing or purposely trying to get in my nerves.

I took the file. Didn’t let my face fall. Didn’t let him see the way disappointnt hit like a truck.

"I understand."

He didn’t look up. He just nodded. "Good." That was it. That was all.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Nothing. Dismissed."

That hurt more than it should have. I turned and walked out before I could crumble. I didn’t look back.

I told myself I had no right to feel anything. That this—this—was what it was always supposed to be. Just work. Just the job.

I was his employee.

He was my boss.

That’s all.

But I felt it.

In my bones. In my skin. In my throat and lungs and spine. The ache of it. The way he looked at like I was nothing. And maybe I was. Maybe that’s what I’d always been.

I went through the rest of the day on autopilot. Didn’t feel my hands typing. Didn’t feel my feet walking. Didn’t taste the water I drank. Didn’t care.

Sarah dripped by but I could barely rember how our conversation went. Everything was fog. Everything was hollow.

Until I finally took another break, and opened the envelope.

I opened it slowly, already knowing what I’d find, and still, the mont I saw the thick cardstock, my heart sank a little deeper.

It was another invite.

Sa damn thing from yesterday. Sa gilded design. Except this ti, the eting had a different ti... and a different floor in the sa suite building.

10 p.m.

I exhaled. Loud. Tired.

What the hell was Ashlyn’s angle? I couldn’t figure her out.

Why was she pulling into this... secret rich-people gala fantasy? This masquerade cult of money, tech, power, and ritual?

I was no one. An executive assistant clinging to what was left of her dignity. This wasn’t my world. Not really.

And yet... here I was. Dragged right back in. I’d expected so dramatic-paint-Aria as the villain in every situation-kind of interaction between us but instead it was just this eerily calm yet dark observation I could sense she was doing.

I closed the envelope and stared at my phone again. My thumb hovered over Olivia’s na like a bruise I couldn’t stop poking.

I tried calling.

Sa result.

Dead air. Disconnected silence. Like I didn’t exist.

I bit down on my bottom lip until it hurt.

Then I put the phone face-down and told myself I’d figure it out later. Again. As long as she was fine wherever she was, it was okay for .

The hours blurred. I worked until my brain stopped registering the words on my screen, and only then did I look up.

9:07 p.m.

I stood up. My legs ached. My body was even more stiff and hollow and exhausted in a way no amount of rest could fix.

As I walked out of my office, I glanced at the other side.

Kael’s office was dark.

Empty.

Of course.

I paused.

For no good reason. Just... stood there for a second.

I thought of how cold his voice had been earlier. How distant. How professional. Like all those nights, all those touches, all those whispers never even happened.

Like I never happened.

And then I rembered the last ti his lips were on mine, how rough he kissed , how desperate he sounded when he told not matter how much I’d push him away, he’d always co crawling back for more.

I clenched my jaw.

"Liar," I whispered under my breath.

And I walked away.

I grabbed a taxi and made it to the suite by 9:45.

This place felt different than yesterday. Tucked away. Remote. Like it didn’t want to be found unless you already belonged.

It gave the creeps. I kind of liked that.

I stepped in and was imdiately hit with the sa scent from before, sothing expensive and musky, like black roses dipped in sin. The lighting was dimr tonight. Shadows clung to the walls. A single candle flickered on the center of the long table.

The air buzzed with quiet expectation.

My stomach cramped.

I winced.

Pulled out my phone, tapped into my period tracker app.

Five more days. That’s what it said. Five more days.

I ignored the tight pull in my belly and took a seat near the end of the table, wrapping my arms around myself, fingers tracing the sharp line of my elbow.

And then I felt her.

Ashlyn entered the room like she owned it.

She didn’t just walk—she prowled. Tall heels. Sleek pantsuit in black with a slash of red. Her hair was styled into a soft, elegant wave that scread wealth and effortlessness. She didn’t look like she worked, she looked like people bowed when she spoke.

Like Kael. Too much like Kael. She glanced at and smiled. That sly, feline smile.

"Even one step away from jumping off a cliff or shooting soone point blank" she said softly, taking the seat next to mine at the head of the table, "you still manage to look beautiful. How do you do that?"

I blinked at her.

Was that a complint?

An insult?

Or both?

I returned her smile with one of my own. Practiced. Sharp. Empty.

"Maybe I’ll finally take the jump and you can inherit my skincare routine."

Ashlyn chuckled, low and amused. "Dark. I like that."

And then I spoke again. "You know..." I drawled. "When you showed up at the office the other day, I’d expected you to have a more dramatic flare than this for soone who is sitting next to the woman who has been fucking her husband to be..."