"How dare Cora treat like this?"
Then he stopped by the edge of his desk, slamming his hand against it with a loud thud.
"Does she think I'm garbage? Does she think I don't know what I'm doing?"
His voice grew louder now, though no one else was there. "This...this eting was supposed to be my move. My chance to get close to her again. To finally prove to her that I matter. And now she just cancels it. like it's nothing? Because she found out Mr. B's identity?" He shook his head, laughing bitterly.
"She thinks that's all it takes to end everything? No. No way."
He ran both hands through his hair in frustration, then leaned over the desk, breathing heavily. His eyes locked onto the closed laptop. He hesitated for just a second, then yanked it open and hit the power button.
"If I can't get close to Cora in a ti like this…when she actually needs soone… then when?" he asked aloud, almost pleading with himself. "This was the perfect mont. And she just threw it away."
His fingers flew across the keyboard as he logged in. He pulled open a hidden folder, deep within his encrypted drive. A folder that bore no label. A folder only he knew existed.
He clicked it open and there it was.
The video, the one he had secretly stolen from Jas. The one he had kept just in case things didn't go his way. A backup plan. A dirty move. A silent threat.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the screen. His reflection in the dark laptop surface was distorted, his own face looking back at him twisted in frustration and obsession.
"This," he whispered.
He narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists slowly.
"If this is going to be how I get Cora… then I have no other choice but to play dirty."
At that mont, without wasting another second, Lovi sprang up from where he was seated. The frustration in his chest hadn't gone down one bit if anything, it had gotten worse. He walked briskly toward his wardrobe, each step louder than the last as if trying to stomp out his anger. His breathing was sharp, his lips tight, and his eyes focused like a man who had just been backed into a corner and was now planning his counterattack.
He opened the wardrobe with a swift pull. Inside it was a tal safe box, sleek and tightly secured like sothing that held the kinds of secrets that could ruin lives or buy loyalty. Lovi knelt in front of the vault, entered a familiar code, and twisted the lock open with one clean motion. A soft tallic click echoed, and the door creaked slightly as he swung it open.
Inside were rows of brand-new mobile phones still untouched, still boxed. Beneath them were two thin, black laptops wrapped in protective sleeves. He reached in, pulled one phone out, then grabbed one of the laptops with the sa level of urgency. His movents were calculated but fast like soone who had rehearsed this mont before.
He turned around, walked back toward the small desk at the corner of his room, and set the items down. Then, with a short glance at the broken pieces of his old phone scattered on the floor, he bent down, picked it up, and carefully removed the SIM card, as though it still held a spark of life he needed.
He inserted the SIM card into the new phone, waited a mont as the screen ca to life, and then opened the sa video file he had transferred earlier from his laptop. It was a video he had stolen from Jas, and the very sa file he had once sworn never to use unless he had no other option.
Now, that ti had co.
Once the file was securely on the phone, Lovi leaned over his desk and opened the email client on the laptop. He typed in a familiar na Cora's personal email. Her na popped up imdiately from mory.
He stared at the screen for a long second, his finger hovering over the "attach file" button.
He could do it. He could send it right now. With one click, he could show her everything. Force her to see the truth. Maybe then, she'd understand how far he was willing to go for her. Maybe then, she'd co back and negotiate.
But just as his finger was about to click, a flicker of hesitation hit him sharp, sudden, unexpected.
His eyes narrowed.
"Should I really just send this to her?" he muttered, almost in a whisper. "Or should I look for her first… talk to her face to face… maybe..just maybe—there's still a chance."
Then he continued saying to himself, pacing slowly back and forth as his fingers tapped against the edge of the new phone, "What if Cora doesn't listen to ? What if she's already made up her mind, and there's nothing I say that will change that?"
He let out a sharp breath through his nose, brows tightly furrowed. His lips moved again in frustration, "She always acts like she knows everything. Like I'm so kind of villain. Just imagine, after all my effort this is how she wants to cut things off?" He scoffed bitterly, shaking his head.
Then he paused and stared at the screen in his hand. The file was there. The video was real. The one piece of evidence that could ruin everything… or give him the power he needed.
"Fine," he muttered darkly, "If she doesn't want to listen, if she truly wants to shut out without even hearing what I have to say, then she's giving no other choice."
There was a long silence in the room. He clenched his jaw again, teeth grinding slightly.
"Well then," he said under his breath, voice low and cold, "I'll have no other choice than to play dirty. She forced into this."
Instead, with resolve hardening in his eyes, he imdiately stood up and started walking towards the door.
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