The gathering had shifted. Gone were the formal introductions and stiff pleasantries of earlier; now, the event was easing into the dinner portion of the evening. By now, the guests were around 30.
Hardy’s parents already left, leaving only the young crowd who were the selected few to attend this dinner. Why it was being organized? Alice didn’t know. And at this point, she was no longer curious about the way rich people chose to do their things.
Waitstaff began guiding guests toward the dining area in the corner, while others lingered in conversation clusters around the central room, drinks in hand and voices murmuring with politeness just sharp enough to be dangerous.
Caroline was gone too. Which was strange. Because wasn’t they hosting?
Did they by chance invite them here just to poison their food and drinks so they all die?
Don’t bla her mind for thinking things like that. Anyone who lived like her would even think worse.
The very awkward and tense exchange between Hades and Hardy had, thankfully, fizzled out, but not without leaving its imprint. A residue of sothing unsaid lingered in the air, sothing that Alice couldn’t quite shake off. Hardy hadn’t exposed her, not exactly. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to play along. But that was what made it worse. Because Hardy Cresswell didn’t do anything without a reason. At least, she believed so. He was very calculative.
And for so reason, she believed he wouldn’t hesitate to say sothing if it served him.
Several things were at stake here.
Her freedom.
Her life.
Paula’s safety.
She forced a breath past the tightness in her chest.
Thankfully, the room’s attention had shifted. Murmurs rose, footsteps softened, and the music thickened the air just enough to steal the spotlight from them. It was almost a blessing.
Hades had moved finally, no longer standing like an ominous statue in the center of the storm. A few individuals, cautious and reserved, approached him with small talk, their tones clipped and neutral. Businessn. Military types. People who understood silence and didn’t fear it. Their conversations with him were brief, heavy with subtext, and void of small talk. Just like him.
And he engaged. Briefly. Bluntly. Like a monolith offering just enough of himself to be tolerated or feared.
He wasn’t approachable.
But he didn’t need to be.
Because even when people avoided him... they watched him.
Alice found herself curious about him. She knew Hades didn’t work in the Wildfire company. So what exactly did he do? What had he been doing? Who were those henchn and especially Gavin?
As much as she wanted to tell herself that those were not her business, she could not stop her thought process.
Alice caught the way so won across the room had been not-so-subtly eyeing Hades the kind of looks that straddled admiration and hunger. But Hades didn’t spare them a single glance. He wasn’t even trying to appear disinterested. He simply wasn’t interested.
Once again, she was oddly and perhaps stupidly pleased by that.
Hehehe.
And as for her, she was still there. Still beside him. No longer saying anything, just quietly observing. Eyes occasionally flickering to Hardy, who had retreated to a drink table, deep in conversation with a tall woman in an erald gown. Every so often, he glanced her way, not too often to seem deliberate, but enough for her to notice.
anwhile, Van was flourishing. Like so prince plucked from a fairytale and dropped into a ballroom. Surrounded by a bouquet of young won, he radiated ease. His laughter punctuated the soft murmur of the room, bright and infectious. He gestured wildly at tis, made a few people giggle, and perford charm like it was second nature.
Across the room, Wilson stood closer to the shadows. He wasn’t hiding, just not begging for attention either, but he also received them. His twin, Suzy, on the other hand, sampled hors d’oeuvres like she was judging a Michelin-starred event, occasionally nodding to soone who greeted her.
She was just so... not bothered.
"I’ll go sit for a while," Alice murmured, her voice low as she leaned slightly toward Hades.
He turned to her just slightly, the way he always did, but before he could say anything, another guest approached him. A tall man, expression firm, voice low. Hades nodded once, and Alice took the opportunity to slip away, quietly grateful.
She was dizzy again.
Sweat clung to her neck, but her skin was cold. She moved slowly, letting her gaze stay loose as she made her way to a cushioned seat along the edge of the room.
But she could feel it.
The way people’s gazes brushed against her back like fingers on glass. Watching. Pretending not to. asuring.
A few wore contempt like perfu, subtle but potent.
She was glad Aurora’s reputation preceded her. That emotionally remote aura seed to be working in her favor now. People didn’t want to approach. They wanted to avoid her.
She sat down, carefully, her breathing slow and shallow.
When she finally lifted her gaze, her eyes found Hades. She stilled.
He was still talking to the man. But he was looking at her.
Directly.
Even with soone speaking so close to him, Hades’ eyes had tracked her across the room. Their gazes locked like magnets — and for a second, she could see sothing in him.
Stillness.
Loneliness.
And then, as though he realized he’d been caught, he looked away.
Alice blinked, heart fluttering, unsure why the mont had felt so charged.
But before she could think too much about it, the atmosphere shifted.
Because that was the mont the nation’s husband entered.
Dawin.
The room didn’t gasp, but it might as well have. Movent slowed. Conversations dipped in volu. Even the quartet’s music seed to smoothen, adjusting to a new tempo.
He walked in like he owned the marble beneath his feet.
Unlike Van, Dawin wasn’t bright. He was heavy. Gravity followed him like a cloak, thick and quiet. He didn’t joke. He didn’t smile. And yet, every eye turned toward him. Every breath hitched.
He wore a perfectly cut black suit. Every step was calculated, smooth, deliberate. The world’s most eligible bachelor had arrived — and everyone knew it.
The man who would probably be holding the highest position in the country one day as the president. Or Chairman of Wildfire corporation. Or even both.
Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t married him. It would have been hard to breathe around him.
Alice’s gaze swept over the crowd. Won began to shift. Hands fixed hair. Bodies turned. Lips were wetted or glossed or both.
Even Van’s little group began to tilt toward Dawin like sunflowers seeking new light.
And then, her thoughts darkened.
The interview.
The one that had circled rumors about Hades not being a "true" Wildfire. The air had been thick with scandal, yet Dawin hadn’t blinked once. Even now, standing a few feet away from the man those rumors concerned, Dawin looked untouched.
Alice’s eyes flicked to Hades. He nodded at the man beside him and stepped back. His gaze drifted toward Dawin. Sothing in his face changed.
Not anger. Not even dislike.
Just... distance. A cold kind of vacancy. Hollow, like he didn’t expect to belong. Like he never had.
And sohow, that hurt.
He turned to her again. This ti, he didn’t look away.
He walked toward her.
Her heart skipped.
Why was he coming to her?
She knew her fever must have gotten to her brain when it suddenly looked like he was walking to her in slo-mo.
The world narrowed, music fading into the background as her fevered thoughts spiraled.
His strides felt the sa like the one from her dream before he took her in his arms—
Stop it!
When he stopped in front of her, she expected a word. A question.
But instead he crouched.
Lowered himself until they were eye to eye.
His hand ca to her forehead like it was the most natural thing to do.
She froze.
The coolness of his skin against her burning head made her flinch. But what shocked her more was his expression. Not cold, not condescending. Just... searching.
She could hardly think straight. They had been this close before, but it had been privately in his ho. And also, he had been squeezing her to death. However, now, they were in public, with eyes looking at them. And he wasn’t looking like he would kill her any second.
Without thinking, her hand moved.
A slow, tentative reach.
She touched his face.
Gently. Right at the side of his cheek, like she was afraid he might vanish.
A stupid, ridiculous gesture. She didn’t know why she did it. To comfort him? To ground herself?
It was as though her body acted without permission.
It took her a full second to realize what she’d done and when she did, her breath caught in her throat, startled by her own action.
Hades brows had pulled together, his cold eyes narrowing. He stared at her like she had completely lost her mind.
And maybe she had.
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