"You looked so... " She broke off, laughing harder. "So serious. So worried. Like I was about to tell you Catherine declared war or something."

The tension that had been coiling in his chest loosened slightly, replaced by confusion and the faint stirring of embarrassment.

"This isn't funny, Victoria," Alex said, though his voice lacked real heat. "Catherine knowing about us... that's serious. That could..."

"Could what?" Victoria interrupted, still grinning as she reached up to run her fingers through his hair with obvious affection. "Ruin everything? Expose our secret?"

Her touch was gentle, fond, and when she looked at him her eyes held nothing but warmth.

"You look so cute when you worry like this," she murmured, her voice softening into something tender. "All protective and strategic, ready to defend against threats that don't exist."

Alex felt heat creep up his neck. "Victoria..."

"Catherine isn't a threat, Alex." Victoria's smile turned knowing, almost mischievous. "She's not some business rival or social climber looking to use information against us."

She settled back slightly, getting comfortable as if preparing to tell a story, though her hand remained in his hair, fingers absently playing with the strands.

"Catherine isn't just Catherine Blackwood," Victoria said, her voice taking on a different quality... warmer, more personal. "She's my best friend. Has been for years."

Alex blinked, processing this new information as his enhanced Mind recalibrated everything he'd assumed about the situation.

"Your... best friend?"

"Since before I married James," Victoria confirmed, her expression softening with what looked like genuine affection mixed with something deeper... gratitude that ran bone-deep.

"We met at a charity gala, but not under the circumstances you'd imagine."

She laughed softly, though there was a shadow of old fear beneath it. Just memory of darker times.

"I was drowning back then. My company... the one I'd built from nothing, poured everything into... was being torn apart by corporate sharks. Hostile takeover attempts, creditors circling, investors pulling out one by one."

"I had maybe weeks before everything I'd worked for would be dissolved and sold for parts."

Victoria's fingers paused in his hair, her gaze distant as she recalled those desperate days.

"Catherine found me in the bathroom at that gala, having a panic attack. I'd come there as a last-ditch networking attempt, trying to find anyone who might help. Instead, I was hiding, watching my life's work crumble in real-time on my phone."

Alex found himself listening intently, seeing a vulnerability in Victoria he'd never witnessed before.

"She didn't know me. Had no reason to care. But she sat down on that bathroom floor with me and asked what was wrong." Victoria's voice grew quieter, reverent.

"I told her everything. Expected polite sympathy at best, maybe a business card I'd never use. Instead..."

She swallowed hard.

"Instead, she made a phone call right there. Then another. By the end of the night, she'd leveraged the Blackwood name to freeze the takeover attempts, connected me with her family's legal team, and personally guaranteed a bridge loan that kept my creditors at bay long enough for me to restructure."

Victoria looked at Alex directly now, her eyes reflecting the weight of that memory.

"Catherine Blackwood threw her reputation and resources behind a nobody entrepreneur she'd met an hour earlier. She saved everything I'd built when the sharks were already tasting blood in the water. More than that... she believed in me when I'd stopped believing in myself."

She laughed softly, though there was no bitterness in it. Just memory.

"From then on, we started meeting regularly... sometimes over coffee, sometimes at midnight after long, exhausting days. We'd talk for hours about business, about ambition, about what it really meant to build something genuine in a world drowning in inherited wealth and empty promises."

He listened, seeing a side of Victoria's history he'd never fully understood.

"She became my closest friend. My confidante. The one person who understood what I was trying to build and didn't judge me for wanting more than what society said I should settle for."

Alex found himself listening intently, seeing a side of Victoria's history he'd never fully understood.

"It's because of her that I married into the Blackwood family," Victoria continued, her voice quiet but clear. "She introduced me to James at another event. Vouched for me when his family was skeptical. Helped me navigate the politics of old money when I had no idea what I was doing."

She met his eyes directly, making sure he understood.

"Catherine is the reason I am who I am today, Alex. When I restarted building my companies, when I was just beginning to establish myself... she was there. Offering advice, making introductions, opening doors that would have stayed closed to someone like me."

Victoria's expression grew more serious, though her hand never left his hair.

"Without her help, without her friendship and support... I wouldn't have achieved half of what I have now. She believed in me when almost no one else did."

The vulnerability in Victoria's voice made Alex's chest tighten.

This wasn't just history... this was someone who genuinely mattered to her. Someone whose opinion and presence had shaped her life.

"So when you thought Catherine confronting me about us was a threat..." Victoria smiled again, softer now. "You were worried about the wrong thing. Catherine isn't my enemy. She's family."

Alex absorbed this, his mind reframing everything. Not a business rival. Not a threat. A best friend who'd been part of Victoria's life long before he'd entered it.

"But you said the situations are bad these times," Alex said slowly, remembering Victoria's earlier words during their passion. "That's why you haven't been able to meet."

Victoria's expression clouded slightly, and for a moment genuine concern flickered across her face.

"The Blackwood family is going through... difficulties," she said carefully. " Internal politics, things that have made it complicated for Catherine to move freely. She's been dealing with a lot... pressures from the family, expectations, responsibilities that have kept her occupied."

She sighed, and Alex could hear the worry underneath.

"That's why we haven't seen each other in months. It's not that we didn't want to... we just couldn't. The timing was never right, and her situation kept getting more complicated."

Victoria's fingers stilled in his hair, her expression becoming more focused.

"But last week, she finally reached out. Said she needed to see me, that it was important."

Alex felt his protective instincts stir again, though more measured now. "And she wanted to talk about us."

"Yes," Victoria confirmed. "She knows everything, Alex. About you, about us, about our relationship."

The weight of those words settled between them, and Alex found himself analyzing implications, possibilities, risks...

"At first, she was angry," Victoria said, her voice quiet but steady. "Really angry. She didn't understand how I could be doing this... having an affair while still technically married to James, even if the marriage is just a formality now."

Alex's jaw tightened, but Victoria's hand on his face kept him grounded.

"But I explained everything to her," Victoria continued. "About James, about the reality of our marriage, about how it's been over for a long time. About you."

Her eyes held his, intense and unwavering.

"I told her about us, Alex. About what we have, what you mean to me. About how you're not just some fling or escape... you're real. We're real."

Alex felt something shift in his chest at the certainty in her voice.

"And she understood," Victoria said softly. "Once she heard the whole story, once she saw how serious this is... she understood."

"So she's not angry anymore?" Alex asked.

Victoria's lips curved into something between a smile and a grimace.

"She's... protective," she said carefully. "Catherine has always been protective of me. She was there through my marriage to James, through all the years of watching me build myself into who I am now. She doesn't want to see me get hurt."

"Which means she doesn't trust me," Alex said flatly.

"She doesn't know you," Victoria corrected gently. "There's a difference."

She leaned in closer, her forehead almost touching his.

"Catherine wants to meet you, Alex," Victoria said quietly. "...the man who somehow stole my heart."

The words hung in the air between them, heavy with implication.

Alex stared at her, processing this new development.

Meeting Catherine Blackwood... Victoria's best friend, the woman who'd helped shape her entire life, who knew everything about their relationship and had the power to either support or complicate it significantly.

This wasn't just meeting a friend.

This was meeting someone whose opinion mattered deeply to Victoria. Someone who could influence their future in ways he couldn't fully predict.

"Do I really have to meet her?" Alex asked slowly

"Yes," Victoria confirmed, her dark eyes watching his reaction carefully. "And I told her you would."

The certainty in her voice left no room for argument... not that Alex could bring himself to refuse. This was important to Victoria, which made it important to him.

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