Football System: Touchline God
Chapter 38: Emotional Storm I

Chapter 38: Emotional Storm I

Rosana moved to pour herself another cup of coffee, the sound of liquid hitting porcelain filling the brief silence. She was listening, Darius knew, though she pretended to be focused on other things.

"What kind of activities?" Darius asked, opening the first folder.

"It appears Blackwater Industries has been making inquiries about our mining permits," Harrison said carefully. "They’ve hired a law firm to examine the historical documentation of our claims in the Pennines."

Darius’s hand stilled on the papers. Blackwater Industries was their biggest rival in the northern mining sector. If they were sniffing around the Marrowgate claims, it meant trouble.

"How did you learn this?"

"I have a contact in their legal department." Harrison’s voice was neutral, giving away nothing. "Someone who finds our friendship mutually beneficial."

Meaning someone they were paying for information. Darius nodded approvingly.

"What’s their angle?"

"Unclear at present. But they seem particularly interested in the permits we acquired through the Morrison acquisition three years ago."

The Morrison acquisition. Darius remembered it well—a smaller company that had gone under during the economic downturn. The Marrowgates had swooped in like vultures, buying up their assets for pennies on the pound.

"Those permits are ironclad," Darius said, though he made a mental note to have their legal team review them again.

"Of course, my Lord. However, Blackwater may be looking for procedural irregularities. Small technicalities that could be used to challenge our claims in court."

"Let them try." Darius closed the folder with a snap. "Our lawyers are better than theirs."

"Undoubtedly. Shall I have Mr. Whitmore begin a preemptive review of the Morrison documentation?"

"Yes. First thing Monday morning." Darius moved to the second folder. "What about the steel works?"

Harrison launched into a detailed briefing about expansion costs and timeline projections. Rosana continued to move around the study, occasionally adding her own observations. She had a head for business that matched her brother’s, though she preferred to work from the shadows.

Twenty minutes later, Harrison finished his report and gathered his papers.

"Will there be anything else tonight, my Lord?"

"That’s all. Thank you, Harrison."

"Very good. Have a pleasant evening." The secretary nodded to both of them and left as quietly as he’d arrived.

The study fell silent again, except for the rain against the windows and the soft tick of the grandfather clock in the corner.

Rosana walked back to where Darius sat, her bare feet silent on the carpet. The interruption had broken the earlier mood, but there was still heat in her eyes.

"Where were we?" she asked, trailing a finger along his shoulder.

"We were discussing my absent wife," Darius said, though his voice had taken on a rougher edge.

"Ah yes. The dutiful Lady Sayuri." Rosana perched on the arm of his chair, close enough that he could smell her perfume. "Have you spoken to her since she left?"

"Twice. Brief conversations about her father’s health and some business matters." Darius leaned back, studying Rosana’s face. "She seemed... distant."

"Distance can be liberating," Rosana murmured. "It allows people to see situations more clearly."

"What situations?"

Instead of answering directly, Rosana stood and walked to the window. The rain had intensified, turning the glass into a canvas of moving shadows.

"Do you remember when we were children?" she asked, not turning around. "Before father arranged your marriage to Sayuri?"

Darius felt something tighten in his chest. "Rosana..."

"We used to talk about running away together. Leaving all this behind and starting fresh somewhere else." She pressed her palm against the cold glass. "Before duty and family obligations complicated everything."

"That was a long time ago."

"Was it?" She turned to face him, and in the lamplight she looked younger. Like the girl who used to sneak into his room during thunderstorms, afraid of the lightning. "Sometimes I feel like it was yesterday."

Darius stood and crossed to her, stopping just close enough to feel the warmth radiating from her skin.

"We can’t change the past, Rosana."

"No," she agreed, reaching up to touch his face. "But we can choose how we live with it."

The clock chimed eleven times, the sound echoing through the study like a countdown. Outside, the storm was reaching its peak, wind howling around the manor’s stone walls.

"Sayuri will come back, eventually." Darius said, though he wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince Rosana or himself.

"Will she?" Rosana’s thumb traced across his cheekbone. "And if she does, will things go back to the way they were? Or will she have realized something while she was away?"

"Realized what?"

"That marriages of convenience rarely survive when love enters the equation."

The words hung between them like a challenge. Darius felt the weight of twenty-five years of marriage, of duty, of maintaining appearances for the sake of the family name.

But he also felt the warmth of the woman standing inches from him. The woman who had always understood him better than anyone else. The woman who shared his blood, his name, his secrets.

"This is dangerous territory, Rosana."

"The most worthwhile things usually are." Her hand slid down to rest over his heart. "Tell me you don’t feel it too. Tell me the last four weeks haven’t been the happiest you’ve been in years."

He couldn’t tell her that. Because it would be a lie.

The rain lashed against the windows with renewed fury, as if the storm outside was trying to match the one building within the study’s walls.

Darius looked into Rosana’s eyes and saw his own reflection staring back. Saw years of suppressed longing, of stolen moments, of a love that had never been allowed to fully bloom.

"What are you asking me, Rosana?"

She smiled, and it was both sad and hopeful.

"I’m asking you to stop pretending that duty is more important than happiness. I’m asking you to consider that maybe, just maybe, we deserve better than the lives that were chosen for us."

Lightning flashed outside, illuminating the study in stark white light for a split second. In that moment, Darius saw clearly what had been building between them for months, maybe years.

The question was whether he had the courage to act on it.

"And if Sayuri comes back tomorrow?" he asked quietly.

"Then we’ll deal with tomorrow when it comes." Rosana’s hand tightened over his heart. "But tonight is ours. Just like it should have been twenty-five years ago."

Darius reached up and covered Rosana’s hand with his own, feeling the warmth of her skin through the thin silk of her nightgown.

"You’re asking me to risk everything."

"I’m asking you to finally live," she whispered. "Instead of just existing."

The choice hung between them like a sword, sharp and gleaming and impossible to ignore. Whatever decision he made in the next few moments would change everything.

Darius looked into Rosana’s eyes one more time, seeing love and hope and desperate longing reflected there.

And slowly, inevitably, he made his choice.

"I’m sorry Rosana."

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