The Seductive Pretty Chapter 123: I Still Won’t Forgive You

Chapter 123: Chapter 123: I Still Won’t Forgive You

Chapter 123: I Still Won’t Forgive You

Serena Blackwood turned her head toward the nightstand.

The room had been cleaned until almost no trace of anyone else remained. The curtains had been drawn to the proper angle, the humidifier whispered at a discreet distance, and the bedding had been tucked back into place with the house staff’s usual quiet precision. Only one thing broke the illusion that she had slept through the night alone.

A glass of water sat beside the lamp, half-empty.

Elias had been here.

The thought had barely settled before Serena’s throat tightened. She coughed hard enough that the pain pulled through her ribs, and as she bent forward with one hand pressed to her chest, a knock came at the door.

She swallowed against the rawness in her throat. "Come in."

The door opened. The house manager stepped inside, composed as always, her expression arranged into the careful neutrality of someone who had worked too long inside wealthy homes to react quickly to anything.

When Serena saw her, a faint disappointment moved through her eyes. It was small enough that most people would have missed it, but in the next breath it curdled into anger.

"When did he leave?"

The house manager knew exactly who Serena meant. In this house, when Serena used that tone, "he" could only be one person.

"Mr. Kane left a short while ago, Miss Blackwood. Less than half an hour."

Serena froze for a second. "Before that, he stayed in this room?"

"Yes, ma’am."

The answer dropped into her chest and put out the heat there almost at once.

So he really had stayed until she woke up.

She looked away, her fingers tightening in the sheets. Her fever had left her skin hot and oversensitive, and for a moment the room felt too bright despite the shaded windows. She could almost picture him sitting where the water glass stood, bored and sharp-tongued, watching her like this illness of hers was another ridiculous problem the universe had dumped at his feet.

She asked, "Did he say where he was going?"

The house manager hesitated. "He seemed to be heading back to campus."

"Campus?" Serena pushed herself up too quickly and started coughing again. The sound broke out of her in rough bursts, dragging color into her face.

She knew Elias’s schedule. Of course she knew his schedule. He had no class today.

So why go to Westbridge?

Unless he had gone to see that girl from the Frost family again.

The thought made her expression turn ugly in a way illness could not hide. "Find me something to wear."

The house manager moved at once, but not toward the closet. She came closer to the bed instead, stopping at a respectful distance. "Miss Blackwood, the doctor specifically said you need to rest. If you keep pushing yourself, this will drag on much longer than it should."

Serena’s first instinct was to ignore her. The old reflex rose easily, because people in this house did what she told them, and there were very few situations where anyone dared to put a medical instruction between Serena Blackwood and something she wanted.

Then her body chose that moment to betray her again.

The next cough forced her back against the pillows. She pressed a hand to her mouth, furious at the weakness and at the timing of it, and lay there breathing through the burn in her throat.

After several seconds, she said, "Call Liora for me."

"Yes, ma’am."

The house manager withdrew.

Liora Voss arrived not long after, though "arrived" made it sound softer than it was. She appeared in the doorway with the unhurried confidence of someone who had never needed to rush in order to control a room. She wore a pale coat over clean, tailored clothes, her hair neat, her posture relaxed, and she stopped well away from the bed.

Serena looked at the distance between them and gave a cold smile. "Why are you standing all the way over there?"

Liora glanced at the bed, then at Serena’s fever-flushed face. "I would rather not catch whatever you have."

Serena stared at her.

The insult was so blunt that it would have been funny coming from anyone else. From Liora, it was simply Liora. Serena coughed once, more from irritation than illness this time, and the sound scraped through her throat.

"Good," Serena said hoarsely. "That makes me feel less guilty about ordering you around."

Liora leaned one shoulder against the doorframe. "What do you want now?"

"Go to Westbridge and bring Elias back." Serena’s voice had gone rough, but the command inside it remained intact. "He may have gone to see Giselle again."

Liora’s expression did not change. Her eyes lowered briefly, resting on the floor as if the carpet had become more interesting than Serena’s jealousy.

"I thought you were teaching him a lesson."

Serena heard the mockery underneath the calm words.

Yesterday, she had been furious enough to make the whole house feel it. Today, Elias had walked out as if nothing had happened, apparently free to go looking for Giselle Frost while Serena lay sick in bed with a glass of water as proof that he had once been kind enough to stay.

For once, Serena did not bite back. She waved one hand, the movement weaker than she wanted it to be. "Just go."

Liora watched her for a second.

It was hard to refuse Serena when she looked like this. Not because Serena deserved pity, and certainly not because Liora enjoyed being ordered around by her. But fever had stripped some of the gloss from Serena’s face, leaving behind something irritated, proud, and unpleasantly human.

Besides, there was another reason Liora did not say no.

"All right," she said.

At the Westbridge library, Elias Kane sat with a book open in front of him and his phone lying on the table beside his elbow.

He had no real attachment to the book. It was open because a university library required props, and because sitting in public with nothing to do invited more attention than he wanted. His attention was split between the page, the quiet scrape of chairs around him, and the lollipop tucked against the inside of his cheek.

His phone, meanwhile, had been surrendered to System Theta.

System Theta had grown disgustingly efficient at fandom labor. It checked in, boosted posts, pushed rankings, and cycled through whatever engagement rituals Seraphina Hale’s fanbase was currently committing itself to with the dead-eyed precision of a machine that did not get tired and had no shame. If Elias had actually been a devoted fan, the system alone would have been worth tens of thousands of unpaid accounts.

Possibly more, which was a depressing thing to know.

[Host, why did you come here?]

Elias kept one cheek rounded around the candy. He rolled the lollipop with his tongue, caught the sour-sweet edge of it, then reached up and pinched the plastic stick between two fingers. He drew it from his mouth with no hurry.

A thin, glossy thread broke in the air.

He sat with one leg crossed over the other, lightly rocking the lollipop between his fingers while the library’s air-conditioning hummed overhead.

Obviously, I’m waiting for someone to come apologize to me.

[Is it Liora Voss?]

Elias smiled. My baby is getting so smart.

He slipped the lollipop back into his mouth. His tongue moved against the candy again, slow enough that System Theta went silent for a beat.

The engagement speed on the phone dropped.

Elias noticed, of course. He only smiled harder.

Then System Theta caught something.

[Host, Liora Voss is actually here.]

Elias parted his lips and crushed the last piece of candy between his teeth. The crack was small, almost hidden under the library’s softened noise. He pulled the empty stick from his mouth and dropped it casually onto the floor.

A shadow fell across the table.

Someone stopped in front of him. A moment later, Liora bent and picked up the plastic stick he had thrown away.

She held it between two fingers, then tapped it once against the table in front of him. Her voice was calm enough for the library and edged enough for him alone.

"Look over there. What is that?"

Elias lifted his head.

He did not look where she told him to. He did not even pretend to be surprised to see her. Instead, he tilted his head a little, his face arranged into mild confusion, as if a beautifully dressed stranger had just interrupted his afternoon for no reason.

"Ma’am," he said, "do I know you?"

Liora went still.

That word should not have belonged to her, at least not from his mouth. It landed wrong in a way that was difficult to name. A stranger might have called her that in a lobby or a hotel corridor. A staff member might have used it to be polite. Elias using it carried something else entirely, a blade hidden under perfect innocence.

It was unfamiliar. It was also, in a way that made her jaw tighten, very familiar.

He blinked at her again. "Are you looking for someone, ma’am, or did you get lost?"

For a while, Liora said nothing.

The library remained quiet around them, but the silence between their table and the shelves had changed. This was not a conversation anymore. It was a continuation of yesterday’s fight, stripped of noise and witnesses but not of stakes.

If this counted as a cold war, then she had lost the moment she opened her mouth.

In truth, she had already known that before coming here.

Elias understood exactly what he was doing. There was no chance he had missed the meaning of her first words. He was too good at reading people for that, too good at sliding his fingers under a person’s composure and finding the loose thread. He had looked at her apology before she even gave it and decided it was not low enough.

Liora was not dressed like a student. Even at Westbridge, where money showed up in coats, watches, shoes, and the way people assumed space belonged to them, she stood out. Her clothes were too exact, her presence too adult, her face too controlled. Students nearby had already started glancing over, pretending to read while their attention kept returning to the woman standing at Elias Kane’s table.

Under their attention, Liora felt heat rise in her cheeks.

That annoyed her almost as much as Elias did.

At last, she lowered her voice. "I was wrong."

The three words left her mouth cleanly.

The instant they were spoken, the tightness in her chest eased.

Then she saw Elias looking up at her with bright amusement, and for no defensible reason, her heart missed a beat.

He said nothing.

He only reached into his pocket and took out another lollipop, the cheap kind sold in bulk at corner stores and campus vending machines, the kind that tasted like dye and sugar and left the tongue too bright. Somehow that made it suit him. Elias had always had a talent for turning low-quality things into weapons.

His long fingers peeled away the wrapper with deliberate care.

Then he crooked one finger at her. "Bend down, and I’ll forgive you."

Liora looked at him.

Around them, the library kept pretending not to watch.

She bent.

The moment she lowered herself toward him, something cool touched her mouth. Elias pressed the lollipop firmly against her lips. He did not simply offer it to her. He dragged it over her mouth in a slow, punishing circle, coating her lips with sugar while his eyes stayed lifted to hers.

Liora’s brows moved slightly. Confusion flickered through her composure, not enough to break it for anyone else, but enough for him.

Elias’s eyes curved.

Then, still smiling, he brought the same lollipop back to his own mouth and slipped it between his lips.

For a second, Liora stopped breathing.

The candy had just touched her mouth. Now it was in his.

His smile was mean enough to be almost cheerful, bright enough to make the cruelty worse. He toyed with the plastic stick between his fingers, the words blurred around the candy.

"I still won’t forgive you."

Liora stared at him.

So her apology, to him, had only been another thing he could take, play with, and turn back on her.

Elias opened his mouth slowly. The lollipop sat between his teeth, caught under the small point of one canine. He held her gaze while he bit down.

Crack.

The sound was small in the library.

To Liora, it landed like something breaking inside her chest.