Chapter 11

The committee room was already half full by the time Seraphina took her seat, eight executives, most of them men who had run divisions of Devereaux Holdings since before Cassian took over the company.

Cassian took the head of the table. "Everyone, this is Ms. Voss. As you know, her observer seat is part of the partnership terms. She has full visibility into everything discussed here, no exceptions."

A woman near the far end, sharp-eyed, introduced a moment later as the CFO, Vivienne Norton, did not bother hiding her skepticism. "Full visibility is a generous term for a company that has been our competitor for the better part of a decade."

"It's the term in the contract," Cassian said, mild but final.

The meeting moved into quarterly projections, a dispute over headcount that clearly predated Seraphina by months. She said nothing for the first twenty minutes, watching instead.

"Ms. Voss." Vivienne's voice cut through the quiet. "You've been silent. Given your seat here, I'd be curious what Voss Holdings makes of our logistics restructuring."

Every eye in the room turned toward her.

"Honestly? I think you're solving the wrong problem," Seraphina said. "You're arguing about headcount in the Chicago hub when the actual bottleneck is in your Memphis facility. Your throughput numbers from last quarter show a fourteen percent slowdown there that nobody's mentioned once in the last twenty minutes."

Silence. Vivienne's expression shifted from skepticism to something closer to reassessment.

"How would you know our Memphis throughput numbers?"

"Financial visibility was part of the deal terms, Ms. Norton. I read everything I'm entitled to read."

Cassian watched her from the head of the table with something between pride and unease. "She's not wrong. Pull the Memphis numbers. We'll revisit Chicago after."

Vivienne didn't look thrilled, but she nodded, and the meeting moved on.

⸻

It ran another forty minutes. By the time it ended, three of the eight executives had spoken to her directly, unprompted, which Seraphina understood was its own kind of victory.

Cassian caught her at the door as the room emptied out.

"You handle yourself well in front of sharks," he said.

"I've had time to practice."

"I noticed. You handled Vivienne like a pro. That’s basically an impossible feat”

"Are you saying you can’t handle her? I’m just doing my job”

"Clearly. I never said that though” He studied her for a moment, arms crossed. "You looked stunning at the dinner last night, Ms. Voss. A different look from your usual office dressing."

Seraphina raised an eyebrow. "Is that your way of saying my work wardrobe is drab, Mr. Devereaux?"

"I'm saying it's efficient. Effective. Not exactly warm."

"I dress for the room I'm walking into. Committee meetings do not require red dresses."

"No," he agreed, his voice dropping an octave lower "Though I wouldn't have minded if they did."

"Careful. That sounds like you're flirting with a business partner."

"I'm observing. You told me it's a useful habit."

She almost smiled at that, catching herself a half second before it fully landed. "You're quoting me back to myself now."

"You say things worth remembering."

"Careful things," she said. "Not true ones."

"I'm still working on the true ones." He held the door for her, unhurried. "I meant what I said, though. Stunning. The rest of the room noticed too."

"The rest of the room was busy with cocktail hour, Mr. Devereaux. I doubt they noticed anything beyond the bar."

"I noticed."

She walked past him into the hallway choosing to ignore his deliberate flirty comment while smiling to herself.