I refuse to love you again

Chapter 5:The Glass atrium

The private conference room in the St. Jude Business Center featured floor-to-ceiling glass walls, high-end leather chairs, and an atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife.

Chloe sat at the far end of the mahogany table, aggressively chewing on the cap of her pen while looking back and forth between Seraphina and David like she was watching a championship tennis match.

"Okay," Chloe declared, breaking the heavy silence. "So for the simulated macro-portfolio, we need to select four emerging market sectors. I vote tech, renewable energy, defense logistics, and... whatever doesn't give me a headache."

"Renewables are volatile this quarter," David said smoothly, setting a leather-bound tablet onto the table. "I’ve already mapped our risk metrics around defense logistics and automated port infrastructure. It’s a clean 14% projected yield."

He pushed the tablet toward the center of the table. He didn't look at Chloe. His eyes were fixed entirely on Seraphina, waiting for her reaction.

Beside David, Evelyn sat wrapped in a light cashmere cardigan. She pushed a glass of iced water toward David, her voice soft and delicate. "David spent three hours refining those projections last night. I think his structure is perfect."

Seraphina didn't touch the tablet. She didn't even glance down at it. She casually pulled her own laptop open, the dark keys clacking under her fingers.

"Your defense metrics rely on Aegis Corp’s expansion into European ports," Seraphina said, her voice dry and completely unbothered. "That expansion is going to be tied up in regulatory litigation by Q2."

David leaned forward, his dark eyes narrowing. "Aegis has regulatory clearance."

"In domestic waters, yes," Seraphina replied, looking up to meet his gaze directly. "Not in the North Sea. The European Maritime Union is revising their automated surveillance policies next month. If your portfolio hinges on that expansion, your 14% yield turns into a 3% loss."

Chloe blinked, looking between them. "Wait... is that public knowledge?"

"It's predictable if you actually read international trade law filings instead of relying on corporate press releases," Seraphina said, crossing her arms.David didn't argue. He just stared at her, his pulse quickening. She was eighteen, yet she spoke

about high-level maritime regulations with the quiet certainty of someone who had watched the

market play out for years. It was infuriating. It was captivating.

Evelyn’s knuckles turned white around her glass of water. She hated the way David was looking

at Seraphina—not with annoyance, but with a sharp, consuming intensity she had never seen

him direct at anyone else.

Evelyn suddenly let out a small, tight gasp. She set the glass down so hard a few drops

splashed onto the table. Her hand went straight to her throat, her breathing turning shallow and

fast.

"David..." Evelyn whimpered, her voice raspy. "I... I think the air conditioning in here is too dry.

My chest feels..."

David immediately turned his head. "Evelyn? Is it your asthma?"

In Timeline 1, this exact move worked every single time. Whenever David’s attention drifted

toward his work, his future, or another human being, Evelyn’s body conveniently "failed" her,

yanking his leash right back into her palm.

Chloe gasped. "Oh no! Do we need to call campus security?!"

Seraphina didn't move an inch. She leaned back in her chair, picked up a pen, and tapped it

against her notebook.

"The campus health center is two doors down on the main floor," Seraphina said, her tone as

cold as ice water. "They keep oxygen tanks in the lobby. If it's a real attack, you should walk

down there right now instead of sitting in a carpeted conference room."

Evelyn froze mid-gasp. Her pale eyes snapped to Seraphina, a flash of genuine poison

flickering behind her innocent expression.

David looked at Seraphina, a slight crease forming between his brows. "Seraphina, she has a

chronic condition—"

"I know," Seraphina interrupted calmly, saving her file and shutting her laptop screen with a

quiet *click*. "And your portfolio strategy is flawed. Chloe and I will submit our revised sector

allocations by midnight. You can sign your name to it or submit your own."

She stood up, slinging her leather tote over her shoulder. "Come on, Chloe. It's getting stuffy in

here.""Right behind you!" Chloe squeaked, grabbing her bag and jumping out of her chair like she was

escaping a pressure cooker.

As Seraphina and Chloe pushed through the glass doors of the conference room, David didn't

follow immediately. He looked at Evelyn, whose breathing had miraculously stabilized the

moment Seraphina walked away, and then back toward the hallway. A heavy, troubling knot

began to tighten in his chest.

---

Downstairs, the floor-to-ceiling glass atrium of the Business Center looked out onto the rainy

driveway.

"Holy reality check," Chloe wheezed as they reached the main doors. "I thought Evelyn was

going to faint right onto the table! But man... the way you shut down David Carter’s numbers?

That was art. I think his ego is bleeding."

"His ego will survive," Seraphina said, opening her umbrella as they approached the glass exit.

Outside, a sleek black Maybach rolled smoothly up to the curb, its tinted windows gleaming

under the streetlights. A young man in a tailored suit stepped out of the building ahead of them

—Victor Sterling, the twenty-six-year-old heir to Sterling Logistics, Carter Group's primary

corporate rival.

Victor was smiling, holding an umbrella as he waited for his ride.

Seraphina didn't care about Victor Sterling’s corporate presence. She didn't care about his

rivalry with David. She kept walking toward the doors—until the Maybach’s driver stepped out

from the front seat to open the rear door for Victor.

The driver was a tall, broad-shouldered man in a dark trench coat. As he reached out to pull the

door handle, the streetlight caught his left hand.

On his index finger sat a heavy, custom silver signet ring—engraved with a coiled serpent

wrapping around an anchor.

Seraphina stopped dead in her tracks.

Her breath hitched, sticking in her throat like a lump of lead. Her hand tightened around the

handle of her umbrella so hard her knuckles turned chalk-white.

*The docks.*The memory hit her like a physical blow: three years in the future, lying on the wet concrete in a pool of her own blood, the wolfsbane burning her insides. As she was dying in David's arms, a black car had idled at the edge of the pier. The man who held open the car door for her assassin had worn that exact silver serpent ring.

She had assumed back then that a random syndicate had targeted David. But seeing that ring right now on the driver of the Sterling family estate changed everything.

It wasn't a random syndicate. The assassin who stabbed her in Timeline 1 had been hired by Victor Sterling.

Across the rainy pavement, the driver closed the door after Victor stepped inside. Before getting back into the front seat, the driver paused, turning his head casually. His eyes swept across the glass atrium, landing directly on Seraphina.

Seraphina stood behind the glass, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

She wasn't just dealing with a cold husband and a manipulative sister anymore. The man who had ended her first life was standing twenty feet away from her—and he didn't even know she was hunting him back.

"Seraphina?" Chloe asked, noticing her friend’s rigid posture and deathly pale face. "Hey... are you okay? You look like you just saw a murderer."

Seraphina slowly pulled her eyes away from the black car as it pulled away into the rain. A cold, terrifying smile slowly formed on her lips.

"No, Chloe," Seraphina whispered, her voice dropping into a deadly whisper. "I just found out who I'm taking down next.”