Chapter 195: Pride and Surrender
In that moment onstage, Serena Blackwood letting the microphone slip from her hand had already been the most restrained thing she could have done.
She had imagined seeing Elias again at Westbridge.
Of course she had.
She had wondered whether he would look thinner. Whether he would look tired. Whether he, like her, had spent these past days unable to sleep, unable to eat, unable to get through a single night without finding the room too empty.
No.
Serena cut that thought off before it could finish forming.
She had only lost sleep. That was all. Even the insomnia might have been an old problem resurfacing under stress. It did not prove anything. It certainly did not prove that Elias Kane had become important enough to wound her.
Reality, naturally, had not arranged itself according to her wishes.
It had done worse.
It had nearly made her lose composure onstage.
