For two weeks, the silence from the Blair estate was absolute. Lina had called until her phone felt like a dead weight in her hand, and she had sent messages that remained unread, their status icons mocking her from the screen. She had even gone to the corporate headquarters three times, only to be told by a polite, plastic-faced receptionist that Ms. Blair was in back-to-back meetings.
Nicole was a ghost, a shadow that had kissed her with the fire of a thousand suns and then vanished into the night.
By the fourteenth day, the sadness in Lina's chest had curdled into a sharp, jagged rage. She didn't care about the family rivalry or the diamond necklace hidden in her drawer. She wanted answers. She marched into the Blair Holdings lobby, past the security desk, and headed straight for the private elevator.
"Miss Peters, you cannot go up there without an appointment!" Belinda, Nicole's assistant, cried out as she scrambled to follow Lina into the executive suite.
Lina didn't stop. She pushed through the double mahogany doors of the main office, her breath coming in short, angry gasps. "Nicole! We are talking. Right now."
Nicole was sitting behind her desk, framed by the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the sprawling city. She looked different. The deathly paleness that had haunted her at the ranch was gone, replaced by a healthy, vibrant glow. Her skin looked like polished marble, and her eyes were a clear, piercing gold. She looked every bit the powerful, untouchable predator she was born to be.
Belinda rushed in behind Lina, looking frantic. "I am so sorry, Nicole. I tried to stop her, but she is... she is quite ferocious."
Nicole leaned back in her chair, a small, amused smirk playing on her lips. She didn't look bothered at all. She looked at Lina with the detached curiosity of someone watching a particularly interesting insect.
"It is okay, Belinda," Nicole said, her voice smooth and unaffected.
"But Ms. Blair, the lady seems very angry," Belinda whispered, her eyes darting between the two women.
Nicole let out a short, melodic laugh that felt like a slap to Lina's face. "What can she do, Belinda? Hurt me?"
The assistant smiled tentatively, relieved by the humor, and backed out of the room, closing the heavy doors behind her. The click of the lock felt like the start of a duel.
"Why have you been avoiding me?" Lina demanded, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to stay strong. "You kiss me, you leave me at my door, and then you disappear for two weeks? I thought... I thought we had something."
Nicole picked up a silver fountain pen and began to twirl it between her long, elegant fingers. "I have been busy, Lina. I run a multi-billion-dollar empire. I do not have time to play games with children."
Lina flinched, the word 'children' stinging more than any physical blow. "A child? Is that what I am to you? After everything?"
"Everything?" Nicole raised an eyebrow, her expression cooling into something truly icy. "Lina, let us be realistic. I was close to you for one reason. I wanted a way to get to your mother. Using the sheltered, lonely daughter of my rival was the easiest path to the Lyon board. But I realized recently that I am simply not interested in that angle anymore. You served your purpose, and now I have moved on."
The room seemed to tilt for Lina. The warmth she had felt at the ranch, the way Nicole had checked her face after the car stopped, it was all a lie? A calculated move in a corporate chess game?
"You are a monster," Lina whispered, her eyes filling with hot, angry tears.
"I am a Blair," Nicole corrected her, standing up to her full, intimidating height. "We do not do 'friendship,' and we certainly do not do romance with humans who are beneath us. You should go back to your hostel and your culinary dreams, Lina. You are out of your depth."
Lina's hand flew to her throat, feeling the ghost of the diamond necklace she had refused to wear today. "I hate you. I wish I had never met you."
"Then we are finally on the same page," Nicole replied, turning her back to the girl to look out at the skyline. "Close the door on your way out."
Lina didn't wait for another word. She turned and ran out of the office, her vision blurred by tears of humiliation. She didn't see the way Nicole's hand trembled as it gripped the edge of the desk, or the way her golden eyes clouded with a deep, agonizing pain the moment the door clicked shut.