Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 275 – Do you like him?

Tallulah lifted her head slowly, and the moment her face came fully into view, something clicked behind Corvine’s eyes.

"You were one of the servers." His voice came out flat, more to himself than to her. "The drink service. That night."

Tallulah held his gaze for just a second, then dropped hers again.

Corvine said nothing else but something moved through his expression. Not anger, something quieter than that. More like the particular frustration of a man replaying a memory and finding all the places where he could have paid better attention.

If he had known back then, or if he had even considered the possibility that Seraphine would one day walk away from Ravyn, he would have looked closer. He would have seen more, and things would have been different.

"Okay." Seraphine’s voice came in clean and final, cutting through whatever the moment was turning into. "Let’s move."

Corvine pulled his attention back, got behind the wheel, and pulled out without another word.

In the rearview mirror, somewhere around the edge of outlanders’ territory, Voren’s car made a turn and disappeared. Seraphine’s eyes stayed forward.

✧༺♥༻✧

Emery answered her phone on the second ring and came downstairs still pulling her jacket on, clearly not expecting company on a random afternoon. She looked between Seraphine and the unfamiliar woman standing slightly behind her and waited.

"Emery." Seraphine got straight to it. "This is Tallulah. She came from the outlands and she’s going to be staying with you for a while." No buildup, no softening. Just the facts handed over clean.

"Tomorrow you’re taking the day off and going shopping with her. This weekend, walk her through the basics, how things work here, what to expect. Monday she starts at the company."

Emery stood very still for a moment, processing the volume of information that had just landed on her. Then her eyes moved to Tallulah, and something settled in her face. Professional recognition. The look of a woman who understood a project.

with. We’ll get it done." She glanced

the hospital swallowed Seraphine whole the moment she walked through those doors, which was exactly what she

stacked, and she moved from one to

to MindNest where a staff meeting had been arranged. Coffee cups, laptops, the low hum of too many conversations happening at

all-staff meeting pulled everyone into the same room for the first time in

in

at the woman sitting two seats down and felt her brain stall completely. Corvine, one step

kind of results that required a full second look to confirm it was the same woman. The posture alone was different. The

looked at Emery, who was sitting very composed and professional across the room right up until the moment she followed Seraphine’s line of sight and landed on

drained from

and leaned in close. "Don’t fret." Her voice was quiet, just for Emery. "He’s not who he was. He’s changed, genuinely. Don’t

a small tight nod that said she heard

meeting wrapped and the room started emptying out in the usual shuffle

mouth and she walked around him like he was a piece of furniture that had been left in an inconvenient spot. No

for a second, then turned

put both

I’m not getting in the middle of it and I’m not

to argue, but

the office, she began to check the stocks and the business plan she had been building around Voren’s capital — allocation strategy, projected returns, the phased rollout that she

work. Solid, careful, the kind of plan that held up when you

asking a

came out of her mouth and something warm moved across her face without her

expression back into

Corvine’s pen stopped moving.

just confirmed a theory he had been running for days. He didn’t say anything immediately. He let

"Sera."