“They pitch us,” she explains, gesturing toward a pallet stacked with neatly wrapped boxes. “We test them first. If they score high, we include them in a future OmegaBox. Omegas do unboxing videos online and share reviews. It drives traffic. Revenue almost always increases for our partners.”
“Even though they basically give you the products?” Graham asks.
“Even though they sell to us at a low cost,” she confirms. “Exposure is worth more than the initial loss. And we don’t accept anything we wouldn’t personally recommend. We want our subscribers to be happy. We want our company partners successful.”
Silas watches her with a steady, assessing look. He’s obviously impressed. It takes most people months to get that look out of him. She got it in about four minutes.
“I bought Lucy a membership when she was diagnosed,” he says.
Lark’s head snaps toward him. “Lucy?”
He nods once. “My sister. She’s currently in chemo treatments. I wanted her to have something that felt special.”
Lark steps closer to him. “You’re a good brother.” She stands on tiptoes and kisses his cheek. “I have something in my office for her. We just finished testing it. It scored incredibly high. I think she’ll love it.”
Silas cups her jaw and kisses her without hesitation. I look away.
Graham grins. “Before he purchased, he showed us your intro video. The one where you explain the subscription model and testing process.”
My spine locks.
Lark blinks. “You watched that?”
“All of us,” Graham says cheerfully. “We thought you were smokin’ hot.”
Heat crawls up my neck.
Graham keeps going. “Saint was practically obsessed.”
I should kill him.Slowly.
Silas’s mouth twitches.
Lark turns toward me. I study the middle distance with great intensity.
“Practically obsessed?” she repeats.
I say nothing. It’s the only safe answer.
The memory of that video. Her confidence. The way she leaned against her desk. The gold in her eyes catching the light. Four times. I watched it four times and told myself it was because Silas wanted to be certain it was a good gift for Lucy.
Humiliation burns low and steady in my gut.
Lark clears her throat. “We also have beta subscribers. Not as many, but they deserve to feel special too. Market research indicates that betas are taking advantage of omega-centered products.”
Graham lights up again. “That’s smart. Expands the market without diluting the omega branding.”
She beams at him like he's just said exactly the right thing. He probably has.
It shouldn’t bother me, but it does.
“Where’s your office?” he asks.
“Next building over. We’re expanding soon. Right now it’s mostly storage and my office. I’m rarely on site, so it’s not a big deal that it’s separate.”
Silas nods. “Let’s see it.”
The next building is… not like the first. Concrete exterior. Faded paint. Rust at the base of the loading doors.
