Chapter 6

The soft spring breeze still lingered when Eloise returned from lunch. The subtle coral shade on her lips complemented the beige suit that emphasized her understated elegance.

It was exactly three o’clock when she entered the company break room. She prepared a tray with a cup of coffee—black, without sugar, exactly the way he liked it—and headed toward Augusto’s office.

She knocked before entering.

“May I come in?” she asked.

“Come in,” he replied without looking away from his laptop.

She entered quietly, placed the tray on the side table, and observed him for a moment. Tension weighed on his shoulders, and his jaw was clenched as though the world inside that office felt heavier than the one outside.

“Coffee. I thought you might need it,” she said with a faint smile.

He nodded without showing any emotion.

“Thank you, Miss Nogueira.”

She discreetly left the office and returned to her desk. She began organizing his schedule for the following week, checked the pending reports, and replied to several emails on his behalf—with his prior authorization.

She was preparing to finish her workday when the receptionist placed an elegant envelope on her desk.

The invitation was printed on thick paper with gold-trimmed edges and serif lettering that exuded power and tradition.

She skimmed the message.

The Monteiro family requests the pleasure of your company at its annual dinner honoring North City’s most distinguished business partnerships.

She immediately recognized the sender’s name: José Monteiro, Augusto’s father.

She swallowed hard.

This seemed important.

Carefully, she picked up the envelope and walked toward his office. She knocked once more, and he granted her permission to enter with a quiet murmur.

“This invitation just arrived, sir.” She held out the envelope.

Augusto took it, but the moment he read his father’s name, his fingers stiffened.

For a second, time stopped.

His gaze lost focus, as though he were seeing something far beyond the walls of that office.

Memories exploded through his mind like shards of glass.

The sound of a door opening in the middle of the night.

The muffled whispers coming from upstairs.

Him climbing the stairs in silence and stopping before the half-open door of the guest bedroom.

And there they were.

Thamires.

His fiancée.

Caio.

His best friend since childhood.

Their betrayal had torn him apart.

In the days that followed, his father had tried to minimize what happened.

“You know how these things are. They made a mistake, but business is business. Her family is still strategically important to us, Augusto,” José Monteiro had said, as though his son’s pain were nothing more than an administrative inconvenience.

Something inside Augusto had died that day.

Through silence and coldness, he destroyed the dreamer who had once believed in loyalty. He buried his emotions and locked every door leading to his heart.

Since then, every dinner like this had been another poorly disguised attempt by his father to place him in front of the woman who had destroyed everything.

Thamires.

A beautifully dressed lie.

Augusto took a deep breath, his green eyes still fixed on the name printed on the envelope.

“You may leave, Miss Nogueira,” he said, his voice lower than usual.

Eloise hesitated.

She noticed the way he stared at the invitation and how his thumb pressed against one corner of the envelope as though the very sight of it filled him with anger.

Something about it had hurt him.

She wanted to ask, but it wasn’t her place.

“Of course, Mr. Monteiro.”

She turned to leave, but as she closed the door, she discreetly glanced back.

She saw the exact moment he placed the invitation inside a drawer and locked it with a key.

She said nothing.

But a spark of curiosity remained burning inside her.