Lucas Grey does not confront Alexander Vane directly. That's not his style. He doesn't raise his voice or make threats or engage in the kind of dramatic confrontations that Sophie lives for. Instead, he does something far more terrifying.
He becomes invisible.
I don't notice it at first. The changes are subtle—so subtle that they blend into the background of daily life like they've always been there. But slowly, over the course of a week, I begin to realize that Alexander has stopped appearing. His calls go unanswered. His meeting requests are returned with polite, impersonal declines. His flowers—the ones he keeps sending despite my repeated rejections—never make it past the lobby.
"He's been trying to reach you," I say to Lucas one morning, scrolling through my email. "His assistant sent three meeting requests this week. Maggie declined all of them."
"Maggie is following protocol. Unsolicited meeting requests from non-essential contacts are automatically declined."
