Conflict of Emotions

“Boss, are you really letting her go?” Dario asked as Alexandra stormed away from the car, slamming the door behind her, but Arthur simply shrugged, leaning back as the men returned to the car.

All except Dario, who lingered, his instincts urging him to drag her back.

“She’ll come back,” Arthur said, his tone calm as he wound up the car window. A faint smirk played on his lips. “Those are the eyes of a desperate but proud woman, once her pride subsides she will come back.”

“But, Boss…” Dario’s concern was evident. He knew Arthur better than anyone else. On the surface, his boss seemed unaffected—cool and indifferent—but Dario knew the rejection was a bruise to his ego.

This was the first time a woman had turned Arthur down.

It was a new experience for him; women usually flocked to Arthur, throwing themselves at him without hesitation. Yet, this one had refused him outright, even when he’d dangled money in front of her.

Arthur had spent the entire day pretending not to care, his composed demeanor never faltering. But Dario had noticed the subtle signs: he had fixed his eyes on his phone.

Waiting, expecting, and eager for her phone call, but all through the day, she didn’t call.

Arthur wouldn’t admit it out loud, but her rejection disturbed him. It frustrated him to no end that a woman he’d only met for a few seconds could have such an influence over his emotions. It annoyed him even more that she dared to challenge him.

But giving up wasn’t in his nature.

No woman was beyond his reach. If Arthur wanted her, he would have her.

“Dario,” he said, crossing his legs on the table in his office. The day's work was done, but he lingered, unwilling to leave just yet. “What do you suggest I do?”

Dario hesitated for a moment before responding. “Well, I could find out where she lives.”

Arthur smirked, shaking his head. “That would make me look pushy.”

“Then, how about scaring her a little? Get some people to rattle her nerves.”

Arthur’s smirk deepened, his expression darkening. “No. I want her to crawl back to me on her knees.”

His voice was firm, his gaze unwavering. “Where’s the fun in doing all the dirty work? She’s no different from the others.”

“Well, maybe that’s what she wants you to learn,” Dario said with a casual shrug. “She might actually be different from the other women.”

Arthur leaned back in his chair, folding his arms as he spun slowly. His brows furrowed in frustration. His body itched with restlessness—he wanted her, and he wanted her badly.

But not at the cost of his pride.

Dario’s words lingered in the air, gnawing at his thoughts. Perhaps she was different

“Let’s go to the hospital. I need to visit Grandma,” Arthur said, standing abruptly.

Dario suppressed a mocking smile. Arthur’s grandmother might indeed be at the hospital, but they both knew this wasn’t about her. It was just an excuse, a way for Arthur to devise a “coincidental” meeting with Alexandra.

Before Arthur could leave, his phone rang. He paused mid-step, glancing down at the screen. The number was unknown.

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he sat back down, lifting the phone with deliberate ease. He glanced at Dario, his expression teasing.

“I guess I won this round,” he said, placing the phone to his ear.

“Who is this?” he asked, his tone cool and disinterested, though his heart beat just a little faster.

The voice on the other end was soft, hesitant. He could hear the faint sound of sniffles, and his smirk faltered slightly.

“It’s Alexandra Colton,” she said quietly, her voice cracking.

Arthur straightened in his chair, his smirk fading as he listened intently.

“Does your offer still stand?” she whispered, her voice barely audible. There was a raw vulnerability in her words that sent a strange emotion through him. “I must have been insane to reject it in the first place. I—I’m sorry. Please, I need the money to save my sister, and I’ll do anything.”

Her words hung in the air...

He didn’t know that listening to someone cry like this could affect him so much, he had heard his grandmother cry before—usually about his refusal to settle down and get married—but this was different.

It never felt like this…

The rehearsed lines he’d prepared, the responses he’d planned—all of it vanished in an instant, and for the first time, Arthur found himself at a loss for words.

It hadn’t been a coincidence when he’d met her by the stairwell. Arthur had seen her and followed her deliberately. From the start of her conversation with her father, he had watched closely, half-expecting and oddly hoping to see her cry.

But she didn’t.

Even as her voice cracked and her tears threatened to fall, she held them back. Arthur remembered her eyes vividly—like jewels submerged in water, they were beautiful yet fierce.

And now, hearing her cry over the phone, he couldn’t stop himself from wondering what had finally broken her.

“Give me an address I can come to,” he said suddenly.

The words spilled out before he could reconsider, Dario jolted in surprise, and this was the very first time he had heard something like that from Arthur. The words could be faked but the concern that lingered couldn’t.

This wasn’t like Arthur. He never offered to go to anyone; they always came to him.

“Boss,” Dario began, his confusion evident, but Arthur had already taken the phone away from his ear and stood up.

“Dario,” he said, his voice steady but firm, “let’s go find her.”

“What? Why? Where are we going?” Dario scrambled, grabbing his things in a flurry of motion.

“Her house,” Arthur replied simply, holding up his phone. “She just sent me her address.”

“Why would you go there? You are going to look pushy,” Dario reminded him but that didn’t seem to matter to him anymore.

“She was crying, Dario,” he confessed. “And I didn’t like it, and I want to know the reason.”