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.

We’ll get it done." She glanced back at Seraphine. "Thank you for

she walked through those doors, which

moved from one

to MindNest where a staff meeting had been arranged. Coffee cups, laptops, the low hum

room for the first time in a while, chairs filling

walked in and

woman sitting two seats down and felt her brain stall completely.

a weekend had reached the kind of results that required

just looked at each other and then looked at Emery, who was sitting very composed and professional across the room

from her

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

that said she heard it and wasn’t fully convinced

started emptying out in the usual shuffle of chairs

he was a piece of

a second, then turned and looked

both

backing toward the hallway. "That one is yours to figure out. I’m not getting in the middle

to argue, but she

she had been building around Voren’s capital — allocation strategy, projected returns, the phased rollout that she had mapped against the timeline of everything else she had

work. Solid, careful, the kind of plan that

through his own paperwork, occasionally asking a question. They worked like that for

came out of her mouth

back

Corvine’s pen stopped moving.

the patient, unhurried attention of someone who had just confirmed a

"Sera."