#Chapter 34 – Not Angry Disappointed

Damon “You may go.” I was done listening to Elena confirm everything that I finally convinced myself might not be true. But I should’ve expected it. I should’ve known better than to let myself feel anything for a candidate. Elena nodded and left my study the same way she entered. Resigned. Like she already knew what the answer would be but had to ask anyway. I didn’t offer her a seat and she didn’t take one. That was the first thing that felt wrong. The second was what she asked for. She didn’t try to sugarcoat it, and in some other context, I might have respected that. Any of the other women would have tried to seduce the seat out of me or haggle for it over dinner. But Elena just stood there in the soft golden glow of the study lanterns, asking me to gift political power to a man I barely tolerated, and worse, she knew it. She admitted she didn’t want to ask. Said she had to. I wanted to believe that. But I didn’t. Not with the way she’d vanished after the match. O