Page 11 of Sweet Venom

Poe.

Crack.

Her name hit like a splinter in my chest. I gritted my teeth and kept my expression blank. “No.”

Mom went quiet for a beat too long. She’s baiting me, and I didn’t bite—at least not yet.

Finally, she played her hand. “She’s backpacking across the world with that friend of hers. Kaisen.”

I froze. For half a second, my fingers clenched into the fabric of my coat, but I forced them to relax before she noticed. Or maybe she already had. My mother notices everything.

“Good for her.” I stood, brushing dirt off my hands, my voice perfectly even.

“Good for her, indeed,” Mom said, smug as anything, and I know she’s watching me now. Her rose shears gleamed in her hand like she’s already dissecting my thoughts. Only she could.

I crossed my arms, scowling at the nearest rose bush as if it was to blame. Kaisen. That fuck. Poe—backpacking, seeing the world, with him. I pictured her laughing, sunlight caught in her blue hair, and something deep in my chest burns like acid.

But I schooled my expression, as always. Cold. Dead. Untouchable. “Does Father know you gossip this much?” He did and he loved it because it’s her.

“Your father only hears what he needs to.” Mom stood, brushing off her black dress without care, though there’s a smear of dirt on her cheek now. “Besides, you’re the one turning red at the mention of her name.”

I frowned. “I am not.”

She patted my cheek condescendingly. “Of course not, my heartless son.”

I scowled harder. She’s enjoying this, I can tell. She’s always been the only person alive who can tease me and walk away unscathed.

Mom returned to her roses, but her voice is quieter now, less smug. “You could call her.”

I stared at the roses, trying not to show how her news affected me. “Why would I do that?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. The silence stretched between us, heavy with all the things I didn’t say.

Finally, I sighed through my nose. “What’s Raiza done this time?”

Mom smiled faintly, turning back to her work. She let me change the subject because she knew me too well. “Oh, let me tell you…”

And as she spoke, I let myself focus on her voice, on the garden, and not on the way my chest still burns.

Not on Poe.

Never on her.

It’s for the best.

That’s what I drilled in my head all afternoon before midnight fell and I did something stupid.

Fucking Blue.

My private elevatordoors hissed open as I stepped onto the black polished floor of the publishing house I now own. My black leather shoes clicked against the marble tiles, each step louder than the last, like a drumbeat announcing my arrival. Heads turned, eyes widened, and whispers swirled around me. I don’t acknowledge them. Let them stare. Let them wonder. I’m a dark smear against the pastel canvas of their corporate lives. They weren’t prepared for this.

Good.

I walked through the open-plan office with the grace of someone who knows time itself will wait for them. My long coat swayed behind me like a shadow, and the air grew colder in my wake. Conversations died as I passed, pens stuttered in their holders, and papers shuffled like nervous birds. I don’t really care what they think. They’re irrelevant.

The glass-walled meeting room stood before and the team waited for me. I gathered every member of the editorial, design and production teams.

I had the option to fire every single one of them in retaliation but I thought better of it knowing that they weren’t at fault andonly followed orders. I canned their bosses, though and hired new ones handpicked by me.

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