Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 867

Chapter 867: Old Friends

Charlotte raised an eyebrow as I approached our booth.

I’d been gone maybe ten minutes—just long enough to find the manager’s office, have a conversation, and apparently collect a stray along the way. She still didn’t know what I’d been planning, what little miracles I’d been arranging for a tiny girl who believed in gods like other kids believed in cartoons.

All Charlotte knew was that I’d walked off with purpose...

...and now I was walking back with company.

Vanessa had finally settled back into the booth beside Charlotte, though settled was generous. She’d stopped hovering only because Rory had threatened to cry if Mama didn’t sit down and stop acting like a malfunctioning Roomba.

Rory, meanwhile, was currently coloring on a napkin with a pen she’d somehow acquired—because of course she had—tongue poking out in concentration, completely unbothered by the adult chaos swirling above her head like storm clouds.

But Charlotte’s surprise—her real surprise—came from the person walking next to me.

A woman in an immaculate manager’s suit, posture so perfect it looked painful. The kind of woman who didn’t just run a restaurant—she commanded it. Her expression carried the exhausted dignity of someone who had just lost an argument they hadn’t even realized was happening.

Beautiful, too. Not in a soft way. In a sharp, polished, competent way. The kind of beauty that made mediocre men stutter and competent women straighten their backs.

And she looked utterly defeated.

Which, frankly, was my favorite look on authority figures.

I arranged my face into an expression of wounded betrayal—eyes wide, brow furrowed, lips pressed together in exaggerated pain, like a man who’d just found out his dog had been talking behind his back.

"Charlotte," I said as I reached the table, voice dripping with theatrical heartbreak. "Can you believe this? Ms. Chen got a new job and never even told us."

Ms. Chen sighed.

Not just a sigh—the sigh. The sigh of a woman who had accepted that she was trapped in my gravitational pull now, and resistance would only make it worse.

"Eros—"

"We were friends, Ms. Chen." I placed a hand dramatically over my chest. "I thought we had something special."

"We were together three days ago. Even had a special arrangement."

"Three meaningful days."

Charlotte snorted into her wine, already laughing, one hand pressed to her mouth like she was trying to contain it before it escaped and embarrassed her.

Ms. Chen’s lips twitched despite her best efforts to remain composed. It was the tiniest betrayal of amusement, like her professionalism had cracked for half a second and something human had peeked through.

Vanessa, meanwhile, had gone rigid.

Because her new manager—her new job manager—was now walking toward their table with the impossibly beautiful man and Charlotte Thompson, and they were all laughing like old friends, like this was brunch and not a situation that could obliterate Vanessa’s entire livelihood.

Vanessa’s eyes widened.

Her soul briefly left her body.

Then she scrambled to her feet so fast she nearly knocked over a water glass.

"Ms. Chen, I am so sorry, I can explain—"

Ms. Chen’s gaze landed on Vanessa.

Cool. Measuring. Surgical.

The kind of look that didn’t just evaluate your performance—it evaluated your worth.

"Ms. Porter."

Vanessa swallowed hard. "Yes, ma’am?"

"Your daughter."

"I know, I know," Vanessa rushed out, words tumbling like loose coins. "She escaped from the back office, it won’t happen again, I swear—"

"Escaped." Ms. Chen’s voice was flat. Not angry. Worse than angry. Controlled. "From a locked room. Past two hallways. Through the kitchen. Into the dining room. To bother VIP guests."

Vanessa’s face drained of color.

She looked like she might faint right there in front of the soufflé.

"I—"

Winked. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"I’m messing with you."

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