Seven Years a Fool One Day a Queen (Kristine and Colton) novel Chapter 21

“Drive us to the restaurant.”

Calvin’s tone was clipped, commanding, just like always, summoning her at will.

But Eliza was no longer the same woman she had been.

She would no longer bow and scrape.

She kept her voice steady, neither humble nor arrogant.

“Still Waters isn’t far. President Young, you can easily take a taxi.”

His brows drew together, impatience flashing in his eyes. His reminder was sharp:

“Don’t forget, the car you’re driving belongs to the company. I decide how it’s used.”

Eliza’s chest tightened.

Right. The car wasn’t hers.

Nothing was hers.

Not the car, not Everest, not even the man she had given seven years of her life to.

She forced down the bitterness rising in her throat, pressed the keys into his palm.

“Then take it back.”

The job was gone, the man was gone. What point was there in clinging

Piece by piece, everything he had once given her, he was reclaiming.

Her composure caught him off guard.

the car?

These past days, he had felt as though she were slipping into someone unrecognizable,

But where exactly she had changed, he couldn’t place.

A restlessness gnawed at him, a faint panic, like something important was vanishing, silently, beyond his reach.

Eliza lifted her gaze. The faint redness in her eyes faded into a cold, lifeless calm, like a dead sea.

“President Young,” she said slowly, each word clean and deliberate, “Is there anything else of yours? I’ll return it all.”

His eyes narrowed, features sharp as a blade, but his tone was frigid.

“What temper are you throwing now?”

The cold rain seeped into everything, but it was nothing compared to the chill spreading in her chest.

So in the end, he thought she was only sulking?

12.02

ለሰ

Chapter 21

“Fine. Think of it as a tantrum.” She neither explained nor defended herself.

When the heart goes cold, a person doesn’t fight anymore.

She retreats, she lets go.

Because once you realize that every grievance you voice will only be met with debate, you stop speaking.

You accept that the knots will never be undone.

That farewell is the only ending worth giving.

She turned from him, stepped into the rain without a backward glance.

Seven years had been enough, too much.

The early winter downpour was icy, but she barely felt it. Her slim figure dissolved quickly into the curtain of rain.

“What’s wrong with Secretary Grant?” Medea asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.

Calvin lowered his gaze, tone faint, indifferent.

“I don’t know. Forget her. Let’s eat.”

He shrugged off his coat, holding it over her head.

“It’s close. We’ll run.”

Under his protection, Medea slipped safely into the car, hardly dampened at all.

“Today’s rain is really chilly,” she murmured, rubbing her arms.

Calvin turned on the heater, voice gentle.

Reassured, she leaned back with a smile. “Secretary Grant was acting strange today. Was she really here for family illness? In the oncology wing, no less, that’s… quite the coincidence.”

Her words carried a subtle probe.

After all, Eliza had been by his side for seven years. He had never named her openly, but Medea couldn’t dismiss her completely.

She could accept Calvin having women before her.

But only before her.

His reply was flat, almost dismissive.

“Was she? I didn’t notice.”

That was enough.

Her smile returned, satisfied.

“Achoo!”

The rain had taken its toll. By nightfall, Eliza’s head felt heavy, her body weak.

6.3%

Feel One Dev a Queen

Chapter 21

The telltale chill of fever and cold swept through her limbs.

So Philip had been right. Her immune system was failing.

One brush with the rain was enough to break her down.

She stayed outside the ward, muffling her sneezes so her mother wouldn’t worry.

When she couldn’t hold out anymore, she ducked to the pharmacy, took medicine, and returned.

Inside, Ottilie’s face was bloodless, her frame fragile.

Pain twisted Eliza’s heart.

From her earliest memory, it had always been just her and her mother.

She had never known her father, not even his name.

As a child, mocked at school for being a “fatherless bastard,” she had come home crying, begging her mother to tell her where her father was.

Her mother only held her close, stroking her hair over and over.

“You don’t need a father, Eliza. You have me. That’s enough.”

So for Eliza, her mother was the sky itself.

And she would hold that sky up, no matter what.

Friday. Eliza didn’t show at the office, didn’t even bother to call in.

Her heart was nowhere near Everest anymore. She had already resolved to leave.

That morning, the biopsy results came.

The tumor was benign.

Relief came, small but real.

But Dr. Quinn’s explanation quickly clouded her hope.

Her mother’s other health conditions meant surgery would still be far riskier than normal. The visiting experts might not choose such a high–risk case.

Eliza’s heart clenched again.

Even if the odds were slim, she had to fight.

In the Everest office, Sadie brought documents to Calvin.

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