Chapter 46 - 45 The Last Woman

Chapter 46: Chapter 45 The Last Woman

"Thirty-two isn’t half," he replied.

I slowly closed the door behind me.

"Are you seriously correcting my mathematics right now?"

"Yes."

I blinked.

This man.

This fucking man.

"Laziel, you fired thirty-two people overnight." I pointed at him.

"Put your hand down."

"No."

"Mireya."

"No."

He leaned back in his chair, watching me like I was a mildly entertaining problem he’d already solved.

"They were incompetent at their jobs."

"Oh, please," I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "Don’t feed me that bullshit. I know exactly why they’re gone. You got rid of them because of me."

He didn’t say anything.

He was a control-freak dictator wrapped in an Armani suit. And the terrifying part? It worked.

Before I could continue tearing into him, my eyes drifted to the edge of the desk.

I frowned, leaning over the desk to squint at it.

Laziel’s hand shot out like lightning, sliding the folder out of my view, but not before my brain registered what I saw.

I snatched it back before he could close it.

"What’s this?" I demanded, holding the paper up.

Laziel’s jaw tightened. He reached across the desk. "Nothing."

"Nothing has a three-tier cake diagram and a custom pony logistics report?!" I stared at the page, my eyes going wide.

He snatched the folder right out of my hand with a sharp tug. "It’s handled."

I narrowed my eyes, suddenly feeling a very strange, flutter in my chest. "Is this for Anastelle?"

He didn’t answer. He just closed the folder, sliding it into his bottom drawer.

I stood there, the anger suddenly draining out of me, replaced by a wave of shock.

"Her birthday is in a few days," Laziel said quietly, breaking the silence as he looked up at me.

I froze.

The room seemed to tilt for a second. With everything going on—the office politics, the gossip, the constant survival mode—I had completely lost track of the days. Her birthday was right around the corner. And while I was drowning in stress, this sociopath had apparently been quietly planning a royal-grade celebration behind my back.

I stood there staring at him, utterly speechless, before turning on my heel and walking out of his office in a daze, my mind spinning so fast I could barely hear the door click shut behind me.

I turned back toward my desk.

I dropped into my chair and opened my laptop.

For the next few minutes, I tried to work.

Tried being the important word.

My mind kept circling back to the folder.

A pony.

Why did a five-year-old need a pony?

Why did Laziel know her birthday down to the date when I had barely remembered it myself?

And why did that bother me?

I reached for my coffee.

My phone vibrated.

I glanced down.

Unknown Number.

"You should ask Laziel what happened to the women before you."

My stomach dropped, a cold prickle of unease crawling up the back of my neck. I stared at the words. Was this Valentina? Was she trying to mess with my head again, finding some new, twisted way to make me feel like I didn’t belong here?

Before I could even catch my breath, the phone buzzed a second time.

Unknown number:

"Not every woman who gets close to him survives it."

My fingers went stiff. I locked the screen, grabbed the phone, and turned it face-down on the table, trying to block it out.

"What’s that?"

I looked up. Laziel was watching me from his desk, his dark eyes narrowing slightly.

"Nothing."

He didn’t break eye contact.

"Mireya."

"I said it’s nothing."

He stood up, his tall frame moving with grace as he walked toward my table. "Then why did you just hide it?"

I gripped the edge of my desk, my pulse suddenly hammering in my ears. "Someone sent me a message. It’s spam."

Laziel stopped right beside my desk, his shadow falling over me. "Who?"

"I don’t know. An unknown number."

"What did they say?"

I hesitated, looking away for a fraction of a second too long. "Just some stupid office nonsense."

Laziel knew I was lying. I could see it in the way his jaw ticked, the way his gaze drilled into me like he could read the thoughts right out of my head. But before he could press further, my phone buzzed against the desk again, face-down.

Laziel’s eyes flicked down to the phone, then back up to my face. "Let me see it."

"Why do you care?"

He was beginning to realize someone was deliberately getting to me, and the thought alone looked like it was making him dangerously close to snapping.

My hand reached out slowly, turning the phone over.

Unknown number:

"Ask him about the last woman who tried to leave."

I looked up slowly, my eyes meeting Laziel’s. He was already watching me, reading every single micro-expression on my face.

"What did they say?" he asked, his voice dead quiet, stripped of all warmth.

For a second, I actually considered telling him. I thought about sliding the phone across the desk and demanding answers about who these women were, what history he was hiding, and why the fuck he won’t leave me alone.

Instead, I locked my screen.

"I told you... it’s nothing."

Laziel didn’t believe me for a second

"Don’t delete the messages," he said.

I looked up at him, caught off guard.

"Because whoever sent them wants you frightened."

A beat passed.

"And I’ll deal with them."

Authors note 💗

Please read

My babies, please don’t kill me. 😭😭

I KNOW.

Two whole weeks.

I disappeared like Laziel disappeared from a conversation whenever Mireya asked him a serious question. 😭

I’m genuinely so sorry for leaving you hanging. I had exams, I got sick, life was doing the absolute most, and mentally I was just exhausted. I honestly reached a point where I couldn’t even look at my laptop without wanting to throw it across the room.

I also didn’t want to force out Chapters just for the sake of updating and give you something half-dead when I knew the story deserved better.

But—

I’M BACK.

School is finally done, my brain is slowly returning to its body, and I’m ready to get back to Mireya, Laziel, Anastelle, Helix, Valentina, and all the madness we’ve created. 😂

And yes, I KNOW some of you have been threatening me in the comments. I saw you. 😭

Thank you to everyone who waited, checked in, complained, begged, threatened violence, and somehow still stayed. I love you idiots. ❤️

Now that I’m done with school, I’m going to do my best to give you your updates properly again.

So buckle up.

Because we have a LOT to unpack.

And trust me...

Laziel’s problems are just getting started. 👀

Love you always,

— Author ❤️