The room carried a hint of blooms , the costly kinds, pale and quiet, set up flawlessly but no one knew they were already dying inside.
Elara stood near the window lingering with her fingers lightly drumming on the pane Nervously .
City lights sparkled outside - bold, made of steel and stone.
Behind her, Rhea poured tea as if they were just two friends having a late afternoon chat.
"She saw him." Elara said flatly.
Rhea didn't look surprised. "So you said."
"You sound calm for someone who swore it was almost going to be impossible in this life time."
"I didn't swear," Rhea said.
"I predicted. And predictions could bend."
She handed Elara a cup, her fingers steady.
"You're only angry because he found her faster this time, perhaps he did cause you weren't playing your own part well."
Elara turned, eyes sharp.
"Last time, it took him months after the dream to even remember her face. This time…" she snapped her fingers "…a week.
He's already orbiting her again." She continued.
"Guess what? I wake up to her face staring down at us in bed whenever I sleep over at his. Do you have any idea how humiliating that is for me?"
Rhea took a sip unbothered over Elara's seeming distress.
"Love accelerates when it's cornered. You should know that."
"Don't patronize me," Elara said angrily. "You told me the loop was stable. You told me she wouldn't matter."
" Oh please already. You told me… you told me… I fucking told you the construct would blur their sense of time," Rhea corrected, unruffled And getting irritated.
"Not that destiny wouldn't try again. It always does."
Elara's laugh was short and dry. "So that's your defense huh? Fate?"
"Call it inertia," Rhea said. "Every story repeats until someone changes the ending."
Elara crossed her arms.
"And you think that this time around she would change the ending?"
Rhea met her gaze, smile thin. "Yes it seems so, only if you keep letting emotion cloud what we're building."
Elara's jaw tightened. "What you're building."
"What we," Rhea said smoothly. "Your company thrives under his name. My research…craft, thrives under yours. The balance works, as long as they don't fully reunite and remember."
Elara paced. "He's already been to her bakery. Do you know how reckless that is? The media…"
"…won't touch it," Rhea said. "He's discreet. He always was. Give me forty-eight hours. I will come up with a contingency plan, just incase they bypass every obstacle we throw in their part."
"You had six years," Elara hissed,unimpressed.
"And you had him and lost him." Rhea countered. "Remind me how winning him back is going on."
For a heartbeat, silence thickened the room.
Then Elara looked away.
Her reflection glimmered in the window: polished, perfect, cracking around the eyes. "You promised he'd forget."
"He will," Rhea said quietly. "The pattern never lies. A spark, a rush, a fall. I just have to… accelerate the forgetting. Have a little faith,It will happen."
Elara turned back. "And if she gets to him first?"
"Then she dies again." Rhea's tone didn't waver. "And you'll get to watch again as you've always done."
Elara didn't answer. She walked to her desk, picked up her phone, and stared at the black screen until it lit with a call. Unknown number. She answered.
"Go ahead," she said.
A man's voice crackled through. "No guards, no press saw Mr Rhezan go into the other sector. Be rest assured it won't make any headlin."
Elara glanced at Rhea, who lifted an eyebrow as if she could already hear every word.
"Keep watching," Elara said softly. "Don't discard the pictures and videos of them till I say so."
"Yes, ma'am." The line went dead.
Elara set the phone down, fingers lingering over it. "He's moving faster. He's… remembering."
Rhea turned back to the window. "Then so must we. Heads up, You might be seeing your sister soon again. Apparently Mr. Rhezan made a private order on her baked goods. She will be delivering this week. Maintain your cool and don't be cut off guard."
Elara flayed up in anger and dissatisfaction.
"Why do you live with her if you can't stop all these random meetings from happening? What is the purpose?"
Rhea hid her irritation over the question perfectly with sarcasm as she responded.
"I love bonding with her dear, you should try having a sister someday, the bond is unlike anything I've ever encountered ."
The shots were fired and for an awhile, they both just stood there together, their shapes blurred in the window -One with forbidden knowledge , the other a vengeful business woman. They both stood united in purpose as they both starred down on the city.
Elara's mouth moved, not into a smile but into something colder, quieter.
"If they ever stand together as man and wife again," she said, "it'll be over my dead cold body."