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“He,” I add.

Chase exhales, bracing himself for whatever comes next.

“And she told me she was the designer, and that she was waiting for Zayn Thomas.”

That earns everyone’s full attention.

“And then,” I continue evenly, “I was informed that I was forty-seven minutes late.”

A grin tugs at the corner of my mouth despite myself.

“She made a very deliberate point of checking the time right in front of me.”

Silence hangs in the room for exactly one short moment.

Then everyone loses it.

Laughter erupts from every corner, loud and uncontrollable. Even I can’t keep a straight face anymore.

In a different situation, I would have laughed back then too. But not there. It wouldn’t have been professional.

And Selene—no matter how well I know her family, no matter how often our lives have crossed—wasn’t there as a family friend.

She was there as a designer.

It was a business meeting.

And she made sure I never forgot it.

✨

It’s already three in the afternoon by the time I finally manage to break free from the meetings that kept stretching far beyond their scheduled end. Eventually, I asked Beatrix to move everything else to the following days just so I could leave the office today.

Now I’m standing inside one of the casinos, waiting for the elevator.

The doors slide open with a soft chime, and I step inside, pressing the button for the fifth floor.

The ride is quiet, though not silent.

Even through reinforced steel and glass, the sounds of an active construction site reach me. The distant clang of metal, the rumble of machinery, voices calling instructions across the floor. Controlled chaos. Productive noise.

The doors part again, and I step straight into the middle of it.

The fifth floor has transformed into a living workplace.

Temporary partitions divide different sections of the project. Large architectural plans cover makeshift walls. Workers move with practiced purpose, weaving around one another without hesitation. Nothing feels rushed, yet nothing is wasted. Everyone knows exactly where they’re supposed to be.

We’ve brought in specialists from all over the world. Engineers. Craftsmen. Experts in every field this project demands.

And Selene brought her own team, obviously.

She hasn’t left a single detail to chance.

We want these renovations completed as quickly as possible, so we made sure she had everything she needed to make the process easier. More people. Better coordination. Faster execution.

To my surprise, she accepted every bit of it.

No complaints.