Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Game On
Chapter 179: Game On
Giselle went completely still.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the marks along Elias’s neck, and for a moment, it was as if someone had locked her body in place.
Naomi, on the other hand, looked dumbstruck.
Wait.
So Elias really had hooked up with the doctor downstairs?
Were those Yvonne Quinn’s marks?
Naomi forced the curse rising in her throat back down and suffered in silence.
She had just gained an entirely new respect for the phrase "you can’t judge by appearances." Elias was one thing. He already looked like trouble wrapped in pretty skin. But Yvonne? Yvonne looked like the kind of woman who had signed a private treaty with self-restraint. Cold, distant, untouchable, all gold-rimmed glasses and professional calm.
Apparently, once the bedroom door closed, she turned feral enough to leave Elias looking like she had tried to bite through him.
Brutal.
Elias, still foggy from sleep, noticed their stares and snapped awake at once.
He pulled himself out of Giselle’s arms as if he had been burned. While backing away, he raised a hand to cover his neck. The gesture was useless, the kind of thing a child did when hiding a broken vase behind his back, but his voice had already started to shake.
"I’m sorry..."
He knew exactly how much Giselle hated certain things. So the moment she saw the evidence on him, his whole body seemed to shrink, fragile and ashamed, as if he did not know how to face her.
Before he could finish, something carrying Giselle’s scent settled over his shoulders.
Her coat.
Giselle stepped closer, serious and silent, and drew the coat around him. She adjusted the collar until every mark on his neck disappeared beneath the fabric.
"You don’t need to apologize."
Her voice was the same clean, cold voice Naomi knew, but now there was warmth inside it, like the first thaw after a hard frost.
Naomi shivered.
Absolutely not.
That was terrifying.
Giselle turned to her. "Open the door."
The warmth vanished.
Naomi stared at her.
She never thought she would live to see the day when the phrase "ditching your friends for a pretty face" applied to Giselle Frost.
Still, she walked over and unlocked the door. She went in first, then turned back toward the hallway.
Elias and Giselle followed.
As Elias passed Naomi, he curved his mouth into a faint smile.
Naomi’s breath caught.
[System Theta: Didn’t you say you weren’t going to charm anyone outside the mission targets?]
Elias paused for half a second. [Oh. I forgot. Reflex. I’ll watch it next time.]
[System Theta: ...]
The system had no idea what to say.
Naomi slowly looked away.
The fake-sweet act was flooding her entire living room, but Giselle did not seem to notice at all.
Then again, Giselle was not dealing with an ordinary schemer. Even the so-called god of innocent manipulation would have to bow down and take notes from Elias Kane.
While Naomi was thinking that, Elias and Giselle had already moved out onto the balcony.
They were speaking privately.
Naomi reacted at once and crept closer to listen.
Elias knew exactly what Naomi was doing. He had promised her a good show, so of course he raised his voice just enough.
A second later, a soft sob drifted in from the balcony.
It was not open weeping. It was restrained, the sound of someone who wanted to break down but did not dare, someone forcing himself to cry quietly while each breath came out uneven.
Naomi heard it and immediately pictured the whole scene: Elias biting his lower lip, brows drawn tight, eyes red as tears spilled down his face. He would keep lifting both hands to wipe them away, but the tears would keep coming, impossible to stop.
Then his trembling voice came through.
"Giselle, I’m sorry... I’m really sorry..."
He had to pause between words, catching tiny, broken breaths in the way a person did when trying not to sob too hard.
Naomi’s mouth parted.
He could cry on command. Fine.
But he even remembered the breathing?
At this point, she had serious questions about whether Elias had secretly majored in theater. With this level of crying, he could destroy half the actors in a prestige drama.
Giselle’s voice followed, still cold at its base, but carrying an unfamiliar softness. "Didn’t I tell you not to apologize?"
Naomi thought for a second, then moved to an angle where Elias could see her over Giselle’s shoulder.
Giselle stood with her back to the room, head lowered slightly, one hand raised as she wiped tears from Elias’s face.
Elias noticed Naomi in the corner of his vision.
She looked like she had seen a ghost.
He almost lost it.
He pulled in a careful breath and turned the motion into an attempt to steady himself. His eyes were red as he said, slowly, "I should have trusted you. She... she really didn’t like me."
Giselle heard that and felt no surprise.
She knew Serena too well.
How could Serena Blackwood ever truly cherish Elias?
But that did not matter now. Elias had already seen Serena for what she was.
"It’s okay..."
Giselle had just started to speak when Elias lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
Giselle saw something in his clean gaze that made her chest tighten.
Elias said softly, "I don’t know if I imagined it, but I always felt like her feelings weren’t really for me. It was like she was looking through me at someone else."
Giselle’s body stiffened.
Those words were not only about Serena.
They sounded like they were about her too.
He had opened the most secret corner of her heart and dragged everything hidden there into the light. The thing she never wanted anyone to see, least of all Elias.
His eyes showed a fragile need for an answer.
"Giselle," he whispered, "do you know who Serena was seeing when she looked at me?"
A cold gust moved across the balcony, carrying the chill of night.
Neither of them seemed to feel it.
Elias was wrapped in Giselle’s coat.
Giselle, however, felt a slick line of cold sweat gather down her back. The wind passed over her, and her shirt clung faintly to damp skin. The sensation was uncomfortable in a way she could not shake.
She said nothing.
She did not say she knew.
She did not say she did not know.
She only held Elias’s gaze, as if she could make him see her sincerity by looking at him hard enough.
But at the end, guilt came first.
Just as Giselle was about to lose her grip, Elias seemed to sense something and looked away first.
He turned toward the balcony rail. His gaze passed over the dark trees below, and a faint smile touched his lips.
"I’m sorry. I’m saying weird things again. How could you possibly know?"
[Giselle Frost’s favorability has increased. Current value: 46%.]
His words sounded forgiving.
His smile did not.
The bitterness in it was delicate and difficult to miss, like a dark roast coffee that hit the tongue with heat and acid before leaving behind the smallest trace of sweetness.
"Right," Elias murmured. "Why am I still looking for the answer? It doesn’t matter anymore. We already..."
He paused.
"Ended."
Giselle’s blue eyes tightened slightly. Those gemlike eyes seemed to catch a faint, broken light.
Outside the balcony, Naomi slapped a hand over her own face.
It was over.
Giselle had taken the bait.
Elias turned back and met Giselle’s eyes with a gentle smile. At the same time, a sliver of his attention shifted toward Naomi.
Then he blinked once, naturally, almost playfully.
Game on.
