his brows are even more so: sharp, like they’re painted into perfect arches with thick strokes of permanent marker. It’s a long face, an odd face, yet beguiling and charming all at once.
If you don’t know him, that is.
I know him, and I see right through the charm, and I see right through the cold, fathomless depths of his eyes, and I know this man is everything that’s rotten in the world, and it disgusts me that the same blood that’s in his veins working its way to his heart like black sludge is the blood that’s in mine.
I hate that I’m looking at his face right now.
I should be looking at my father.
It takes everything inside me to keep from breaking down right here.
“Olivier, I didn’t expect you to be here,” he says, and his tongue is sharp, his words honed like razor blades. He thinks I’m here to fuck shit up, I’m sure.
“I’m just getting Seraphine,” I tell him. I don’t have to tell him any more. He isn’t owed it.
“I see,” he says. “She’s a wonderful girl, isn’t she?”
“Your niece? Yes, and she’s going through a lot at the moment.”
“Aren’t we all?” he asks smoothly, with a hint of a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“I am, yes,” I say. I make a move to pass him. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
But he steps in my way, blocking my exit. I glance up at him, trying to control my breath, my fists curling.
“Are you sure you have a right to be here, Olivier?” he asks, his voice so low now that I don’t even think Nadia can hear him. “Perhaps you need to be reminded of your place . . . the place you exited.”
My jaw clenches, teeth grinding until they hurt. “I’m aware of my place. But we are still family, aren’t we?”
His stare doesn’t falter. “We are.”
“Then I’m just going to see my sister.”
I don’t know why the fuck he’s so suspicious of my seeing her. He should know that I’m not about to back out of the agreement. He should know.
And maybe that finally lights up in his head, because he nods and steps aside.
“Of course.” He gestures for me to continue.
I walk as confidently and quickly as I can down the hall to Seraphine’s office, my heart pinching at the sight of my father’s still-empty one, and I don’t even knock on her door. I barge right in.
She’s not alone.
Blaise is there. He’s sitting at her desk. She’s standing up and looks about ready to throw a cup of water at him.
“Did I come at the wrong time?” I ask, pausing in the doorway. “Or the right time?”
Both of them glare at me in unison.
“Shut the door.” Seraphine sneers.
I raise my brows but do what she says. I shouldn’t be surprised these two are at it like this; without my father as a mediator, they have no boundaries. And Gautier couldn’t care less—in fact, he probably sent his son in here to antagonize her. He wants them to eat each other alive.
“What’s going on?” I ask, folding my arms.
“Your sister is fucking crazy,” Blaise says. His collected demeanor has dissolved for once, his eyes wild as they dart from her to me.
“I won’t argue with that,” I say. “Seraphine?”
“He knows,” she says, pointing her finger at him. “He knows what happened.”
“What happened?” I ask carefully. I feel like I’ve stepped right into a bullring, and I’m not sure who’s winning or what the outcome of the game is supposed to be.
“I don’t even want to repeat it,” Blaise mutters, shaking his head. But for all the ways he’s dismissing her, whatever she said has rattled him. The tops of his hands are sweating, and his hair is slightly disheveled from his hand constantly combing through it, something he does when he’s nervous. Aside from when he loses his temper and blasts off like a rocket, obliterating everyone around him with the most vicious insults, he’s usually as cool as a cucumber.
“We should probably go for coffee,” I tell Seraphine, wanting to get her out of this office. “Or a drink. Several drinks.”
“We aren’t going anywhere without him,” she says.
“Why are we his babysitters?”
“We’re not done talking,” she says in a deliberate staccato, leaning in close to Blaise.
I run my hand down my face, not understanding any of this and knowing it won’t become clear anytime soon.
“This office is probably bugged,” she says to me, as if that was something obvious. She kicks the