"He agreed to meet."
Fiona gasped, sitting bolt upright on the couch as her eyes reread the message on her phone for the third time, then the fourth. The confirmation was still there. Unchanged. Real.
Her lips parted slowly, disbelief melting into something dangerously close to delight.
Across the room, Venus, who had been standing in the corner with her head bowed and tears streaking down her face, snapped her gaze toward Fiona. The shift in Fiona's expression was unmistakable. The panic that had ruled her face moments ago had bloomed into something sharp and triumphant.
"W–who agreed, ma'am?" Venus asked timidly.
Even after being screamed at, humiliated, and blamed for everything that had gone wrong, she still found the courage to speak. It was a mistake.
Fiona's head turned slowly, her smile vanishing as her eyes locked onto Venus with lethal precision. The glare alone was enough to make Venus shrink back, her gaze dropping instantly to the floor.
