The morning sunlight barely pierced the heavy drapes of the Blackwood mansion, yet Amara woke with startling clarity.
Her hands trembled slightly as she reached for the tea kettle, lingering over last night, the sobs she had stifled behind her bedroom door.
She whispered to herself, "breathe and try to survive. Nothing more.
Her reflection offered nothing, she was composed, calm, unreadable. No hint of the panic that had consumed her only hours before. Lips pressed into a thin line. Eyes clear, steady, scanning the world she had been thrust into, a world that had almost broken her.
Every step through the mansion echoed, a reminder of the solitude she was growing accustomed to. She moved like a ghost who is present but untouchable.
Downstairs, Lucien observed.
His presence was like a shadowed glass, watching, measuring and calculating.
He noticed the calm in her movements, the precision as she poured her tea, the subtle tremor in her hands, almost imperceptible as if her body remembered what her mind refused to.
Interesting, he thought. She survived and she didn't crack.
His ego bristled. He had spent years breaking women down. And yet, here she was, still standing and still composed.
He stood up without uttering a word to her and left for work.
By mid-morning, A car arrived and the driver, dressed in the company uniform came into the living room to deliver Lucien's message to her.
Good afternoon madam, Mr. Lucien asked to bring you to the company for the board strategy session," the driver said politely.
Amara wanted to argue, that she wasn't informed before hand but then she nodded. Survival!, she murmured to herself Nothing more as she told the driver to wait and she went upstairs to change.
The boardroom buzzed with numbers and arguments, sharp as projectiles. Lucien's eyes lingered on her, silently daring her to falter.
She took a seat, not too close and not too far to him. Just present, observing and absorbing.
Minutes passed. A minor error, "just a misplaced decimal" that would have caused chaos later.
She hesitated. Then quietly, she spoke, her voice calm and firm, "Excuse me… if we adjust the allocation for this quarter by reallocating two percent to the ongoing project, it could cover the shortfall without impacting this proposed project revenue."
Heads turned and Lucien froze as the one of executives whispered loudly as he quickly turn back the project's file In front of him, "She had just averted a minor crisis"
Lucien's jaw tightened. He had tried to expose her ignorance by bringing her to the meeting, instead, she had subtly fixed a problem he hadn't even noticed.
Later, as Lucien reviewed another deal, the door opened without a knock and he didn't even look up because he knew who could only enter his office without knocking.
Sophia! Confident. Beautiful and his long term dangerous mistress who has been working in the company for a long time
Her gaze settled on Lucien as she sat on his table, her lips curved into a smirk.
"She's… still standing," she whispered to Lucien.
He clenched his jaw. "Yes. Unnervingly composed."
"You don't even know you're making waves," Sophia said. "You're creating a student you didn't intend to. How ironic."
Lucien said nothing. Irritation simmered in his silence. He wanted Amara broken. She wasn't. And now someone else had noticed, and that bruised his ego more than anything in the world.
She held his hand and kissed it but he didn't react, he wasn't in the mood for all of that, he stood up and took his bag, as he hurried to the door, leaving her sitting there and watching him in silence and surprise.
He had never refused her touch and that made her feel unsettled as well .
Amara was sitting under the shade in the car park, some left over chips beside her and a bottle water. she had been there since the meeting ended, waiting, because Lucien sent her a text to wait for him before leaving the company.