Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever novel Chapter 275

Chapter 275: Chapter 275 – Do you like him?

Tallulah lifted her head slowly, and the moment her face came fully into view, something clicked behind Corvine’s eyes.

"You were one of the servers." His voice came out flat, more to himself than to her. "The drink service. That night."

Tallulah held his gaze for just a second, then dropped hers again.

Corvine said nothing else but something moved through his expression. Not anger, something quieter than that. More like the particular frustration of a man replaying a memory and finding all the places where he could have paid better attention.

If he had known back then, or if he had even considered the possibility that Seraphine would one day walk away from Ravyn, he would have looked closer. He would have seen more, and things would have been different.

"Okay." Seraphine’s voice came in clean and final, cutting through whatever the moment was turning into. "Let’s move."

Corvine pulled his attention back, got behind the wheel, and pulled out without another word.

In the rearview mirror, somewhere around the edge of outlanders’ territory, Voren’s car made a turn and disappeared. Seraphine’s eyes stayed forward.

✧༺♥༻✧

Emery answered her phone on the second ring and came downstairs still pulling her jacket on, clearly not expecting company on a random afternoon. She looked between Seraphine and the unfamiliar woman standing slightly behind her and waited.

"Emery." Seraphine got straight to it. "This is Tallulah. She came from the outlands and she’s going to be staying with you for a while." No buildup, no softening. Just the facts handed over clean.

"Tomorrow you’re taking the day off and going shopping with her. This weekend, walk her through the basics, how things work here, what to expect. Monday she starts at the company."

Emery stood very still for a moment, processing the volume of information that had just landed on her. Then her eyes moved to Tallulah, and something settled in her face. Professional recognition. The look of a woman who understood a project.

"You’re right." Emery nodded slowly. "There’s a lot to work with. We’ll get it done." She glanced back at Seraphine. "Thank you for trusting me with this, boss."

Two days later, the hospital swallowed Seraphine whole the moment she walked through those doors, which was exactly what she needed.

Surgeries had already been scheduled and stacked, and she moved from one to the next with the focused efficiency.

By Monday, her energy was channeled to MindNest where a staff meeting had been arranged. Coffee cups, laptops, the low hum of too many conversations happening at once.

The all-staff meeting pulled everyone into the same room for the first time in a while, chairs filling up fast, people nodding across the table at each other.

Seraphine walked in and stopped.

She looked at the woman sitting two seats down and felt her brain stall completely. Corvine, one step behind her, went equally quiet.

Tallulah looked like a different person. Not just different clothes, but different entirely. Whatever Emery had done over the course of a weekend had reached the kind of results that required a full second look to confirm it was the same woman. The posture alone was different. The way she held her chin.

Neither of them said anything. They just looked at each other and then looked at Emery, who was sitting very composed and professional across the room right up until the moment she followed Seraphine’s line of sight and landed on Zane.

The color drained from her face immediately.

Seraphine crossed the room to her before the meeting got going and leaned in close. "Don’t fret." Her voice was quiet, just for Emery. "He’s not who he was. He’s changed, genuinely. Don’t let the old version of him mess with your head today."

Emery gave a small tight nod that said she heard it and wasn’t fully convinced but would try.

The meeting wrapped and the room started emptying out in the usual shuffle of chairs and phones being picked up.

Zane caught Emery near the doorway and opened his mouth and she walked around him like he was a piece of furniture that had been left in an inconvenient spot. No eye contact. No hesitation. Just gone.

Zane stood there for a second, then turned and looked at Seraphine.

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