Mara's POV
She sipped her now-cold coffee, the bitterness matching the taste Layla left in her mouth. The entire office still smelled like tension. Like roses with thorns. Like someone dared her to bleed.
But Mara Daniels wasn't here to bleed.
She was here to win.
She'd made her mistake; yes. And Malik had called her out on it. But she wasn't about to let Layla; ex-flame or whatever she was make her feel like a misplaced stapler in this company.
She opened her laptop, cracked her neck, and started drafting a corrected version of the Kargan proposal. Not because anyone asked; but because that's who she was. She didn't just fix mistakes. She rebuilt the damn skyline.
A shadow loomed at her desk.
"I see you found the time to work," Layla's honey-dipped voice coiled again.
Mara didn't even look up. "I never lost it."
There was silence. Just air stretching tight between them.
Layla's heels clicked once. "You're not the first pretty girl to walk through those doors, Mara."
Mara finally looked up, smile sweet as cinnamon.
"And you're not the first ex who still thinks she's relevant."
Layla blinked.
Game.
Set.
Match.
Before the older woman could recover, Malik appeared in the hallway behind them. He hadn't heard the full exchange; but he saw the way Mara stood tall, unbothered. Confident. Composed.
And something shifted behind his eyes.
Mara turned back to her screen, not waiting for applause.
The battlefield had changed.
And now?
So had she.