Chapter 42
Chapter 42:
Sterling’s smile froze. It didn’t fade naturally; it just stopped, like a video buffered on a bad connection. His brow furrowed.
“What was that p>
“She… she blocked the office line, sir,” Lance whispered.
Sterling stood up. He snatched the receiver from Lance’s hand, as if the assistant had dialed it wrong on purpose. He punched the numbers in himself, his movements jerky and aggressive.
He hit dial.
“The number you have dialed is restricted p>
Sterling slammed the phone down onto the receiver. The plastic cracked. He stared at the device, his chest heaving. The logic in his head was fracturing. She couldn’t block him. He was Sterling Thorne. He was the sun she orbited.
“She’s playing hard to get,” Sterling declared loudly. He was shouting at the furniture now. “She blocked me to force me to come to her physically. It’s a cry for attention p>
Lance took a step back toward the door. “Sir, maybe we should focus on the Pulse Interactive lawsuit p>
“No!” Sterling paced the length of the room. “She’s throwing a tantrum because of Isabella. That’s it. She saw Isabella at the coffee shop and got jealous p>
He stopped pacing. He looked at Lance with wild, manic eyes. “Send a legal threat to her email. Tell her she’s in possession of Thorne Industries property—some old laptop or jewelry. Anything. Just scare her enough to make her unblock the number p>
Across the city, the atmosphere was entirely different. High above the noise of the streets, in the penthouse of the Obsidian Tower, the air was cool and smelled of expensive white tea and victory.
Aurora sat in front of a curved bank of monitors that dominated her living room. The view behind her was panoramic, looking down on the very building where Sterling was currently pacing. She wasn’t typing code; that work was done. She was watching the live telemetry data.
ℝ𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒸h𝒶ρtєrs 𝑜𝓃 g𝓐l𝑛ovєls.𝓬0𝓶
The screens were a waterfall of green numbers.
“Server load at 45%,” she noted, her voice calm. “The DDoS mitigation protocols held perfectly. The launch is stable p>
Her phone buzzed on the glass desk. She didn’t stop monitoring the active user count, which was climbing by the second. She just glanced down at the preview notification.
From: Lance (Thorne Legal)
Subject: IMMEDIATE RETURN OF PROPERTY
Mr. Thorne requires you to return the…
Aurora rolled her eyes. She didn’t even open the message. She swiped left. Delete. Then she tapped the contact info. Block Contact.
She took a sip of her tea. It was perfectly brewed, a stark contrast to the bitter instant coffee Sterling imagined she was drinking. She looked around her spacious, minimalist sanctuary. There were no drafts, no peeling paint, only the quiet hum of high-end technology.
She looked back at her screen. The active player count for Apex Ascendant had just crossed two hundred thousand.
A sense of liberation washed over her. She wasn’t waiting for a call. She wasn’t waiting for an apology. She wasn’t waiting for anyone.