"Did you print all of them?" Cieryl asked Natasha in a hushed tone.
"Yes," Natasha replied, holding up the nearly two hundred printed sheets of consent forms.
Cieryl gave her a tight smile and led the group toward the SBO office, where Evadne was currently working.
A few other members of the student body organization were already inside, absorbed in their own tasks.
Good, Cieryl thought, her lips curling slightly. Time to remind you who really owns this school, Evadne.
She snatched the stack of papers from Natasha and walked slowly, deliberately, toward the head seat at the conference table where Evadne sat, reviewing documents on her iPad.
"Vee," Cieryl called sweetly, voice dipped in honey. "Here are the consent forms. Sorry it took a while to collect everything."
Evadne looked up from her screen, her eyes shifting between Cieryl's smile and the thick pile of papers in her hands.
Her brow arched slightly. "Why are they printed?" she asked flatly. "I never asked for hard copies."
"Huh? But isn't that what you told us?" Cieryl blinked, feigning confusion. "You said to collect the signed parental consent forms."
"Exactly," added Nikka. "You even said we had to get them personally from the students. That's why we spent the whole day tracking everyone down."
From the corner of her eye, Cieryl saw Alaric's subtle signal, Hades is on his way.
She didn't even need to look around to know the other students in the room were ignoring the conversation.
Perfect.
Cieryl stepped closer and extended the stack toward Evadne again, her smile unwavering.
Evadne raised an eyebrow once more but reached forward anyway.
The moment her fingers grazed the papers, Cieryl let herself fall backward, like she'd been shoved.
The papers scattered dramatically across the floor.
"Cieryl!" her friends cried out in unison, their reactions loud and exaggerated.
Heads turned.
Students glanced over.
And right on cue, Hades stepped into the room.
"Vee, I'm sorry," Cieryl said tearfully, blinking rapidly as tears began to fall. "If we misunderstood your instructions, you could've just told us. You didn't have to push me…"
Estelle chimed in, her voice full of feigned outrage. "Exactly! Just because you're the SBO President doesn't mean you get to abuse your authority. You don't get to push people around."
"What's going on here?" Hades asked, eyes darting between the scene in front of him.
Cieryl was on the floor, papers everywhere. Evadne sat calmly, unmoved, her expression unreadable.
"Babe," Cieryl whimpered, wiping her cheeks. "Please don't get mad at Vee. It's my fault. I misunderstood her instructions. I know she's stressed. I understand if she lost her temper and shoved me."
Evadne raised an eyebrow, and smirked.
"I pushed you?" she repeated, her voice amused.
"Don't pretend now," Blythe said, arms crossed. "We all saw it."
Hades walked past everyone, ignoring Cieryl's outstretched hand as she tried to reach for him. He didn't help her up. He didn't even look at her.
Her friends exchanged uneasy glances.
"Did you push her, wife?" Hades asked evenly, tone unreadable.
Evadne tilted her head and gave him a syrupy smile. "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. Hard to tell."
She leaned back in her chair. "You all know, I'm bipolar. So sometimes when I have an episode, my brain processes things differently. Maybe I think I didn't push her. Or maybe I did, and I've just erased it from memory. Who knows?"
Her voice remained soft, sweet, and laced with pure venom.
"But Cieryl," she said, her gaze suddenly sharpening, "even if we assume you misunderstood the instructions… why are there five consent forms on the floor with the name Illiot Vanhelp?"
She pointed to the scattered pages, her finger landing on one of them. "Are there five Illiot Vanhelps enrolled in this school?"
Cieryl froze.
Her eyes widened.
Her friends stilled.
Everyone looked down at the papers.
And sure enough, five identical forms. Same name. Same signature.
Evadne didn't even blink.
Her voice dropped an octave, deadly calm.
"I'd love to hear your explanation. Take your time."
Evadne crossed her arms, her expression unreadable as she waited.
Cieryl and her friends looked at one another in silence, avoiding eye contact with everyone else. The rest of the students inside the SBO office had gone still, eyes flicking nervously between the two sides, but no one dared to intervene.
"So?" Evadne's voice cut through the tension. "No explanation?"
"That's not the point here!" Natasha suddenly snapped. "The important thing is that you pushed Cieryl. You went too far! What if she got hurt? What if she hit her head?!"
Evadne let out a sharp breath and shook her head slowly, clearly unimpressed.
"Not important?" she repeated, her voice laced with mock disbelief.
She slowly turned her swivel chair to fully face them, legs crossed, posture elegant, regal. Cieryl still hadn't stood up, clearly waiting for Hades to help her. But from where Evadne sat, she looked like a queen looking down at pathetic court jesters who had overstepped.
"Let's pretend for a second that I did push her," Evadne said coolly. "Let's say she hit her head, needed surgery, and you brought it to court."
She smiled sweetly.
"I wouldn't go to prison. I'm clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A court would order psychiatric treatment. A facility. Not jail."
Then her fingers plucked two identical forms from the floor and held them up delicately.
"But you, on the other hand…"
Her smile widened, dark and dangerous.
"I'm very certain this is forgery. And forgery is a felony, darlings. If Mr. or Mrs. Vanhelp happens to be a lawyer, they might be kind enough to pursue it as a misdemeanor, one year in jail. But…" she paused, eyes narrowing, "if Mr. Vanhelp is a chairman or CEO, do you really think you'll get away with just a slap on the wrist?"
She let that sink in before continuing.
"I'm seeing at least a $10,000 fine. Nothing for people like us, of course. But if he's someone like Hades's father, Dad Jupiter, well," her voice dipped, "money would be the least of your worries. One forged signature can destroy a business empire. Ten years in jail would be mercy."
The color drained from their faces.
"And seeing as you've forged not just one, but five identical forms…" Evadne gestured to the others on the floor, "it's not hard to assume you faked most, if not all, of them."
She tilted her head slightly, her smile now razor-sharp.
"So tell me… what's more serious? Me allegedly shoving Cieryl, or you forging documents with the names of powerful people?"
"You didn't think this through very well," she said with a quiet laugh. "You forgot there are two CCTV cameras inside this room."
Her eyes flicked toward the upper corners of the room, where the lenses were barely noticeable unless you knew where to look.
"Oh, that's right. You wouldn't know. You weren't around when I redesigned and overhauled the entire office."
The silence was suffocating now.
Evadne stood slowly and stepped closer.
"If you're going to sabotage me, Cieryl," she said smoothly, "please… do it properly. This was embarrassingly amateur. Like taking candy from a toddler."
"If you can't handle your tasks, you could've just said so. I can always reassign them to someone competent. Someone willing and not whining." She turned, casting a playful glance at Hades.
"But then again…" she added, her voice taking on a velvet edge, "that would mean you've already lost, husband."
She picked up her iPad and her bag.
"I have a meeting with the Academy President," she said, stepping past the crowd, only to stop when Hades reached out and gently pulled her back by the wrist.
Evadne blinked in surprise as he turned her to face him, lifting her chin between his fingers.
"Baby," he murmured with a faint smile, raising a brow, "I have until Wednesday. That was our deal."
Evadne rolled her eyes, but her lips curled upward despite herself.
"I can be indulgent. I think I've proven that already," she purred, biting her lower lip. Then she leaned closer, her lips brushing against his ear.
"But if I get even one more problem from your side, forget dinner altogether."
And in front of everyone, Cieryl, the SBO members, Evadne kissed him.
Slow. Deliberate. Unapologetic.
Hades kissed her back without hesitation, one hand cupping the side of her face like she was his only reality.
The kiss ended with a sharp hiss from Hades as Evadne bit his lower lip, drawing blood, then licked it with a smile.
"Wednesday. Before school ends," she reminded him, her voice calm and unapologetic.
She didn't bother explaining the kiss. Didn't care about the stunned eyes watching them. Not a word. Not a glance.
Instead, she walked past them all, head high, and locked eyes with Cieryl, whose face had completely lost color.
"Princess!"
A singsong voice called from the doorway.
Casadin strolled in and immediately froze as he took in the scene, Cieryl still on the floor, her friends surrounding her, papers scattered like a storm had hit the office.
Then his gaze snapped to Evadne, mock-accusatory.
"You had fun without me?" he said with a dramatic gasp.
Evadne chuckled, amused at his theatrical flair.
"Fun?" she repeated. "There was nothing fun about this. It was a pathetic display of power. Poorly executed and not even thought through. If you had been here, you'd be annoyed. Maybe even made someone cry."
Her voice, while casual, was deliberately loud enough for Cieryl and the others to hear.
Casadin grinned, picked up her bag, and slung it over his shoulder before throwing an arm around her.
Evadne turned one last time toward Cieryl.
"In case you want a copy of the CCTV footage, just ask Delvin," she said sweetly. "And you might want to destroy those printed forms. They are evidence of your felony, after all. Just in case."
Then she smiled, eyes sharp.
"Ciao," she said.
And with that, she walked away beside Casadin, heels clicking against the tile like a drumbeat of finality.
The silence left behind was palpable. The tension lingered in the air like smoke after a fire.
Hades leaned against the edge of the conference table, arms crossed, eyes still trained on Cieryl, who hadn't moved from the floor.
The other SBO members returned to their tasks, whispering, glancing, pretending not to be shaken.
Hades pulled out his phone. His fingers moved swiftly across the screen. Then he pressed call.
"Tyla," he said after the third ring.
"I just sent you a list of names. Check if we have any current or pending affiliations with them. If we don't, ignore them. If we're in the process of partnering, cancel it. And if we already did… don't renew it. Shut it down."
He paused.
"If they ask why, tell them, their heirs and heiresses are useless to me. Deadweights."
And with that, he ended the call.
His attention turned back to the girl still trembling at the floor.
"How long are you planning to sit there?" Hades asked dryly.
"Babe…" Cieryl's voice cracked, this time, the trembling wasn't an act.
There were real tears in her eyes now.
"Why did Evadne kiss you?" she asked, standing shakily.
"Why did you kiss her back? Do you like her now?" Her voice rose in accusation.
Hades's face remained unreadable.
"And why shouldn't I?" he said simply. "She's my fiancée, after all."
Cieryl froze. Her lips parted, her body tensed.
"What about me?" she demanded, her voice shaking. "You promised me. You said you'd never have feelings for her. That I just had to be patient. That one day, you'd fight for me. Are you breaking your promise?"
"Exactly," Hades said, nodding once. "That was the promise. As long as you stayed patient… loyal… and understanding... I would choose you."
He turned his head slowly, smirking at her, and then at Thatcher, who visibly flinched.
"But have you?"
Their faces drained of color.
Cieryl's gaze snapped toward Selena, suspicion burning in her eyes.
But Hades only chuckled coldly.
"Don't worry. Selena didn't rat you out," he said casually. "But the way you're all looking at each other now?"
He stepped forward.
"Did you really think I was that stupid? That gullible?"
They swallowed hard.
Before Selena could say anything, Hades was already in front of her.
"Hades!" she yelped as he slammed her against the wall, his hand around her throat.
Her eyes widened in terror. Her hands clutched his arm, panicked.
"It seems," he said softly, voice dangerously low, "you forgot a very important clause in our agreement, Selena."
"I didn't do anything," she choked, tears now falling freely as his grip tightened.
"Exactly," Hades hissed. "You. Did. Nothing."
Then, just as suddenly, he let go.
Selena dropped to her knees, gasping, trembling.
"But," Hades said with a cold smile, "I'm in a good mood today. So I'll let it go. Just this once."
He looked at her one last time, eyes emotionless.
"There won't be a second time," then left the office as well without looking back at them.