Chapter 21 Sleepyhead
Amber's Point of View
“Tick tock, tick tock…” The table clock on my desk vibrated softly, and I listened attentively, enjoying the silence. This was the perfect time to think, and the table clock served as a perfect hypnotizing object, gradually drawing my mind from my worries into oblivion.
I leaned back in my plant-filled office, the scent of fresh flowers filling my senses. I swirled the red wine in my glass, eyes fixed on the photographs scattered on my desk. Janet, that conniving daughter of a bitch really thinks she stands a chance against me? She dared to go behind my back and stir up trouble in my twin brother's life….. wow, so fearless.
My gaze lingered on a photo of Lydia and Justin, laughing together. I remembered the way Harridan used to look at Lydia, the way his eyes would soften, and his voice would take on a gentle tone. It was a look I had never received from him, not even on our most intimate days. These pictures weren't recent, they looked like those days of our high school life, and they were recovered from Janet by my spy.
Justin really thought I would accept Janet without any backup plan. Oh come on, bro. My IQ is higher than that, Janet might be a psychopath, but I'm really good at taming things. And once I fail, I'd either take it down with me or brutally terminate it. No one must stand in a Queen’s way!”
A message entered my phone, and when I looked at the screen, it was pictures from my spy. Informing me that he'd had a major victory. I clicked on his family, and there were pictures of Justin, he looked like he didn't want to be there. He was in a bar with Janet, and from the picture, they seemed to be arguing. Janet was showing him something on her phone to threaten him. And before I could ask my spy what was going on, they sent me multiple files containing different high school pictures and a voice recording of Justin confirming Lydia was his mate.
At first, my smile stretched slowly, wickedly, as the images loaded one by one. But when I heard the voice recording, I froze.
Not the dramatic kind you see in movies.
No, this was a cold, surgical stillness, like someone had poured ice water directly into my spine.
“Lydia… she’s my mate. I always knew.”
Justin’s voice crackled through the speaker, shaky, quiet, too honest for his own good. He sounded like he was confessing a sin. To whom? Probably to that snake, Janet.
My grip tightened around the phone. Mate? Mate?
I sat up straight, forgetting my wine. My heart began to beat too loudly in the quiet room. I replayed the recording, this time more slowly, forcing every syllable into order, into clarity, into something I could dissect.
“Lydia… she’s my mate. I always knew.”
My jaw clenched so hard it hurt. Oh. Oh, this was rich.
I leaned back in my chair again, pressing the tips of my fingers together, letting my mind pull the strings into perfect alignment.
Harridan loved Lydia.
Lydia is Justin’s mate.
Justin kept quiet to protect Harridan.
And now Lydia is back.
And these idiots think they’re living in a romance movie.
My lips curled.
“Complicated little bastards,” I whispered.
I played the recording again, this time laughing, soft, disbelieving, the kind of laugh someone gives when reality becomes too hilariously chaotic.
“Mate. Harridan. Lydia. Justin.”
I tapped my nails on the desk. “A perfect disaster.”
A disaster I could weaponize. Before I could indulge in the thought, my spy texted again.
SPY: Janet tried to pressure him with this recording. She wanted him to admit he still loves Lydia. He refused. They fought. She left with a threat.
I scoffed. Of course she did. Janet was the type to poke a wound and then cry when it bled.
I zoomed in on one of the bar photos.
Justin’s face told a whole story: guilt, anger, resignation.
Janet’s face told another: obsession and fury.
Lydia was the grenade. And both my men were standing directly over her, waiting for someone to pull the pin. They've chosen her over me.
My throat felt dry, so I took a sip of wine, letting the bitterness coat my tongue.
This wasn’t just an emotional mess. This wasn’t just some forbidden mate-bond drama. This was leverage. And leverage was currency.
But the part that made my heart twist, annoyingly, was the fact that Justin didn’t tell me. Not even once. All the years. All the secrets I protected for him. All the dirt I collected so he wouldn’t fall.
And he didn’t tell me this one. This is an important one. I felt something sharp and familiar simmer beneath my ribs.
Not sadness. Never sadness…… betrayal.
The kind that stings only because I allow Justin a place no one else gets.
I set down my phone carefully, deliberately. My voice was cold enough to frost glass as I whispered:
“You hid this from me, twin brother…?”
The clock continued ticking. Mocking. Measuring my silence.
I wasn’t angry at the mate bond.
I wasn’t angry at Lydia. Not even angry at Harridan, who has always been painfully predictable with his feelings.
No, my fury was surgical. Justin let himself be cornered by Janet. Justin let someone else hold a secret that belonged to me. And that? Unacceptable.
I stood from my seat, brushing invisible dust off my dress. If Lydia was the match, and Harridan the gasoline, and Justin the fire….
Then Janet was the idiot holding the lighter with her thumb pressed down.
And I?
I was the hand controlling the entire damn flame.
I picked up my phone and sent a single message to my spy:
AMBER:
Bring Janet to me. Right now. No delays.
Because someone needed to learn their place. And someone else, my own brother, needed a reminder of exactly who protects this family.
———
The message had barely been delivered when a soft knock echoed through my office.
Of course she wouldn’t wait for my summons. She would act like she owns the damn world even when she’s standing on land I salt myself.
I didn’t turn.
I took one more sip of wine, letting the flavor linger, letting my irritation simmer into something viciously calm.
“Enter,” I said.
The door opened with that annoying soft click she loves, her signature entrance, as if she rehearsed it.
She walked in like smoke: thin smile, eyes scanning everything, cheap confidence wrapped in expensive perfume. Janet always carried herself like she had a secret no one else could decode.
But she forgot one thing.
I break people who think they have secrets.
“Wow,” she said, tilting her head, “you actually called me. I thought you’d be too busy… grieving.”
My eyebrow lifted.
“Grieving?”
“For your brother,” she shrugged, closing the door without waiting for permission. “He looked devastated earlier. Must be hard knowing he still loves Lydia.”
I smiled, slow, sharp, blade-like.
She didn’t know I already had the recording. She thought she was the one dropping bombs. Cute.
“What makes you think I didn’t already know?” I asked.
Her smile faltered for half a second but barely, but I saw it. She tried to cover it with a slow toss of her hair.
Her hair flip was supposed to look effortless, but the twitch in her fingers betrayed her. I loved that. That tiny fracture in her confidence. A little crack I could slip a knife into later.
I set my wine glass down and finally looked at her, really looked at her.
Janet always dressed like she wanted to be taken seriously but ended up looking like a child wearing her mother’s anger. Red lipstick was too bold for her shaky self-esteem, heels too tall for her shaky morals.
“You knew?” she asked, voice light but stretched thin.
“Knew?” I leaned back in my chair, crossing my legs. “Darling, I’ve known things about everyone long before they learned about themselves.”
The way her throat bobbed when she swallowed? Delicious.
“So you’re not… upset?” she asked carefully, stepping closer.
“I don’t get upset, Janet,” I corrected. “I get informed. And then I get even.”
Her body stiffened, just enough to tell me she understood the threat.
But Janet, poor, delusional, self-important Janet wasn’t smart enough to back down.
“Good,” she said, forcing a small smile. “Then you should already know how dangerous Lydia is. For your brother. For Harridan. For you.”
There it was. The real reason she came without being summoned.
Fear.
Wrapped in arrogance, but still fear.
I tilted my head. “You sound jealous.”
Her jaw tightened immediately. “I’m not jealous of some-”
“Mate.” I cut her off, tone light. “You’re not jealous of your mate’s mate?”
She froze. Beautifully.
“Careful,” I added softly. “Your insecurity is showing. It’s embarrassing.”
Janet’s eyes sharpened with that pathetic, trembling fury she always tried to weaponize.
“You think this is a game?” she hissed. “Lydia will ruin everything. She’ll ruin Justin. Harridan. You. She’ll expose-”
“Expose what?” I asked, rising slowly. “The truth you keep dangling over Justin’s head like a toddler with a stolen knife?”
Her face blanched.
Ah. There it is. The satisfaction.
“You’re bluffing,” she whispered. “You don’t know what I-”
I picked up my phone, tapped the screen, and hit play.
Justin’s voice filled the room instantly.
“Lydia… she’s my mate. I always knew.”
Janet’s lips parted. Just a fraction.
“That’s…” She blinked rapidly.
“That’s, that’s not possible. I deleted that file.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” I murmured, stepping around my desk. “You deleted it from your phone. Not from the bar cameras. Not from the servers. Not from the two people watching you with eyes sharper than your fake Chanel eyeliner.”
Her breath hitched. She understood now..
“You’re smarter than you look,” she said quietly.
I chuckled. “And you? You’re dumber than you pretend.”
“You think you’re the mastermind here?” I asked quietly. “You think you get to threaten Justin, manipulate him, corner him, and walk into my office like you own the narrative?”
She opened her mouth, but I lifted a hand.
“Don’t insult me with excuses.” Her mouth closed. Good girl.
“Listen carefully,” I murmured, my voice dropping to a razor-edged softness. “I don’t care about your relationship with Justin. I don’t care what you think you know. I don’t care what you think you can control.”
I leaned in, lips brushing her ear, my tone a silk-wrapped blade.
“But the moment you use Lydia, Harridan, or the mate bond to sabotage my brother… I will bury you so quietly the world won’t even remember your shadow.”
Her breath trembled. Perfect.
“And Janet?” I pulled back, eyes locked with hers. “If you ever make Justin look at you the way he looked today in that bar… I will show you levels of cruelty your imagination simply isn’t built for.”
Her pupils shook. Her lips opened, closed, opened again.
“…What do you want?” she whispered.
Submission. Obedient. Peace?
I walked back to my desk, picked up my wine, and took a slow sip.
“What I want,” I said, licking the bitterness from my lips, “is very simple.”
I set my glass down.
“You stay away from Lydia. You stay away from Harridan. And you never use that mate bond against Justin again.”
“And if I don’t?” she asked.
I smiled.
Oh, she shouldn’t have asked.
“If you don’t…” I shrugged lightly. “Then I’ll let Lydia destroy you. And trust me, she’ll do it so effortlessly you’ll wonder why you ever picked this fight.”
Janet’s breathing turned unsteady, but she stood her ground.
She had no idea that made her fate worse.
“Now,” I added coldly, “leave my office. Before I change my mind about being merciful today.” She hesitated.
“Go,” I snapped.