Beyond The Gaze: A Love Unseen

Chapter 7

Ares Simon's POV:

I walked inside the office briskly and threw the file on my desk. It had been a week; a whole f*****g week, and yet, none of my plans had worked on the woman named Elysia Lawson. Every time I tried to entangle her in a trap, I ended up being the one trapped instead, and it always backfired.

This was getting frustrating. She was one hell of a complicated woman. It seemed like there was nothing wrong with her; in fact, she seemed sweet and innocent, completely different from what I had known about her.

She did not seem interested in money that was not hers at all; she did not have men around her, none; she did not seem to be having any kind of drugs, then how did I actually end up concluding her personality years ago?

I still remembered it as if it were yesterday when I saw her pictures doing drugs while Aubrey was trying to stop her and take that s**t away from her. I still remembered how I had seen her involved with different men.

Did I make a wrong judgment?

How could all that be a lie?!

I was never the type to believe someone's words until I saw it with my own eyes. So, when Aubrey told me these things about Elysia, I didn't believe her until she showed me the pictures, and I knew they were not altered; they were original.

How could someone change so much? But then, it had been more than ten years. Could it be that Elysia changed herself for the better? It wasn't impossible to think, but the change was rather drastic, making me doubt the validity of past incidents.

Or maybe, it's all just her facade to achieve something?

There were thousands of doubts and thoughts swirling in my head, and each one of them was related to Elysia Lawson. For heaven's sake, it hadn't even been a month, and that woman had become my nemesis already, without even doing anything. She was just being herself.

What would become of me if she actually stayed here for a whole damn year?!

I would definitely go crazy... No, not crazy; I would go imbecile...

Annoyed, I loosened my tie and stood in front of the glass wall of the office, staring outside, trying to clear my mind.

Suddenly, my phone rang on the office desk. I walked towards it and picked up the call. It was one of our major clients, Mr. Ashford, asking about a few details that could be negotiated in the contract at our next meeting. I was busy talking business with him when Elysia walked into my office, holding a file. I don't know why she was always so stiff around me. I would have thought it was her habit if I hadn't seen her working so relaxed while I wasn't around, which was, of course, through the security camera.

When she saw me on the call, she quietly placed the file on my desk and turned to leave when I stopped her absent-mindedly with my waving hand and gestured for her to bring me some water.

She nodded and immediately walked towards the water dispenser to pour a glass. I continued my conversation with Mr. Ashford while glancing over the file Elysia had brought in.

Elysia walked towards me, holding a glass of water on a small tray. When she was near and about to place the glass on the desk, I noticed her hand shaking slightly. It reminded me of her clumsy nature, and instinctively, I extended my hand to take the glass from her.

When she noticed my hand reaching hers, her hands shook uncontrollably, and before I could manage to hold the glass from her grip, it actually spilled all over the front of my pants.

"F**k!!" I blurted out, immediately standing up, my already built-up annoyance reaching its peak.

"Are you okay, Mr. Knight?" Mr. Ashford's voice echoed in the earpiece.