Chapter 50: Social Death and Slumber
Even among the flood of text ssages cluttering her screen, that single voice note stood out like a glaring mismatch, impossible to ignore. Liora Voss hadn’t played it yet, but she could already sense that nothing good waited inside.
And then there was the photo attached—a snapshot of a young man flashing a brilliant, carefree smile.
She had zero intention of listening. If she could simply kill every last spark of curiosity about Elias Kane, she could guarantee she would stay far away from him forever. But she was alone right now. No one else was around. Even if she hit play, no one would ever know. As long as she kept herself under control...
In the end her fingertip brushed the screen. Elias Kane’s voice spilled from the speaker, and despite the inevitable compression of a phone recording it still sounded rich—sweet, threaded with a faint huskiness and lazy drawl that painted an instant picture of him just waking up, eyes heavy-lidded and sleep-rumpled.
The deliberate tone hooked Liora Voss in the first second. The next second the actual words froze her where she stood.
If the voice note alone hadn’t driven the aning ho, the photo he’d attached left zero room for doubt.
It was the exact image that had flickered through her mind monts earlier. Only now the woman straddling Elias Kane wasn’t Serena Blackwood. It was so utterly ordinary, plain-faced woman instead, and Liora Voss found she could not accept it.
She was perfectly content to watch other people tumble into the abyss. She refused to fall in herself. And now an extra layer of revulsion settled in—she didn’t want to see so completely average woman plunge into it either.
In Liora Voss’s world, only soone like Giselle Frost, Serena Blackwood, perhaps that doctor, or even herself could qualify. But the driver she had personally chosen for Elias Kane? The one he would never spare a second glance? She had no right—no qualification whatsoever—to approach the abyss nad Elias Kane.
In that instant a violent urge flashed through her: to drive straight over, wrap her fingers around his throat, and yank him out of the passenger seat.
But Liora Voss knew this was precisely what he wanted.
A new thought clicked into place. With Elias Kane’s personality, a self-sabotaging stunt like this was absolutely sothing he would pull. Yet this particular move...
Liora Voss: Whatever.
Elias Kane stared at the two flat words she had sent and his brows drew together. A soft, dismissive hum escaped his straight nose.
He glanced sideways at the woman Liora Voss had dispatched. She clearly understood the voice note he had sent; right now she looked like she wanted to disappear straight through the floorboards of the car.
Elias Kane studied her thoroughly ordinary features with cool detachnt.
He had no interest in wasting ti on anyone who wasn’t a primary target. But if sothing happened with her now, it would still count as indirect pressure on Liora Voss.
Still, the woman was far too plain. Age had nothing to do with it. After all, in one of those other worlds he had been the king of the elves, and the target there had been an elven princess ten thousand years younger than him.
At least for him, age and money had never been the problem. Looks were.
Forget it. Better to go find little Giselle and have so fun instead.
The thought of Giselle Frost instantly lifted his mood. If Liora Voss wanted to run off like a scared little puppy, then fine. He didn’t need her right now anyway.
Elias Kane slid on a pair of glasses to hide his face, pushed open the car door, and stepped out. He turned back with a polite smile and gave the woman a little wave. "Bye!"
He really was so well-mannered.
Watching Elias Kane finally leave, the driver let out a long, shaky breath of relief.
Only then did the woman realize the seemingly simple task her young miss had suddenly handed her was anything but easy.
Her phone rang. She answered at once. "Miss Voss."
Liora Voss was strolling slowly through the garden, the cool evening air brushing her skin. She stayed silent a mont before asking, "Has he left?"
"Yeah."
Hearing that, Liora Voss released a slow breath, the faintest smile touching her lips—one she wasn’t even aware of forming.
She had known it all along. Elias Kane held won to impossibly high standards. Not just anyone could catch his eye.
Appearance, at the very least, was a non-negotiable requirent.
And even if he had truly set his sights on the driver, the woman wouldn’t dare actually follow through...
Liora Voss’s expression stiffened. The penalty for any family servant disobeying a direct order was severe. But if the reward was tasting the young man even once, perhaps that price suddenly didn’t feel quite so impossible to pay.
She shook her head, ended the call, and slipped the phone away.
She had already decided Elias Kane carried the risk of dragging her straight into the abyss. Therefore she would not get close to him again.
This was... the last ti.
Elias Kane strode through the gates of Westbridge University with a thick stack of docunts cradled in his arms. The mont those files went public, they would send shockwaves across the entire campus.
And he already had the perfect thod lined up.
He returned to the dorm room and found it empty.
No surprise there. Liora Voss’s call had almost certainly drained every last drop of guilt from Tim Reed and the other two. There was zero chance they would have waited around for him.
"Well, lucky they’re gone. I gave it so thought—my first plan wasn’t as solid as I figured."
The system responded in its flat, monotone voice. [What plan?]
Elias Kane tossed the folder onto the table without bothering to set it down carefully, then stretched lazily, rolling the tension from his shoulders.
He answered offhandedly, "I was going to leave the folder right here in the dorm for Tim Reed and the guys to find on their own. But even if they learned about and Giselle Frost, they probably still wouldn’t dare act—because..."
It was far too obvious.
Way too easy to trace exactly who had leaked the photos.
So after one extra second of thought, Elias Kane had decided to send the photos to them privately instead.
They wouldn’t need to know who the sender was. There was no way they could pin it on him.
Even if they hesitated to make any sudden moves at first, as long as the jealousy kept growing...
Elias Kane had always trusted the emotion of jealousy. It had been one of his most reliable tools for targeting marks across countless worlds.
The system sounded mildly puzzled. [Why are you doing this?]
While digging through his closet, Elias Kane replied, "There’s a phrase for it—nailed down tight. Even if nothing actually happened between and Giselle Frost, the second those photos get out there it’s as good as saying we slept together."
"I’d call it social sex."
With that he pulled out an expensive custom-tailored outfit now hopelessly wrinkled and splashed with deep red wine stains.
Not a flicker of regret crossed his face. He simply smiled faintly. "Now it’s off to the cheapest dry cleaner around, then ti to go cry my eyes out in front of Giselle."
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