Her heartbeat turned irregular, thudding painfully against her chest. Each breath she took felt shallow, heavy, as if the air in the room had thickened. A strange tension crept into her eyes, tightening her expression.
She looked at Emma, her eyes clouded with unease. “Is it really what I’m thinking… or is it something else?”
Emma’s lips pressed into a thin line. Her jaw tightened, and the anger in her eyes was unmistakable.
“They were in a hotel room together, Sophia. What do you think was going on?” she muttered bitterly. “It’s not like people book private hotel rooms to hold goddamn prayer meets.”
Sophia’s face paled.
She bit her lower lip so hard it almost hurt. Magnus wouldn’t… would he?
They had made it clear. No one would breach the marriage contract. Even if he wasn’t obligated to love her, even if their marriage was only on paper, sleeping with others during marriage was still unethical?
He wasn’t obligated to love her.
But if he really liked someone else…
Then why would he sleep with her?
The question stabbed straight through her chest.
***
Celia stepped into the Black Diamond Horizon later that day. The afternoon light had already faded into a dull evening glow, the sky outside tinted orange and grey. The glass doors slid shut behind her with a soft mechanical hum. The air inside felt colder than usual.
She walked past the reception desk, the familiar scent of coffee and printer ink lingered in the air.
But before she could even reach her desk, several members of her project team rushed toward her. Their faces were pale, tense.
One of them grabbed her hand.
“Celia!”
The sudden grip made her flinch. “What are you doing?” she asked in confusion as they pulled her back toward the desk area.
One of the men stared at her, his face pale, his eyes bloodshot. “Celia… the man you added to our team? Baron? The one who was accused of stealing a project?”
Celia blinked. “Yeah. What about him?”
A heavy silence fell. Her stomach suddenly felt uneasy.
“He stole our project,” the man said, his voice cracking. “He sold it to our rivals.”
Celia’s face drained of color. For a moment, she looked like she had lost all strength in her body. “No… what are you talking about? That’s not possible,” she said, shaking her head. “Are you kidding me?”
Another colleague stepped forward quickly, panic written all over his face. “No, I promise we’re telling the truth. He gave them everything. They already registered the copyright under their name. We can’t even fight it.”
Celia’s ears rang.
“And because of that…” he swallowed hard, glancing around helplessly, “we got fired.”
“What?” Her voice came out barely audible.
“We just received the notice from HR,” someone else added, holding up a printed letter with trembling hands. “All of us. We’ve been terminated.”
They all looked at Celia.
Fear. Anger. Blame.
