Chapter 213. Talk With CC

I couldn’t utter a word when I felt the sharp sting explode across my face.

The sound of the slap echoed in the foyer—loud, final, unforgiving. For a split second, the world tilted, my head snapping to the side as heat bloomed along my cheek. I tasted iron almost immediately, my tongue instinctively brushing my lip as I steadied myself. I knew without needing a mirror that it would leave a mark. CC had never been one to hold back when she believed she was right.

Her assistant gasped sharply beside us, hands flying to her mouth, eyes wide with shock. The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence, broken only by the faint ticking of the antique clock on the wall.

I forced myself to breathe.

In. Out.

I swallowed slowly, lifting my gaze back to CC without a trace of anger on my face, even though