Chapter 2
In the hallway, Maria leaned against the wall, tilting her head back to stare at the dim yellow wall lamp overhead.
The pop-up comments had vanished, as if they'd never appeared at all.
She closed her eyes, then opened them again.
Her mind kept replaying that last line that floated by.
[Poor villainess. She has no idea that Elias' first love is about to return from abroad.]
First love.
She rolled the words around in her head and found them funny.
Elias had a first love.
In his flashback, Elias admitted that when he slept with her, he was thinking about another woman the whole time.
Maria smirked, silent.
The window at the end of the hallway wasn't fully closed, letting the night breeze in and making the hem of her coat sway softly. She glanced down at her hand. The warmth from his skin still lingered on her fingertips.
Suddenly, that warmth felt strangely cool.
It didn't bother her.
Maria could handle it. If she needed to, she could walk away.
She'd wait until she was sure.
Three days later, Maria spotted the second pop-up comment in the study.
She was perched on Elias' desk, legs crossed, watching him handle paperwork. It was her usual routine. Whenever he came to the office, she'd tag along, not actually working, just staying within his line and messing with him from time to time.
Elias sat behind the desk, his suit jacket tossed over the chair, shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms, showing off his slender wrists.
His grip on the pen was always so precise, knuckles sharp, wrist flexing with every stroke, like some finely tuned machine.
Maria used to love leaning in close at moments like this, resting her chin on his shoulder, blowing softly in his ear, watching his ears flush red, and making his pen freeze mid-sentence.
But today, she didn't.
She just sat at the corner of the desk, one leg draped over the other, the tip of her high heel swinging lazily back and forth.
Then the line of text appeared again.
This time, it hovered right above Elias' head, like a floating banner.
[Elias' first love, Isabelle, is coming back in Chapter 7. Get ready for the chaos!]
Then a flood of comments rolled in: [Ahhh, Isabelle's finally coming back!]
[This part is seriously heartbreaking. Elias has been trapped with the villainess for three months, but the moment his first love returns, he comes back to life.]
[In the original, when Elias says to Isabelle, "I thought this was all my life would ever be," I literally cry my eyes out.]
[The villainess is still totally clueless. She's all over him every day, not realizing that all he ever thinks about is someone else.]
Maria stared at those words for three seconds.
Then she looked over at Elias.
He was flipping through a stack of reports, frowning slightly, seeming like he'd hit a snag. Sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a thin halo of light across his profile.
He looked really good.
No doubt about it, he looked amazing.
At the charity gala, the first time Maria saw him, it was that profile that made her freeze.
He was wearing a navy suit, standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, chatting with someone, and holding a glass of champagne. When he smiled, his whole expression softened, like a thaw of spring snow.
Maria turned to her assistant right then. "That one is mine."
The assistant hesitated. "Ms. Sinclair, that's Elias, the second son of the Lawson family."
"The Lawson family?" Maria arched a brow. "Well, that just makes things easier. We're a perfect match."
The assistant wanted to say more, but finally whispered, "Word is, the Lawsons are already setting up an engagement for him. Supposedly with the eldest daughter of the Linwood family."
"Isabelle?"
"Yes."
Maria just laughed and knocked back her drink in one go. "Even better."
Snatching what other people wanted was her favorite thing.
Looking back, all that so-called "perfect match" or "true love", as described in those pop-up comments, was pretty much the fairytale ending meant for the "male lead" and his "first love".
And Maria was the villainess who crashed the story halfway through.
She stole the female lead's man, took her place, and would end up being despised by the male lead in his heart for the rest of his life.
Maria found it kind of interesting.
"You're really quiet today." Elias' voice broke into her thoughts.
Maria snapped out of it and noticed he'd already put his pen down, watching her. His pale brown eyes were curious, and the little furrow in his brow hadn't quite relaxed.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
It was the second time he had asked her that question.
He'd asked her the exact same question three nights ago, when they were tangled up in bed.
Maria tilted her head, then suddenly leaned in, getting so close that she could see her own reflection in his eyes, their breaths mingling in the space between them.
Elias didn't pull away.
He even lifted his chin a little, as if he instinctively leaned in to meet her.
That tiny detail didn't escape Maria's notice. It stirred something faint inside her.
But right after, another bullet comment scrolled by: [Here Elias doesn't even dare to move, because he knows Maria might snap at any moment.]
[Man, his patience is unreal. He's really enduring all this for the family business.]
[Honestly, Elias is already thinking about how to reach out to Isabelle.]
Maria paused.
She held that closeness, her eyes traveling from his eyes to his lips, and down to his throat.
Then she drew back.
She straightened up and hopped down from the corner of the desk.
"Nothing," Maria said, smoothing out her skirt. "I'm heading out. Got plans tonight, so don't wait up for me."
With that, she turned and walked away.
At the door, she paused for a moment, tilting her head and glancing back at Elias with her peripheral vision.
He was watching her go, wearing a look of complexity she had never seen on him before.
Maria didn't dwell on it. The comments had already said that every bit of his restraint, every silent moment, was because his heart belonged to someone else.
She opened the door and walked out.