The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 262

Their eyes locked in the heavy air.

"Find anything you like?"

Gideon demanded, his deep voice still carrying a trace of unsuppressed hoarseness. He closed the distance with long strides, weaponizing the business-like tone to mask his total breakdown.

Nora hadn't noticed his unhinged state in the slightest.

Her mind was still completely hijacked by the brilliant manuscripts and the mesmerizing setting techniques. She was mentally dissecting ruby facets, calculating how to merge classical artistry with modern commercial demands.

Turning back to the case, she pointed at The Sapphire Archive and the intensely colored raw stone resting beside it.

The gallery lights danced across her face. Her eyes were bright, brimming with pure adoration and reverence for the exquisite pieces.

"The architectural framework in this blueprint is absolute genius. A century ago, artisans engineered invisible clasps in the metal base to maximize the gemstone's light exposure, allowing illumination to pierce the sapphire from every conceivable angle."

Nora explained softly, her voice radiating the effortless confidence of a seasoned professional designer.

"Modern commercial jewelry mass-produces speed, abandoning this labor-intensive invisible clasping entirely. Getting my hands on this blueprint for a deep dive would massively revolutionize a few of the bespoke projects I'm juggling right now."

Nora paused, her gaze shifting to the raw stone nearby.

"And the quality of this raw stone is criminally rare. It has near-zero inclusions, and the hue nails the absolute highest tier of Royal Blue. Even with modern excavation, finding a raw chunk with this kind of mass and purity on the open market is practically impossible."

The moment she started geeking out over her craft, she practically glowed with an infectious swagger.

Her words fired off faster than usual, vibrating with undisguised thrill.

It was like hallucinating the college-aged girl who used to chase him down, buzzing with energy, shoving her award-winning sketches in his face. Over the last three years, he had operated under the absolute delusion that Nora was just a cutthroat, manipulative gold-digger.

He had treated her like garbage, building an impenetrable fortress of apathy that forced her to grow a protective layer of spikes, reducing her to a robotic puppet just going through the motions.

But right now, looking at this Nora, he unexpectedly felt a long-lost sense of peace just standing here and letting her lecture him on gemstones.

Striding up to the display case, he glanced down at the astronomical price tag.

The digits were staggering, but to a man like him, it was basically pocket change.

"Right."

Gideon's voice dropped, his intense gaze lingering on her face. "If you like it, it's yours."