Seraphina Valecrest
(Future)
The boardroom was silent in the way only expensive rooms ever were.
Glass walls rose from floor to ceiling, framing the city like a possession. Below them, traffic moved in obedient lines, indifferent to the shift taking place several floors above. Seraphina Valecrest sat at the head of the table with her hands folded, her posture flawless, her expression unreadable.
Across from her, Adrian's chair was empty.
That absence was new.
The board members avoided her gaze. A few studied their tablets with exaggerated concentration. One man wiped his glasses twice without putting them back on. The company's legal counsel whispered urgently into his phone, his voice pitched low but trembling.
Seraphina did not look at him.
She looked at the screen mounted on the wall.
VALECREST GROUP CEO UNDER INVESTIGATION
FORMER EMPLOYEE FILES CIVIL SUIT
INTERNAL DOCUMENTS LEAKED
The headlines were already multiplying, branching into speculation and accusation. She recognized the cadence immediately. Scandal had its own rhythm.
She had not authorized the leaks.
That fact pleased her more than it should have.
A man cleared his throat. "Mrs. Valecrest—"
"Chairwoman," she corrected quietly.
The word landed like a paper cut. Small. Precise. Impossible to ignore.
A vibration against her palm drew her attention downward. Her phone lit up with a single message.
Unknown Contact: They're asking for comment.
She locked the screen without replying.
Once, she would have felt the urge to defend him. To control the narrative. To protect the name that had become her own. She remembered the first time she learned her husband was unfaithful—how the discovery had felt like a personal failure. The second time had felt inevitable. By the third, it had become logistical.
Endurance, she had believed, was strength.
She knew better now.
The doors at the far end of the room opened. Conversation stopped. Adrian entered flanked by two lawyers, his stride steady, his expression rehearsed. He smiled when he saw her, a familiar charm stretched thin at the edges, as though this were still a situation he could negotiate.
Seraphina returned the smile.
She thought, You should have watched me more closely.