Chapter 210: Chapter 210

Violet

The next morning came with a heaviness that clung to my bones, as if sleep had only skimmed the surface and left everything underneath untouched.

My body moved through the routine of getting ready for office, but my mind stayed elsewhere, circling the same questions that refused to settle into anything coherent.

By the time I reached Lockwood Enterprises, I had already rehearsed a dozen different versions of how I would face him, none of which felt convincing enough.

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel when I spotted his car parked near the entrance.

A strange tension coiled low in my stomach, something sharp and restless that refused to be ignored no matter how many times I told myself to get over it.

I sat there for a moment longer than necessary, watching the car as if it might somehow reveal something about him that I had missed.

It didn’t.

It just stood there, cold and composed, exactly like him.

I forced myself out of the car and walked inside as if I could somehow control the chaos inside me by controlling the way I moved.

The receptionist looked up immediately and greeted me with a smile.

“Good morning, Ms. Violet. We’ve been expecting you.”

I nodded briefly, keeping my tone even. “Good morning.”

“If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to your cabin.”

Cabin?

The word felt unfamiliar, almost misplaced, but I followed her anyway, my eyes taking in the space as we walked.

Everything here felt… different.

Dane’s office had always felt busy, slightly chaotic in a way that made it feel alive. This place, however, was the opposite.

We stopped in front of a door, and she pushed it open.

“This is yours.”

I stepped inside and slowed.

The room was larger than I had expected, the kind of space I had only ever imagined in passing.

A wide desk faced floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city, sunlight spilling in and catching against the smooth surfaces. Shelves lined one wall, already stocked with materials and references, everything arranged neatly.

For a brief second, a quiet, reluctant spark of awe that I hadn’t prepared myself for shot up inside me. My fingers brushed against the edge of the desk.

This was real.

This was mine.

“It’s nice,” I said, keeping my voice deliberately neutral.

“There’s more,” the receptionist said with a small smile. “Let me take you to the design floor.”

I followed her again, and this time when the doors opened, I didn’t even try to hide my reaction.

The space stretched out wide, filled with equipment that immediately set it apart from anything I had worked with before.

There were advanced design stations, high-end modeling systems, gemstone scanners, tools I had only read about or seen in passing, all arranged seamlessly as if this entire floor had been built to accommodate every possible idea before it even existed.

For a moment, I simply stood there, looking at it like a kid had just walked up for the first time in a candy store.

“Ms. Violet?”

I turned at the sound of footsteps approaching us to see a girl walk in, holding a tablet.

“Good morning. I’m Anya. I’ll be assisting you with your schedule, meetings, and any coordination you might need.”

“Assisting me?” I repeated, unable to mask the faint surprise in my tone.

“Yes,” she said with a small nod. “I’ve been assigned as your secretary.”

I had a secretary?

This was… big. Bigger than anything I had expected walking into that gala.

For a few seconds, I let myself feel it.

But it barely lasted until something behind me altered, enough for my body to recognize it before I turned.

“Good morning, sir.”

Anya’s voice confirmed it.

I didn’t look at him immediately because I didn’t need to.

I could feel him there, the quiet weight of his presence pressing against the back of my awareness.

When I finally turned, he was already looking at me.

“Like it?”

The question was simple, almost casual, but nothing about him ever felt casual.

I held his gaze, forcing my expression into something steady. “It’s nice.”

He studied me for a moment before turning slightly to Anya. “You can leave.”

Anya hesitated briefly before nodding and stepping out, the door closing softly behind her.

I prepared myself for him to approach me, to do something…anything other than what he did.

He moved further into the space as he began explaining the setup, pointing out different sections, what each machine was meant for, how the system functioned, how it would assist in design precision and development etc.

I listened, nodded where required, but my attention kept drifting back to him.

Why go through all this effort?

Why bring me here like this?

Why act as if everything between us had simply… reset?

The question built up faster this time, sharper, more insistent, until it slipped out before I could stop it.

“Why are you doing this?”

He paused.

For a moment, he didn’t turn, didn’t respond, and the silence stretched just enough to make my pulse pick up.

Then he said, almost absently, “I never knew before that you wanted to be a designer.”

I frowned, confusion cutting through my irritation. “What?”

He turned slightly, his gaze settling on me with that same unreadable calm. “Had you told me, you would have gotten all this and much more far earlier.”

Something inside me snapped at that.

“By caging me in your prison?” I shot back, my voice tightening despite my attempt to stay composed. “By threatening to destroy my boss who did nothing to you? What is wrong with you?”

He turned to look at me again and this time he took a step forward, towards me.

I instinctively stepped back but he didn’t stop.

He kept walking and I kept retreating until my back hit the wall and there was nowhere left to go.

My breath faltered slightly as he closed the distance, not touching me, but close enough that it didn’t matter.

“You loved a monster,” he said as his breath fanned my face. “And hated that he kept secrets from you.”

My heart thudded hard against my ribs.

“You hated how he tricked you,” he continued, his gaze fixed on mine. “So now you get to see what a cruel, cold-blooded monster I am in all my true glory.”

I would have been terrified of his words but I was too busy staring at his face, particularly his eyes.

For a second, I thought it was just the light and a trick of reflection.

But then it changed.

The faint red at the edge of his eyes deepened, spreading, forming a complete ring that swallowed the darkness entirely until there was nothing left but red.

My breath caught sharply.

“Elijah!”

The sound escaped before I could stop it, my body freezing in place as my mind struggled to catch up with what I was seeing.

And then he blinked.

His eyes returned to normal as if I had imagined it entirely.

He turned without another word and walked away.

What the hell… was that?