She stared at him confused. He hated Eve, then why did he not grab this chance and divorce her!
"Damien, I just thought.."
"I didn't ask what you thought," he said sharply with a hint of irritation in it. "Leave."
She blinked. His annoyance made her feel wounded but she still clinging to her smile. "I just don't want you to be blindsided."
"And you think that meek girl had the power to make me one? She had only gone with her relative. I know him well now I said leave, Grace," he said in a sharper voice, "Before I start to think you are here to gossip instead of work."
For a moment, something cracked in her expression. But then she smoothed it back into her usual practiced sweetness.
He was only cruel because Evelyn wasn't here. That's how he worked. He lashed out when the thing he wanted wasn't within reach. And Grace was more than happy to be the placeholder, the distraction until he finally realized he needed someone who would never leave him.
She bent forward slightly, placing the coffee closer to him. "I will leave this here. You might need it."
Then she walked out, closing the door gently behind her.
Inside, Damien's jaw was tight. He reached for the coffee but didn't drink it. His eyes drifted toward the window, where the city buzzed far below.
A black Phantom! He had lied to Grace to shut her mouth. But Evbelyn did not have any living relatives. His fingers tightened around the cup.So she left with another man. Good! If she would find another man, then he did not need to keep this pretense of a marriage and bear her for his lifetime.
So why did it feel like something in his chest had just cracked wide open?
—-
The black Rolls-Royce Phantom drove swiftly and left the area in a blink as Evelyn sank into the plush leather seat.
"Have I not told you to pick me up from some distance? What if anyone saw you coming here?" she closed her eyes and took a deep breath for a moment., the world outside seemed distant like she had stepped into another life, even if its temporarily.
Jason, seated beside her in a crisp navy suit and a playful smirk, leaned back and gave her a mock wounded look.
"Evelyn, we both know that you would not have found a cab there. And I do not want to see you walking in the streets in this heat. You know I was happy when I received your call that I left the meeting and rushed here with full speed. Yet you are not satisfied with me. Could it be that you do not want me anymore." he sighed dramatically, placing a hand over his chest.
"I was beginning to think I would die a lonely, abandoned life. Someone would find me frozen at my desk, clutching my last spreadsheet like a tragic hero."
Evelyn rolled her eyes and ignored his actions. But her mood was much better now and Jason felt relieved to look at her.
"Boss, it has been three years. Damien had never been loyal to you and always insulted you, why are you still with him." the question had always been on the tip of his tongue. But he never dared to ask for it. For some reason, he felt the moment he would ask this question, she would really abandon him too.
"Tragic? You mean lazy." she said, giving him a sideways glare. "I heard you have been skipping morning meetings and even asked Emily to attend your meetings a few times."
Jason gasped, scandalized. "Slander! I was meditating. Enlightenment takes time, Eve. You of all people should respect the pursuit of higher knowledge. And I have handled security issues for Emily and she herself offered to attend those meetings at my place. Did she come to complain to you after taking favors from me?" he looked wounded and hurt as he looked at her with those puppy eyes.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. This child would never grow up. but the tension in her shoulders melted just a little more. "You have gotten worse since I last saw you."
"Blame the absence of my tyrant boss," he grinned. "Without you there to reign me in, I have started believing I am the CEO."
She smirked without being offended. After all, she had always been in the dark. Not a single soul could not know that she had registered companies under her name. She was not pursuing power, she was pursuing revenge. "Then start acting like one. Tell me, how's the new investment going? The one you said might finally make us billionaires?"
"Ah, straight to business. Cold as ever," Jason sighed, but then he straightened with eyes sharpening.
"We have dipped into the tech sector recently, specifically, artificial intelligence. Although we have partnered with a small lab, they are brilliant in their work. They are developing a hybrid language model that doesn't just predict responses like current AI, but learns emotional patterns in real time. Think: AI therapists, AI negotiation bots, even AI companions who can read subtle mood shifts through voice and expression."
Evelyn's brow lifted slightly. "And the framework?"
Jason grinned. "A dual-core neural architecture. It is a part trained on traditional NLP datasets, and part reinforcement learning from human feedback. We have got former research engineers from Google and a couple of brilliant kids who practically breathe Python."
"How much are we putting in?"
"Fifty million, staggered over two years," he said. "Seed funding is already in there. If phase two succeeds, we will draw in at least triple that from private equity groups in Singapore and Dubai."
Evelyn nodded, her fingers tapping lightly against her thigh. "It is such a high risk."