Chapter 279
No.1
With August and Allena's ignominious exit, the party's atmosphere surged back to life. Guests swarmed Elisa and Thorne, offering congratulations, their faces alight with the thrill of having witnessed such a high-stakes corporate drama.
Elisa maintained a flawless, professional smile,accepting handshakes and murmuring polite thank-yous.She played the part of the triumphant fiancée perfectly.
But Thorne, standing close beside her, could feel the fine tremor in the hand she kept hidden in the folds of her dress.
The confrontation with August had taken a toll. The look in his eyes when he'd stared at her-it wasn't just anger. It was something darker, more destructive.
"He looked at me," she murmured to Thorne, her voice so low it was lost in the noise of the room,"like he'd never seen me before. Like I was a complete stranger he wanted to destroy."
No.2
Thorne subtly took the champagne flute from her hand and replaced it with a glass of water from a passing waiter's tray. "That is the predictable reaction of a beast when it realizes its prey is no longer in its cage," he said, his voice a calm anchor in the chaos.
He leaned in closer, his lips near her ear,the gesture appearing intimate to any onlookers. "You did what needed to be done, Elisa. Now you need to rest."
Thorne turned to the crowd, offered a polite but firm apology, and citing his fiancée's fatigue, began to steer Elisa out of the ballroom.
They walked down the long, quiet corridor toward the elevators, the thick wool carpet swallowing the sound of their footsteps. The noise of the party faded behind them.
Suddenly, a flash of red burst from around a corner,blocking their path.
No.3
It was Allena. She hadn't left with August.She had been lying in wait.
Her makeup was smudged from crying, and her eyes were wild, glittering with a desperate,unhinged malice.
"You bitch!" she shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at Elisa. "Are you happy now?"
"You deliberately seduce Mr. Thorne just to humiliate me! That's all you know how to do, isn't it? Fight dirty, like the trash you are!"
Thorne's expression turned to ice. He took a step forward, ready to have security physically remove her, but Elisa put a hand on his arm, stopping him.
No.4
She stepped forward herself, her gaze cold and analytical as she took in Allena's pathetic,crumbling state.
"Humiliate you?" Elisa's voice was devoid of all emotion. "You give yourself too much credit.You served your own face up on a platter.I just swung."
She took another step closer. "Did you really think a birthday cake could force a man like August Chambers to marry you? You don't know him at all.He's a narcissist. He would have let you humiliate yourself and then cut you loose the moment it became inconvenient."
"Shut up! What do you know?" Allena screamed,stung by the truth.
She tried to pull herself together, to salvage one last shred of dignity. "You think that ring means
No.5
you've won? August already promised me! We're going to have the biggest wedding New York has ever seen! And you? You'll always be the used,discarded trash he got tired of!"
Her hysterical voice echoed in the empty corridor.
Elisa just looked at her. There was no anger in her eyes, only a profound, detached pity, the kind one might feel for a bug twitching on a pin.
"ls that so?" Elisa's voice was terrifyingly calm."Then I wish you both a lifetime of happiness. A bitch and a dog. A match made in heaven."
She didn't wait for a response. She turned to Thorne. "Let's go. The air in this hallway has become contaminated."
No.6
Thorne gave Allena one last, dismissive glance,as if looking at something he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe. He then placed a guiding hand on Elisa's back and they continued toward the elevators.
Allena stood frozen, watching them go. She was trembling with a rage so intense it made her teeth chatter. Her manicured nails dug into her palms,drawing blood.
She ripped her phone from her clutch, her
movements jerky and violent. She found a number in her contacts and pressed call.
"It's me," she hissed into the phone when the CEO of Apex Therapeutics answered. "I want to move up the timeline on the Aethel recruiment plan. I want every key member of their R&D team. I want you to gut that company. I want to leave that bitch Elisa Wilder with nothing."