Yet, her fingers unconsciously curled, lightly tracing the spot on her palm where he had kissed her.
The lingering warmth still burned against her skin.
Nicholas chuckled softly, sensing her limit and pulling back with practiced grace.
"As you command, my queen."
Serena was speechless. She seriously needed to find a way to steal his phone and delete whatever ridiculous romance novels he had downloaded. Delete them permanently!
-
At the Lancaster family estate.
Isabella lay in bed, clutching her tablet as she watched the highly anticipated live broadcast of the rising star jewelry designers.
When she saw Hailey being publicly accused of plagiarism by Daphne and the other judges.
Her sickly pallor shifted into an ashen, rigid mask of horror.
That idiot!
Had she actually copied someone else's work?
Isabella held her breath in sheer panic until she saw Daphne pull up the cloud storage evidence, proving Hailey's plagiarism beyond a shadow of a doubt before security escorted the fraud away.
She began to tremble with rage.
Worst of all...
She had to watch Serena step into the spotlight as the legendary Queen, basking in all the glory and admiration.
Every gasp of awe, every word of praise, every look of envy...
It all felt like a barrage of sharp knives plunging straight into Isabella's heart.
Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the tablet, her face twisting into a furious, ugly scowl.
*Smash!*
She hurled the tablet violently against the floor, shaking uncontrollably.
Idiots!
All of them!
Trash!
Worthless trash!
Why was Serena everywhere?
Why did everything always have to be about Serena!
Queen...
Once that happened, she would use Aurevion Jewelers to completely crush Serena under her heel.
She wanted the entire Lancaster family to see clearly.
Just how brilliant Isabella truly was!
But now... that idiot Hailey turned out to be a plagiarist!
And as if stealing wasn't bad enough.
She had actually stolen from Serena!
It was the ultimate humiliation!
Slashing her finger across the cracked screen to cut the call, Isabella broke into a violent fit of coughing, overwhelmed by anger.
This wouldn't do!
This scandal had blown up on a massive scale.
Her family had absolutely seen the live broadcast!
They had already been subtly critical of her decision to sign Hailey in the first place.
And now this catastrophic mess...

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