A moment later, the living room door swung open. Aliana’s eyes went wide, her mouth hanging open as her head snapped off her husband’s shoulder to take in her friend’s appearance.
"J-Jade?" Aliana squeaked out, her brain flatlining. "What in the actual..."
"Holy mother of God!" Nigel gasped after her, clutching his chest as if his soul were leaving his body.
Shock didn’t even begin to describe what they were seeing. It wasn’t just the fact that a familiar, red-haired woman had walked in.
It was the fact that Jade, a woman who usually refused to leave her mansion in anything less than haute couture, was currently standing in the center of the room wearing a pleated plaid skirt, knee-high socks, and a tiny schoolgirl cardigan.
Even Gavriel, a man who was never rattled by anything unless it pertained to his wife, subtly raised his brows at her ridiculous attire.
Jade, meanwhile, was sporting a flush so bright she could easily double as an emergency flare. She squeezed her eyes shut for one miserable second, wishing a sinkhole would swallow her whole, before opening them to face the firing squad.
"Good morning, Ali. Gavriel. Nigel," Jade declared with a rigid, deadpan face, though her knees shook under the weight of three intensely bewildered stares.
Suddenly, a booming laugh shattered the quiet hall behind her. The demon himself, looking like a million bucks in a tailored charcoal suit, stepped into the room with a victorious, dazzling grin.
"A very pleasant morning to all the mature, functioning adults present," Cillian purred smoothly.
His brown eyes glinted with pure mischief as he glanced at Jade before shifting to Aliana. "Ah, dear sister-in-law... judging by the horror on your face, it seems we aren’t having a costume party today after all. Looks like Halloween arrived earlier for someone else."
Jade’s head whipped around, her eyes burning with unadulterated fury. Raising her foot, she brought her sharp heel crashing down onto the toe of his pristine leather shoe.
"You can host the costume party in hell, Cillian," Jade growled through gritted teeth before turning on her heel and marching straight toward Aliana.
Aliana finally rose from the sofa, snapping out of her stupor after hearing Cillian wince.
Meeting her halfway, Aliana pulled Jade into a swift hug before pulling back to scan her up and down once again.
"I have to admit... when I called you this morning and a weirdo picked up, I genuinely thought you had been kidnapped. Gav told me I was overthinking, but looking at you right now, I am convinced a gun was involved."
Jade opened her mouth to set the record straight, but remembering Cillian’s smug face outside the bathroom door, she seized the opportunity.
"Actually, yes. A lunatic friend of mine is entirely responsible for this atrocity after I asked him to fetch me a clean set of clothes."
Standing near the doorway, Cillian’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits at being publicly labelled a ’lunatic friend.’
Aliana stared at her, her brows pulling together. "Wait... why were you asking a random friend for clothes in the first place?"
Jade lied with the grace of a seasoned politician. "Because the clumsy idiot managed to dump an entire cocktail all over my dress during dinner last night."
Aliana opened her mouth to ask five more burning questions, the confusion practically radiating off her.
Sensing the imminent danger of her cover story blowing up, Jade cut in quickly, "Anyway! I desperately need to borrow one of your dresses before I can think straight."
"Right! Winston?" Aliana called out without hesitation.
The butler materialized almost instantly, his face a heroic mask of rigid composure despite his eyes twitching slightly at Jade’s plaid skirt.
"Please help her out with a change of clothes," Aliana requested.
Winston offered a slight, polished bow before gesturing toward the hallway. "Right this way, Miss Jade."
"T-Thank you," Jade muttered, making a swift escape behind Winston but not without glaring back at Cillian, who was also glaring back at her for every single lie she had just spouted about him.
....
Later that afternoon, the group gathered around the dining table for brunch. Jade, now looking like her usual refined self in one of Aliana’s elegant day dresses, laid out the events of the previous evening.
She provided a carefully curated summary, explaining that she had cut off contact with her parents following the disastrous Vanderbilt dinner. While out at dinner with a friend, she discovered her father had retaliated by freezing her accounts. Worse, as her friend drove her home, she spotted her father’s security team staking out her residence to bring her back under house arrest. Left with zero options, she had spent the night at her friend’s residence.
She conveniently omitted every single detail involving Cillian, making the man sitting directly across from her continue to bore holes into her skull with his gaze.
Jade knew Cillian was deeply displeased by the secrecy surrounding their one-time entanglement, but it wasn’t as if she could announce to the world what had transpired between them. Even after she had clearly asked him to move on, the man showed no sign of giving up.
Just recalling their standoff at his mansion brought a fresh throbbing to her temples.
When she had stepped out of his bathroom wrapped in a towel, expecting a sleek dress, she found a shopping bag containing a plaid schoolgirl uniform waiting on the bed alongside her car keys.
Instead of putting it on, she had screamed his name until he showed up, already fully dressed in his tailored suit.
When she demanded an explanation, he had shamelessly shrugged, explaining that his assistant had gotten the wrong idea when he requested a fresh outfit for a petite female on short notice. Without him giving any more details, his assistant Kevin had simply grabbed whatever was available from the nearest boutique that sold uniforms.
Hence, there it was.
Jade had stood her ground, declaring, "I would rather die on this floor than step outside looking like an anime character."
"Perfect," Cillian had purred, his fingers lazily loosening his silk tie. "I was actually hoping you’d refuse. I have zero interest in leaving just yet anyway. We can find other ways to pass the time."
Jade’s jaw had dropped as he casually undid his top collar buttons, his chocolate brown eyes darkening with unmistakable hunger as he swept his gaze over her bare shoulders. Knowing the impossible man was not joking, she had snatched the outfit and run back into the bathroom to dress as fast as she could.
She had fled his estate while letting out a flurry of curses, hoping to put distance between them, only for his sports car to tail her all the way to the Valentine Residence.
Jade released a quiet sigh, wondering how to stop this from becoming a thing with Cillian when a loud clatter of cutlery striking a plate snapped her back to reality.
Aliana’s eyes flashed with pure indignation as she fumed, "He is being ridiculous!"
Every head around the table turned to look at her as Aliana continued angrily, "No wonder your father spammed my phone with calls all night and had the nerve to accuse me of hiding you this morning!"
"Hiding me?" Jade repeated, her eyebrows shooting up.
Aliana gave a firm nod. "When I called him back this morning, he was convinced you were hiding under my roof and that I was blatantly covering for you. He even threatened to dispatch a squad of his security men to storm my gates and haul you home."
Jade’s brows knit together, a deep chill running through her. "What on earth is driving him? I’ve never seen my father act this desperate."
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