Chapter 273: A Surprise for Two

"Relinquishment?" Liora Voss’s voice held a trace of surprise.

Serena Blackwood frowned slightly. "What? They refused?"

"No, of course not." Liora shook her head. "They agreed."

Serena had ordered her to handle this before leaving the country.

To Liora, it had never been difficult. Or rather, with the Blackwood family’s current status, connections, and resources, most things in the world could be made easy. Something this small did not even require Liora’s personal involvement. A few calls, a lawyer who understood discretion, a payment structure clean enough to pass through private channels, and it was done.

But under the current circumstances, it felt strange.

Liora could not immediately name what was wrong. Her flirtatious eyes narrowed slightly, and a faint crease formed between her brows as she fell into thought.

Serena did not look at her.

She only sat straighter in her chair, uncrossing her legs as if the matter had finally reached the part that pleased her. Then she gave a satisfied nod.

"Good. Cut off every connection between Elias and them as soon as possible. Money isn’t an issue. Whatever Marlene Bennet asks for, give it to her. A gambler will absolutely try to ask for too much, but her vision is small. She won’t dare go truly high."

Serena’s voice stayed smooth.

"Also, make sure Elias never finds out about this."

Liora did not answer for a while.

Serena was not in a hurry. She only gave a quiet laugh.

"Liora. Did you hear me?"

"Hm?" Liora came back to herself. "Yes. I understand."

After saying what needed to be said, Serena placed both hands on the arms of her chair and stood. Her black-stockinged legs moved with the clean confidence of a woman whose night had already been won.

She walked out of the office.

Even after Serena left, Liora remained seated on the sofa, still lost in thought.

It was only after a while that she finally understood where that strange feeling had come from.

Elias was acting.

Of course he was acting.

But before Serena left the country, the relationship between him and Serena had already fallen to its lowest point. It was the kind of fracture no sensible person would believe could be repaired so easily. No matter how she looked at it, those two should not have returned to this level of intimacy.

So, according to Elias’s current persona, how could he possibly be so close to Serena?

It was as if the distance between them had never existed at all.

Liora truly could not imagine what her sister could have done to make Elias decide Serena was forgivable. Not only forgivable, either. He behaved as if they were a couple who had been together for a long time, spoiled, intimate, natural, irritatingly smooth.

And then there was the most important point.

Marlene Bennet and Arthur Hale, Elias’s adoptive mother and father, were the foundation of Serena’s control over him.

Without those two, Serena would not have gotten Elias so easily at the beginning. Even after the breakup, it was through Marlene that Serena had managed to see Elias briefly again.

Every sign proved Serena understood the value of Marlene and Arthur better than anyone.

With Serena’s personality, she should never have severed Elias’s adoption ties to them.

Serena was a businesswoman.

A businesswoman valued leverage. That would not change.

The only reason Serena would give up Marlene and the others was if they had already lost their usefulness. In other words, Serena had become absolutely certain that Elias would never leave her side again. Only then would she be willing to cut off that old handle and give Elias a brand-new identity.

But how could her sister be so sure?

Even if Serena had not seen through Elias’s nature the way Liora had, even if she only looked at his stubborn persona in front of her, she still should not have trusted him this much.

Strange.

Very strange.

After Liora figured out where the wrongness came from, it did not fade. It thickened instead, settling into a faint unease in her chest.

The moment that unease appeared, her brows drew together again.

She trusted her instincts.

They had been right too often to dismiss.

Was this unease warning her that something was about to happen?

Liora thought for a long time and still failed to get the answer she wanted. At last, she exhaled slowly and rose from the sofa. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders, and her tall, polished figure looked flawless in the dim office light.

Then she shook her head and smiled faintly.

Maybe she was scaring herself.

An instinct could not stay accurate forever. It had to fail once.

She walked out of Serena’s office.

Before she had taken many steps, she faintly heard whispers from downstairs.

Liora slowed.

Her steps became light, almost soundless, as she moved toward the stairwell with the smooth caution of a cat. She did not stick her head out. She only leaned back against the wall near the stairs and listened to the movement below.

It was Serena and Elias in the kitchen.

Liora could not tell what they were doing, but from the soft clink of plates and the muted hum of appliances, they were probably eating.

Her sister, who never ate late-night snacks, was eating at night?

There were more and more things Liora could not understand.

In truth, even Serena herself was a little surprised.

She knew she spoiled Elias. She had accepted that much. But she had not expected to indulge him to this degree, enough to break even her rule of never eating this late.

Then she remembered how many principles she had already broken for him and quickly made peace with it.

Elias was sitting on the kitchen island, wearing the dinosaur pajamas Serena had bought for him. The green hood swallowed his small head, leaving only his face exposed, bright and delicate enough to make the childish outfit look less ridiculous than it had any right to.

His bare feet, uncovered by the pajama cuffs, hung in the air and swung back and forth.

Serena carried over a warmed sandwich and handed it to him. Her gaze immediately fell to his feet. She bent down, picked up his slippers, and reached to put them on him.

"Why are you being so naughty?" she said. "Barefoot again. What if you get sick?"

Elias tried to kick the slippers away, but failed.

Serena looked up and gave him a warning glare.

He was forced to stop. He took a bite of the fragrant sandwich instead, cheeks moving as he spoke unclearly.

"Then I’ll get sick. You’ll take care of me anyway."

The words were spoiled to the extreme.

But inside that spoiled tone was an intense trust in Serena.

Serena could not help laughing.

The pleasure in her voice was impossible to hide. "Of course I’ll take care of you. But you’re the one who feels miserable when you’re sick, aren’t you?"

"That’s true."

Elias nodded lightly and took another bite of the sandwich. Then he held the rest out to Serena.

"I can’t finish it. The rest is yours."

Serena paused.

Then she laughed softly. "You only know how to make trouble for me."

She said that, but she still took the sandwich and brought it to her own mouth.

Elias pouted, his round lips carrying open unconcern. "It’s not like I’m making trouble for free."

Serena grew curious.

"Oh? What are you planning to do?"

Elias tilted his head and thought for a moment, looking absurdly like a little dinosaur considering a serious world problem.

Then something seemed to occur to him, and he smiled.

"I’ll give you a reward."

"What reward?"

"A surprise."

Serena did not notice that this time, Elias had not called her big sister.

Elias crooked a finger at her, light and teasing, calling her closer.

Serena leaned in.

He lowered himself toward her, bending close to her ear. At the corner of his mouth, a nasty little smile formed.

You wanted a surprise?

Fine.

Then he would give it to both of them.

"I’ll dress up like a little kitten again," Elias whispered, voice low enough that it seemed meant only for Serena, "and in bed, I’ll call for you like..."

He softened his voice deliberately.

"Meow."

Another little pause.

"Meow."

For one moment, the kitchen went very still.

Serena froze.

Her fingers tightened around the edge of the plate.

The words rushed straight into her mind with the force of a match dropped into dry grass. The green dinosaur hood, the bare feet, the half-eaten sandwich, the warm kitchen light, all of it blurred beneath the image Elias had just handed her so casually. Her breathing slowed for half a beat, then turned a little uneven.

Elias looked at her from beneath the hood, bright-eyed and pleased, as if he had no idea what he had done.

Of course he knew.

Serena knew he knew.

That was the problem.

He had learned exactly where to press, exactly how to make innocence sound like provocation, exactly how to give her something sweet enough to feel like obedience and sharp enough to cut through her restraint.

Yvonne’s warning drifted through Serena’s mind again.

Do not overstimulate him.

For a short time after hypnosis, avoid intense triggers.

Serena had been careful.

She had been patient.

She had brought him home, fed him, carried him, coaxed him, held herself back until even she felt proud of her own restraint.

And now Elias was sitting on her kitchen island, wearing a ridiculous dinosaur pajama set, looking at her with soft lips and bright eyes, offering her the kind of reward that could make every rule in Serena’s head shake loose.

Her throat moved once.

"Eli," she said, and even she heard the roughness in her voice. "Who taught you to be this bad?"

Elias blinked, all clean innocence again.

"You don’t want the surprise?"

Serena’s eyes darkened.

She wanted it.

She wanted it so much that for one dangerous second, the whole Blackwood residence seemed too small for her self-control.

Upstairs, hidden near the stairwell, Liora had heard every word.

Her expression, which had been mildly amused a moment ago, slowly changed.

The strange unease in her chest finally found a shape.

Kitten?

Again?

In bed?

Calling for Serena?

The dots connected too fast.

Liora’s fingers curled lightly against the wall.

So that was what had happened while Serena was away.

Not only reconciliation.

Not only closeness.

Something else had been forced into the space between them, something Liora had not seen, something Elias was now using with that cruel little smile of his.

Her sister had not simply brought him back.

She had changed him.

Or thought she had.

Liora’s smile returned, but this time it had no warmth in it.

Downstairs, Elias was still watching Serena, pleased with himself, that green hood framing his face like a joke only he understood.

Serena stared at him, caught between desire, satisfaction, and the first faint trace of alarm she had not yet allowed herself to name.

A surprise?

No.

This was fury wrapped as a gift.