PTE

. She didn't bother reading through the details. She hated being questioned, hated being challenged, and she was

heading on the first document: "Contract

tation, she pressed the pen to the paper and si

do

for a moment as she stared at the title, her heart quickening. This wasn't just a formality. This wasn't

t she forced herself to take a deep breat

, like a work of art. Her name would be here forever, printed neatly in ink, a symbol of the moment she chose to step into a new life. Mia inhaled deeply

ke the weight of the decision had finally settled on her shoulders. She placed the pen down besi

but studying her. His expression was unreadable, as it often was, but there was something in the way his brows were slightly drawn together, the fai

der the intensity. "What?" she asked, he

coffee cup. "Nothing," he said simply, but his eyes never left hers. The corner o

here for that. She was here for he

w, till you leave his house." he had said. And he was right. There was no need for an explanation, she understood perfectly. Her father wasn't someone to take

contracts into his briefcase. Stefan watched her for a moment, his gaze steady, be

sip. "I'll take my car back to my father's place. I won

s, though he didn't say anything immediately. In

, tilting her chin

smallest hint of a smirk tugged at the corner

of the door left Mia alone with her thoughts. She glanced back at the table one last time, at the s

ard her car. She slid into the driver's seat, her hands gripping the wheel tightly for a moment as she stared straight ahe

's house loomed in her mind, a symbol of everything she was leaving behind. The empire, the expectations, the suffocating control, it would all stay here

way of her father's estate, she paused, her hands gripping the wheel tightly as she stared at the grand facade. It

ent as she made her way toward the front door. She hesitated for half a

rsations, the scent of fresh flowers from the arrangements scattered througho

ned. Her pulse quickened, and her grip on the door tightened