Chapter 41 I'll Destroy Your Business, Mom!
Elena bowed her head, wringing the edge of her blazer with tremendous fear. "I don't know, Elijah... I swear I don't know why she sent this to me. I'm scared... I'm scared that the Blackwood family wants to punish me because the scandal of my wedding to Morgan is considered to have damaged the image of their elite circle."
Elena looked up, her eyes glistening with tears as she looked at Elijah with such a fragile, pleading gaze.
"Elijah, I don't want to go there. But if I refuse, the Blackwood family has the power to destroy my design career overnight, and maybe they could even hurt you because you're with me. I don't want you to get involved in the dirty problems of this elite class."
Hearing Elena's words that worried about his safety in the face of a New York giant's threat, the cold defenses in Elijah's heart completely crumbled.
This woman, facing intimidation from the highest caste, the first thing she feared was the safety of a man she thought was just a poor lust servant in a bar. An overwhelmingly intense sense of possessiveness burned in Elijah's chest.
Elijah bent down, wrapping his arms around Elena's shoulders and pulling the woman into his rock-hard chest. He kissed the top of Elena's head with profound gentleness, hiding the flash of dangerous obsession in his blue eyes.
"Don't be afraid, Ángel," Elijah whispered in his baritone voice that now sounded as solid as an impenetrable steel shield. "If you don't want to go, then don't go. There is not a single person in New York—not even Victoria Blackwood herself—who has the right to force you to step forward if you don't want to."
Elena rested her face on Elijah's broad chest, inhaling the familiar scent of sandalwood, trying to find some remaining calm there.
"But Elijah... she's a Blackwood, the number one family in New York. How can we refuse without provoking their anger? You don't know how cruel the rich people in this city can be."
Elijah flashed his most lethal crooked smile toward the window, where he knew Marcus was monitoring the situation from the operational car below the lobby.
"Leave that problem to your personal bodyguard, Darling," Elijah whispered softly into Elena's ear as his fingers gently crumpled the gold card in his palm.
"I'll make sure that tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Grand Madame will realize that there are some doors in this world that even the great Blackwood name cannot open."
Unknown to Elena, Elijah had just pressed a hidden encrypted intercom button concealed beneath his simple-looking watch, sending an absolute voice message to Marcus outside the building.
\[Contact the main residence in the Hamptons now, Marcus. Tell Victoria, if she dares to step even one inch close to Elena's apartment tomorrow afternoon, I will ensure that all her helicopters and personal business operation permits are frozen by the Blackwood Group board of directors tonight itself. Do not play with the limits of my patience.\]
At the magnificent main residence of the Blackwood family in the secluded area of The Hamptons, the quiet afternoon was suddenly disturbed by the ringing of a special intercom. Victoria Blackwood was sitting comfortably on a rattan lounge chair inside her private greenhouse, enjoying the scent of freshly bloomed rose petals and lavender.
When her trusted assistant brought her the secret voice message just forwarded by Marcus from Manhattan, Victoria showed no sign of panic at all. Instead, the silence of the greenhouse was abruptly broken by a crisp, melodious, and highly elegant laugh.
Victoria Blackwood laughed freely, slowly shaking her head with amused eyes radiating extraordinary intelligence.
"Oh my, that boy...," Victoria murmured as she folded her classic feather fan. "He's really threatening to freeze all the helicopters and business permits of his own mother? Because of a woman?"
Her laughter faded, replaced by a mysterious smile full of satisfaction. For a woman who had accompanied Alaric Blackwood for decades, Elijah's extreme threat was not an insult.
It was absolute proof that her son possessed the blood of a ruler far more potent and dangerous than what Alaric had imagined. Elijah wasn't playing drama; he had truly found his weakness, and at the same time, his greatest strength.
"Grand Madame," said the assistant with a slightly pale face. "Young Master Elijah seems very serious. Should we reschedule or cancel the afternoon tea delivery for tomorrow?"
"Cancel it?" Victoria raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow, staring at the bouquet of lavender on the glass table. "Of course not. If I back down just because of that brat's bluff, my pride as his mother would crumble. Tell Marcus, let Elijah know that I greatly appreciate his creativity in threatening his own parent."
Victoria stood up, straightening her cream silk crepe dress.
"But also tell him, if he dares to touch even one of my airline's operational permits, I will not hesitate to come to that The Azure apartment with the entire council of New York socialites to conduct a surprise inspection. Let's see if he can hide his gigolo identity in front of all of them."
The assistant swallowed, immediately bowed respectfully, and retreated to send that equally extreme reply to Marcus.
Victoria looked back out the large window, her eyes gazing into the distance as she imagined Elena Vance's figure.
'An interesting girl,' she thought. 'She managed to make my little monster bare his fangs even before the succession war began.'
Meanwhile, inside the Rolls-Royce cabin parked below The Azure lobby, Marcus stared at his tablet screen while massaging the bridge of his nose. A message from the main residence had just arrived, and its contents truly made his head throb.
"This family is truly a bunch of crazy people who control half the money in the world," Marcus muttered quietly. He took a deep breath, then forwarded Madam Victoria's message directly to Elijah's encrypted wrist device upstairs.
Inside the apartment, Elijah was gently stroking Elena's hair when his watch vibrated faintly. He glanced at the small digital screen without changing his embracing position around Elena's body. As soon as he read his mother's reply threatening to bring all of New York's socialites to this cramped apartment, the corner of Elijah's lips twitched slightly.
'Mom really knows how to push my buttons,' Elijah thought with a crooked smirk hidden behind Elena's shoulder.
He knew his mother wasn't bluffing. If Victoria stepped into this apartment with those elite women, his charade in front of Elena would crumble within five minutes. Elena would immediately find out that the Elijah she had hired was not a poor bar server, but a man whose photos were strictly forbidden from circulating across their entire media network.