Seven Years a Fool One Day a Queen (Kristine and Colton) novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The moment Sadie heard her being told to drink, he panicked.

“No way, Eliza isn’t feeling well. She can’t drink.”

He still remembered too clearly the night of Eliza’s alcohol poisoning, when he had accompanied her to a business dinner.

The whole ordeal had left him with a deep psychological scar.

The doctor had even said that if they’d been any later, her life might not have been saved.

Gideon didn’t like what he heard. “You underestimate Eliza. Who doesn’t know she’s famous for her drinking? Didn’t she and Calvin go north to negotiate that deal? Twenty people at the table, two full rounds, and she was fine. And now she can’t handle three drinks? Playing favorites, are we? Or is she just refusing to give face to my sister Medea?”

Medea didn’t want the atmosphere to stiffen. She tried to smooth things over.

“Gideon, she’s still a girl. Don’t push her.”

But Gideon bristled. “How am I pushing her?”

Then he turned to Calvin. “Calvin, am I pushing her?”

Calvin lifted his eyes, his glance brushing Eliza’s face, his lips tugging with cold indifference. “No.”

With that endorsement, Gideon only grew more brazen.

“See? Calvin says it’s fine. Medea, you’re too soft–hearted unlike Eliza. She’s a seasoned player in the business world, always calculating what benefits her most.”

Faced with his taunts, Eliza didn’t argue back. She only fixed her eyes on Calvin.

As if searching desperately for something in his gaze.

Waiting for him to speak up for her, even just a perfunctory, that’s enough, don’t push it.

It was like a last struggle before despair.

But Calvin never spoke.

And in his eyes, there was only coldness.

In that moment, Eliza understood.

It was as if someone had doused her from behind with a bucket of ice water, snuffing out the last fragile hope inside her.

Her expression wavered into a faint, dazed smile. She bent down, lifted a glass from the table, and said calmly, “It’s my fault for not knowing the rules. I’ll drink.”

Once, she had learned plenty of tricks for handling alcohol at business dinners, lining her stomach beforehand, drinking milk or yogurt, sipping slowly.

Those tricks had made her nearly unbeatable at the table.

But tonight, she used none of them.

She only poured herself down with liquor.

One glass.

Two.

Three.

The baijiu burned her nose and throat, made her stomach spasm in sharp pain.

Yet she only raised her empty glass toward Calvin with a casual smile.

“Finished. May I leave now, President Young?”

Eliza didn’t wait to see if he nodded.

She turned and left the room.

Her stomach churned so violently she was afraid she’d vomit right there.

She barely made it to the restroom before collapsing over the sink, retching until the world spun.

A twisted sort of relief crossed her mind, thank heaven she’d taken stomach medicine earlier and not antibiotics.

No one was born with a tolerance for alcohol.

Before joining Everest, Eliza hadn’t touched a drop.

Her first time drinking had been for Calvin. A tough client had insisted he drink to show sincerity.

But Calvin was allergic and he couldn’t touch alcohol.

So Eliza had stepped forward in his place.

One glass down, she had nearly choked.

But the thought that it was a hard–won opportunity for Calvin gave her the grit to swallow it down.

That had been the first project she won for him.

The call cut off. The driver looked stricken.

Eliza spoke first. “Brace, just drop me here. I’ll get a cab on my own.”

But this stretch had no taxis, not even shelter from the rain.

The driver’s conscience pricked. He pressed an umbrella into her hands before pulling away.

Perhaps heaven pitied her a little that night. After a short wait in the rain, a car did come.

Even so, the next morning Eliza woke with a fever.

Her body was still weak from the miscarriage, her stomach condition flaring again, her immune system wrecked. She couldn’t withstand even the slightest chill.

But today she had a meeting with President Crawford of Crawford Corporation, about the very project Calvin had called her out on in the meeting.

If she delayed again, she could only imagine how Calvin would sneer at her.

She checked the thermometer: 101.3 °F.

Not deadly, but miserable.

She could have taken medicine.

But President Crawford was a heavy drinker who preferred to negotiate over wine.

So Eliza shoved the fever medicine back into the drawer, grabbed her files, and headed out without looking back.

She had just ordered food and wine when President Crawford arrived.

Seeing the spread was full of his favorites, his mood soared.

“Secretary Grant, why don’t you jump ship and come work for Crawford Corporation? You can name your price!”

“Thank you for your kind offer, President Crawford. But my contract with Everest isn’t up yet. I have no plans to leave.”

That had always been her line.

With her abilities, the industry never lacked people who wanted to poach her.

Once, a partner had even tried to lure her right in front of Calvin.

He had said nothing at the time, but that night, he had punished her ruthlessly in bed.

In the end, it had taken her signing a long–term contract with Everest to finally coax him back to calm.