The Secret of the Alpha

at hall like figures from a strange dream. Élodie stood aside, a glass of champagne in her hand, observing this extravagant staging that seemed to have been put together

odie, his polite smile and calculated gestures only reinforced her unease. Since their confrontation, an invisible wall had risen between them, a wall she wasn't sur

g fun." The voice behind her was

a mask, but there was something in her expression that made it seem like she always did. Elodie c

my thing," she replie

musement that Elodie found misplaced. "Yet, all this is for

a familiar tension rising within her. There was something strangely intimate about the way Lila fit into this universe. She s

mpliments. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, that a particular gaze was following her ever

instinctively hid behind a column, holding her breath. The door to the small livin

er, a jealousy she didn't want to acknowledge. But what she saw next froze her. Lila approached, her hands brushing Victor's chest before moving up to

to get away from this scene, but her legs refused to move. Finally, she backed away sl

tor. Their closeness. What she had seen only confirmed what she already suspected: Lila was

s sitting there in plain sight, but she was certain it hadn't been there before. The paper

ned the envelope. Inside, a single wor

earching for a clue, but there was nothing else. Her mind began to theoriz

had never found the letter. But another, stronger part told her she couldn't let this opportunity pass her by. Maybe this was her

eady, she waited, the envelope still in her hand, her mind wavering between fear and deter