Chapter 7-The Devil's Bargain

*Aryanna*

“I know you!” Lisa exclaimed again like she was trying to convince herself as she moved closer to question me further.

“Ma’am!”

Shelley waved urgently from the entrance of the hotel, her presence a sudden distraction that shattered Lisa’s concentration. With practiced ease, she rushed over to Lisa, bombarding her with a barrage of questions—each one more convoluted than the last.

That was the moment I needed. While Lisa’s focus remained tangled in Shelley’s web of questions, Jim finally broke away from his conversation. I seized the opportunity, stepping forward with quiet urgency and nudging him toward the car. Every second felt like a race against time. The tension was palpable as my pulse quickened.

But then, from the corner of my eye, I sensed Lisa’s gaze drifting—searching for me. Her eyes darted across the scene. In a split second, they found their mark. I saw her face twist in realization, but it was too late. Jim was already climbing into the car. Lisa's eyes met mine. For a brief but charged moment, she glimpsed my face—cold, resolute—before I slipped inside.

“Hey–”

The door slammed shut, cutting her off as the car pulled away, leaving her standing in the wake of what she had lost.

Jim turned curiously, unsure of what he heard. “What was that?”

“No idea,” I said casually, facing forward with a shrug. “Maybe her ride left her?”

***

I returned home to hear Shelley already darting about in the lodging. I closed the door and came in to dump my purse and laptop bag on the couch. I then went within to render an assist.

“Honey, I’m home,” I sang teasingly.

“How was your day at work, dear?” she asked, playing along.

The warm glow of the abode flickered against the backdrop of the snowy landscape as we moved about the dining room, setting up the table. The scent of ready home-cooked food married with the faint crackle of the fireplace, filling the space with a cozy atmosphere.

I grabbed the heavy linen tablecloth. The fabric was cool beneath my fingers as I spread it across the wooden table, its rustic surface polished to a soft sheen. Shelley was across from me, carefully placing plates—white ceramic with a subtle blue trim—at each setting. The clink of dishes against the table punctuated the quiet, every small sound magnified in the stillness.

“But really, how was work?” she asked again, this time seriously.

I looked up at her momentarily. “You know I don’t go there for work.”

“Right.” She clapped her hands and rubbed them readily. “The reason we have gathered. I need all the deets about what went down in that king suite.”

“Girl, where do I even begin?” I shifted the chair closer. “I could see that Lisa was ready to tackle me when I tried to open the door to the master suite because I knew he was inside.”

Without breaking eye contact, Shelley picked up the hand-carved wooden salad bowl, filled with crisp greens, roasted walnuts, and slivers of pear.

“You have no idea how much you saved me—twice, first with the alarm, and then the warning that the she-devil was coming back up.”

Shelley snorted a laugh. “So did Lisa get away with it?”

“No,” I blurted with a half-humored laugh. “It was insane, I wish you were there to see it. It felt like something out of those Kdramas you love to watch. Just when I thought Lisa won, since Darren was too disoriented to realize what was happening, Lisa came back like a Devil in Prada with the hotel manager and lied. She said there was a thief on the top floor, right? So when they were closing in, I thought I was screwed.”

Shelley stared back at me wide-eyed, neglecting her food as she placed the wooden bowl down.

“Darren pulls me behind him,” I said, making a jerking motion with my arm for visualization. “Like he’s shielding me or something and kicks out the manager. And Lisa,” I said with a growing smile, “he sent her away sobbing.”

Shelley laughed, slapping the air. “Karma, baby. Serves her right. So what happened after that—between you two?”

“Not much,” I said, viscerally disappointed. “Darren was holding up well, at least while they were watching, but was still really out of it. He asked for me to call Nathan, his PA. I had a choice whether to stay there–”

“Claim your title as the hero,” Shelley added excitedly.

“Or to leave before he woke up. And I left,” I said with a sad smile. Looking away, I dropped my back against the seat. “I can come up with all the reasons in the world that I couldn’t or that it wasn’t the right time. I’m just kinda bummed out that in the end, I just didn’t go through with it when my chance was right there. Truth is, I freaked out. I realized I wasn’t ready emotionally to face him like that. This all just got so much deeper and more twisted than I expected,” I said meaningfully as I looked back at her pointedly.

Shelley shrunk like she caught a hint of my underlying message. “And what does that mean?”

“I never wanted you to get involved,” I said, forthright. “Raising a false fire alarm… Isn’t that like a felony or something? Three times you had to stick your neck—four if we’re including the undercover operation from ‘wife’ to waiter.”

Shelley rolled her eyes and gave a bitter shake of her head. “When are you going to accept that I’m always going to have your back?”

“That should never come as an expense or danger to yourself,” I said with a raised voice. “If you feel obligated to do so, every time. That isn’t friendship—it’s fealty.”

Her eyes snapped back to me. “And why the hell would you say that?”

“You know why,” I said with reserved reproach. “We never talk about it, but I don’t want you to feel like you owe me because of what happened back in the day.”

I remembered it clearly, even though so many years had passed. Shelley had always been quieter, a bit more timid—unrecognizable from who she was now. It was during recess when I first saw her being bullied by a group of students in her class. They had cornered her near the swings, their cruel laughter ringing out like sharp cracks in the cold air. She stood there, frozen, her shoulders hunched and fear painted across her face. No one stepped in to help, and the rest of the kids just watched from a distance, too scared to get involved.

But I couldn’t stand by. I could see how frightened she was, the way her eyes darted around, searching for a way out. Just like the other kids, I was afraid. But unlike them, I did something about it. I pushed through the crowd, squeezing between the students until I was standing in front of her, small but determined, shielding her with my body.

They laughed, of course, but eventually, they backed off, muttering under their breath as they wandered away. Shelley didn’t say much afterward, just a quiet, shaky “Thank you,” her voice barely a whisper. But from that day on, something shifted between us. She started sitting next to me at lunch and walking home with me after school. Gradually, she became more than just a classmate—she became my best friend.

We were inseparable after that, two halves of a whole, and I never let her feel alone again.

I also didn’t want the bond between us to feel like she was bound to me.

“I think t-that,” I stammered hesitatingly. “I think that you should step away for a while. You should stay away from me. I can handle a lot of pain, but if you get in trouble, serious trouble because of me, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Shelley let out a breathless sound as she shook her head in disbelief.

“Do you think that after all this time, I stayed with you because you protected me from bullies?” she asked with a biting tone. “That was the start, perhaps. But I stayed with you because there was a strength in you, a kindness that ran deeper than anything I had ever known. It was the kind of strength that didn’t need to be the biggest to be powerful and a generosity of spirit that left its mark on everyone around you.”

Tears welled in my eyes. I looked up to try to prevent them from falling.

“You healed me.” She whispered that part. “You believed in me so much that I could finally believe in myself. So if you think I’m going to up and abandon you because things are heating up. No way. I’m with you until the wheels come off, Ary.”

The next morning, I went up to Jim’s office. I felt bad that the whole event was a colossal waste of time for him since I didn’t even have the chance to have a coherent conversation with the man we were after. When I went up to the double doors, I knocked twice before I slipped inside. Jim was on the phone. He glanced up and flashed a smile at me, beckoning me inside welcomingly.

I closed the door and took several steps closer. He muttered on with his conversation as he gestured to the open chair. I denied the invitation with a polite head shake as I waited for him to finish. I wanted to clear the air before I dove back into work. Jim tried to wrap things up, his responses constricted to curt terms until the person on the other end of the line took the hint.

He placed the phone face down on the table with a pent-up sigh. “Sorry about that. How can I help you?” he asked with such an accommodating aura like anything I wanted would be mine if I simply asked.

“I just wanted to apologize for wasting your time, sir,” I said in a somber voice. “I know that attending the banquet didn’t yield the results we were hoping for, particularly since the CEO was absent for most of the event.”

He gazed back at me ruefully. “Aryanna,” he said with such sorrow, “I hope this hasn’t been eating at you. Neither the circumstances nor the outcome were attributable to your actions. It was beyond the frame of foresight to predict Miller’s prolonged absence during the majority of the event. Besides, that problem has resolved itself.”

Hope ballooned in my chest as I smiled. “Seriously?” I blurted, and then I corrected myself. “I mean, how so, sir?

He gave a soft chuckle and said, “I have found another client who possesses the potential to facilitate the restoration of the dissolved partnership. Her involvement is of paramount importance, not only about the salvage of the partnership, but she is also important to the overall standing and reputation of our law firm.”

The elation that ballooned in my chest popped. “She?”

On cue, the door opened, and Anna walked in to hold the door open for a face I’d never thought I’d see there. Lisa sashayed inside and stood a few steps from me with an aloof air about her, her delicate features framed by soft waves of perfectly styled hair. Her lips curved into an innocent smile, sweet and disarming, but her eyes—those eyes—betrayed her true nature.

“Thank you, Anna,” Jim said as he stood to his feet.

Anna nodded her head at him, and she sent me a secret smile before she left the room. I knew Lisa was crazy, but I didn't know she was this vindictive to track me down like a bloodhound. I had no idea how she located me and my place of work. She likely paid someone to do it. But still, she was clearly insane. And whatever her intentions… They were nothing good.

Jim motioned to me. “I was merely apprising Aryanna here that you, Lisa, had also assured us that you would endeavor to persuade your father.”

My eyes flickered back to her. Beneath the surface of her crystalline beauty lurked a gleam of malice, cold and calculating.

And so I dared to ask, “And who is her father?” I asked without looking at her.

He smiled uneasily at my blatant disregard for her. “He is Jim of Miller Corporation, and she is firmly persuaded that she can convince him to once again nurture and promote the cooperative relationship with the law firm,” he said pointedly as if to remind me of her significance.

It was a subtle way of conveying that her favor was essential to securing his approval.

“I only had one small request,” Lisa said.

She moved to stand in front of me, forcing my gaze. She walked with a certain loftiness as though the world was beneath her, a stage set only to serve her whims. Every tilt of her chin, every languid glance, exuded an untouchable smugness.

“I want you to work for me personally.”

“You want to loan me out as your lawyer?” I asked, dumbstruck.

“I ask around about you,” she said with a malicious smile. “You are the best, and I only have the best to serve me. So naturally, you were the obvious choice.”

She didn’t want to retain me. She wanted revenge.

“That is my demand,” she declared as if she could hear the turmoil in my mind. “Without your involvement, without you, my presence here holds no purpose, or even for my father's consideration of a continued collaborative endeavor with your esteemed firm.”

Lisa shrugged carelessly. “That’s all for now, good day, director.” Her eyes slicked back to me with a shark-like grin. “Aryanna, I look forward to working with you.”

The moment she left the room, I hurried toward Jim’s desk.

“Sir, please, I can’t work for her,” I said in a desperate rush.

He sat back down and any trace of fondness was felled. “And why is that?”

“I don’t think we’re compatible, sir, not in any professional capacity.”

He peered up at me with a tint of contempt. “Your professional capacity is tailored to the needs of this firm. You will not dictate who you feel you are compatible or comfortable with. Preference for compatibility and comfort with others should not be established by external influences, especially not for something as petty as disliking someone. This isn’t junior high where you get to choose your lab partner.”

“Of course not, sir,” I said in a submissive tone. “I just don’t think–”

“Don’t think. Just do. That’s what you’re paid for.” He cast a punishing glare in my direction, his disappointment palpable. “To be honest, I find your objections utterly appalling. That woman possesses the ability to resurrect a partnership that is crucial to this firm’s success. I have no tolerance for fickle people or those lacking the fortitude to adapt. Should you find yourself unable to withstand the pressure, I expect you to inform me immediately so I can terminate your contract. And you can leave this firm immediately.”