Chapter 152: Chapter 152: The Difference in Rank

Chapter 152: The Difference in Rank

The bodyguard visibly relaxed.

"Thank you for understanding, Ms. Blackwood. We were only here to escort Miss Frost home. We didn’t know he was your lover."

Serena did not confirm or deny it.

Elias was unhurt, so she had no interest in wasting time on these people. If anything had actually happened to him, their purpose would not have mattered. Their orders would not have mattered. Every one of them would have paid for putting a hand on him.

Elias looked past Serena.

Giselle still stood where she had stopped, though at some point her head had lowered. A few strands of loose silver hair fell over her forehead, hiding part of that beautiful Central European face.

She must have noticed the change in the bodyguards’ attitude right away.

With Giselle, they kept calling her Miss Frost, but words meant nothing. Actions did. From the way they had moved, spoken, and fought, they had never truly treated her as someone they feared.

Part of that came from Victoria Frost’s orders.

Most of it came from Giselle’s position.

Her identity did not press down on them.

Serena’s did.

The difference was so obvious it almost felt cruel. The bodyguards faced Serena the way they might have faced Victoria herself, maybe with even more panic threaded through their obedience.

That shift alone laid out the distance between Serena Blackwood and Giselle Frost better than any insult could have.

So Serena only glanced at Giselle once.

She did not even bother mocking her.

In Serena’s eyes, Giselle was not worth that much effort.

Maybe Giselle was young. Maybe she still had time. But when Serena had been Giselle’s age, she had already carried the weight of an entire group on her shoulders.

Age, in the end, was just an excuse people used when they had nothing else.

Serena’s cool gaze returned to Elias. The moment she looked at him, it softened naturally.

She held out a hand.

"Let’s go home."

Elias’s eyes widened slightly.

Then he shook his head hard.

Absolutely not.

How could they leave now? Giselle’s confidence and pride had not been properly crushed yet. The mission was not finished. How could he walk away at the most useful moment?

Serena, hurry up and kick her while she’s down.

Elias decided to give Serena room to perform.

When she took his hand, he did not struggle. He only planted his feet where he stood, his gaze drifting back toward Giselle with obvious worry and reluctant attachment.

Serena’s eyes narrowed.

Then she smiled.

"What’s wrong?" she asked. "Are you worried she’ll get hurt?"

Elias nodded quickly. "They really hit her."

"Did they?" Serena finally turned back to the bodyguards. Her tone carried a trace of surprise, but her expression said she had expected every bit of it. "You people have a lot of nerve. Putting your hands on your own young mistress."

The bodyguard who had held Elias still kept her head lowered.

"We were only asking Miss Frost to return home. Those were Mrs. Frost’s orders."

The sentence sounded ordinary.

It explained everything.

Of course, Serena had known the truth from the beginning. How could she not understand Victoria Frost?

"Oh," Serena said with a slight nod.

Her gaze settled on Giselle.

"In that case, Miss Frost is the one in the wrong. You’re already an adult. Why are you still acting like a child who refuses to listen to her mother?"

Elias’s fingers curled faintly.

Nice.

That was Serena Blackwood for you. No one else could make that sentence land with such vicious precision.

"Even if Giselle is being difficult, she is still your family’s young mistress," Serena continued, her tone almost careless. "To put it nicely, you are the Frost family’s employees. To put it less nicely, you are the Frost family’s dogs. Since when does a dog raised by the house get to bite its owner?"

She paused, then added, "No matter what, don’t touch her again. Can’t you see my lover is worried about his classmate?"

Elias looked at Serena, something flickering through his eyes.

He had seen so much of Serena’s childish side lately that he had almost forgotten this was her real shape.

A knife hidden inside a sentence. A casual remark sharpened until it cut flesh from bone. That was basic practice for her.

With a few easy words, she had mocked the Frost family, the bodyguards, and Giselle all at once. She had even shown off her relationship with Elias right in front of Giselle’s face.

Calling it killing two birds with one stone was too polite.

"Yes," the bodyguard said respectfully.

Serena ignored them after that.

She did not spare them another glance. She simply held Elias’s hand and guided him gently back to the car.

Elias let her lead him.

As he walked, he looked back at Giselle.

She still stood there alone, and somehow, for the first time, her figure seemed smaller than before.

A faint curve touched Elias’s mouth.

The adult world was not like the world of teenagers. It did not leave much room for impulse, pride, or doing whatever one wanted.

This was part of growing up.

So hurry up and grow, little girl.

A performance had to be carried through to the end.

Once Elias was back inside Serena’s car, he still kept looking at Giselle through the window, his face full of concern, as if he was afraid the bodyguards might attack her again the moment Serena left.

A cool, pale hand appeared in front of his eyes.

Serena’s palm brushed lightly over his lashes, blocking his view. Then she turned his head back toward her with gentle pressure, until he had no choice but to meet her face.

"They won’t dare touch her again," Serena said softly. "I warned them."

Her voice sounded tender and natural.

Elias still caught the tiny thread of displeasure under it.

She was unhappy about how much he cared about Giselle.

But that unhappiness did not break open. She swallowed it instead.

Did that count as a different kind of pouting?

Elias thought, with some amusement, that Serena really had fallen for him.

The more feeling she invested, the more her attitude toward him changed. That kind of change could not be faked cleanly, not even by someone like her.

Elias pretended not to notice the jealousy hidden beneath her softness. He only let out a long breath of relief.

"That’s good."

Serena looked at him for a moment.

"Do you really care about her that much?"

Elias immediately turned to study her face, as if trying to tell whether the question was an accusation or a normal question.

The answer was obvious.

It was the second.

Serena even gave him more room to relax.

"She’s still a woman," Serena said. "Anyone would care if they saw their lover worrying about someone else like that."

"Who’s your lover?" Elias snapped, glaring at her.

Serena did not argue with him about what they were to each other.

She only stared at him.

"Do you care about her?"

No anger.

No accusation.

No impulse.

She was so composed that Elias could not even find a proper excuse to start a fight.

And since Serena’s mockery of Giselle had helped him quite a bit, Elias decided to give her a small reward.

"She and I..." Elias lowered his eyes. "We’re just friends."

Friends?

A female friend?

Inside, Serena gave a cold little laugh.

To her, that sentence was practically a joke.

But she had learned.

She would not argue with Elias about this kind of thing anymore. It would only make her look foolish and give him room to pull away.

Instead, she moved closer.

The distance between them turned intimate.

Her smile lowered with her voice. "Then what are we?"

Elias glanced at Serena in secret, then quickly looked away.

"Not lovers, anyway," he muttered.

Even as he said it, a faint blush spread across his soft pink cheeks.