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.

And yet, even while anger burned through her, some cold part of Serena had expected this.

Elias and Giselle had never been cleanly defined. Their closeness had always hovered in that irritating gray space, held in check only because Serena had existed between them. Now that Elias had broken with her, what could happen between him and Giselle?

Serena did not let herself think too far.

Elias was not that brave.

He would not dare betray her.

Even now, Serena still thought of him as hers.

If Elias had belonged to Serena Blackwood once, then he belonged to Serena Blackwood forever.

A voice came from behind her. "I checked the men’s restroom. He isn’t there."

Liora Voss.

Inside the stall, Elias’s eyes curved.

A tiny campus restroom, and somehow it had gathered three different kinds of trouble. If Giselle walked in too, they might as well carve a plaque on the door and call it a historic disaster site.

Serena’s answer was certain. "I told you. He’ll be in the women’s restroom."

Elias almost laughed.

Serena was awful, but she did know him better than most people. She knew he did not move in straight lines. If normal people went left, he went right just to see who would chase.

Her result was correct.

Her reasoning was not.

The truth was much simpler.

Where Yvonne Quinn was, he would be.

Elias smiled faintly at Yvonne as Serena’s voice sharpened outside.

"Don’t make me kick the door open."

That was not a bluff.

Serena’s patience had burned down to the wire. Elias knew her too well to mistake that tone. If she said she would kick in the door, she would kick in the door. She would not soften the blow just because it was a campus restroom or because someone important might be watching.

The risk of exposure was right outside the stall.

Elias did not panic.

Instead, he took the hand Yvonne had drawn back and held it between both of his palms as if he had captured something sacred. He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm.

The gesture was reverent.

Almost devout.

In the dim light, his eyes looked clear enough to be innocent. He watched Yvonne as if he had placed his fate in her hands and would accept whatever she chose to do with him.

Yvonne understood the choice in front of her.

If she exposed Elias, Serena would not hurt her. Not here. Not openly. Not over a closed restroom stall at a university gala, not when Yvonne’s name carried its own kind of protection. Serena could be furious, but she could not afford to turn that fury on Yvonne without cost.

Elias, though, was different.

Whatever mask he wore for Serena, whatever lie he had built around himself, whatever fragile version of himself Serena believed in, all of it would be torn open.

Yvonne could already guess what would happen to him afterward.

The footsteps outside came closer.

Each click of Serena’s heel cut down the time left to decide.

The steps stopped directly outside.

Yvonne spoke before Serena could strike the door.

"What is it?"

Her voice was calm. Cool. Barely touched by irritation, but the irritation was there, thin and clean as the edge of a scalpel.

Outside, Serena froze.

Her raised leg remained suspended for several seconds.

The posture was absurd.

So was the silence.

Then her heel came down.

The click against the spotless floor was louder than every step before it. It sounded less like a footfall and more like anger finding a surface to hit.

Serena wanted to ask why Yvonne had not answered sooner.

She did not.

Once she cooled enough to think, the answer was obvious. Yvonne was not the person Serena was looking for. She had no obligation to respond to a woman barking orders in the restroom. Any accusation Serena made now would only make her look more overbearing than she already did.

And Serena recognized the voice.

Dr. Yvonne Quinn.

The woman who had spoken onstage. The woman whose reputation reached far beyond Westbridge. A physician people crossed state lines to see, a name passed around in elite circles with the kind of care usually reserved for private money and family secrets.

Even Serena would not treat her lightly.

No one could promise they would never fall ill. Even if Serena herself stayed healthy, what about family? Associates? People useful enough to keep alive?

It was better not to offend a doctor with hands like hers.

Serena turned her head and gave Liora a look.

Liora’s mouth curved with faint resignation.

Still, she said, "Sorry. We mistook the stall."

She apologized for Serena.

Yvonne replied, "It’s fine."

The words were perfectly polite.

In this place, behind that door, they sounded almost ridiculous.

Serena did not stay.

She turned and walked out.

At the entrance, she glanced back at Liora, brows drawn. "Why are you standing there?"

Liora rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I happened to run into you on the way here?"

The meaning was plain enough.

She actually had come to use the restroom.

Serena’s expression cooled. "Hurry up."

Then she left.

Outside the restroom, Serena’s frown deepened with each step.

If Elias was not here, where had he gone?

A single phone call could answer that question.

She could call him. She could demand he tell her where he was. She could make him come back.

She did not take out her phone.

Her pride would not let her.

Fine.

When he returned, she would teach him a lesson.

The thought formed with familiar force, then faltered.

Serena stood still for a moment.

No.

Not a harsh lesson.

A small punishment.

If he had left her for however many days, then he could spend the same number of days by her side. Every class. Every meal. Every useless hour he had given to other people, he could repay to her.

That would be enough.

For now.

Inside, Liora returned to the restroom and looked at the open stall doors.

Her smile deepened.

If this were a crime scene, the criminal had acted on impulse.

No preparation. No cleanup. Too many traces left behind.

The open stalls told the first part of the story. Someone had pushed them open one by one to check whether anyone else was inside. Liora knew because she had just done the same thing in the men’s restroom.

That left the final stall.

The farthest one in the back.

The most private corner available in a public space.

Plenty of people chose the last stall by instinct. It felt safer. More hidden. Less exposed.

But in this case, it was also a perfect place to do something shameful.

There was certainly a woman inside.

Yvonne Quinn had answered.

But who could say there was only one person in there?

The answer would be easy to confirm.

All Liora had to do was crouch and look under the partition. Count the feet. One pair, two pairs. A child could solve it.

Serena Blackwood would never do that.

No one could make Serena bend down in a place like this. No one could make her lower her head to the floor of a restroom, however clean it was. The fact that she had stepped inside at all had already been a concession.

But Liora was not Serena.

Liora bent her knees.

Then she lowered her head and looked.

The smile at the corner of her mouth widened.

As expected.

Nothing surprising at all.

The only pity was that Serena had missed it. That made the whole thing far less entertaining than it could have been.

No matter.

Liora believed he would not disappoint her.

He never did.

He always knew what she wanted.

That was why, even in a place like this, she was willing to lower her head.