Chapter 14

Sophia's POV

I walked through my front door thinking about nothing except collapsing onto my bed. The day had been long, and dinner with Derick had somehow made it longer rather than shorter, the strangeness of it still sitting unresolved in my chest.

I couldn't work out why he'd suddenly grown so interested in my rejection story, or why sitting across from the man who'd made my first weeks at that company a small daily hell had left me feeling anything other than furious.

If anything, after tonight, it seemed possible that things at work might actually shift, that Derick and the rest might finally stop treating me like nothing more than a rejected mate.

I never made it as far as my room. Blake was standing at my door when I turned down the hallway, a single black rose h