The first rays of dawn were just painting the sky orange when Andreas arrived back at Charm Global. He didn't bother going home. He headed straight to his office, the glow of the city mirroring the restless energy within him. Mr. Grumpy was already there, a thick file placed precisely in the center of Andreas's desk.
"Everything you requested, Mr. Andreas," Grumpy stated, his voice flat. He didn't ask questions; he simply delivered.
Andreas opened the file. The first page had a picture of Snow. Bianca White. His eyes immediately went to the name of her company: EdenTech. And then, below it, a brief, stark summary of her past. "Early prodigy in bio-tech... heiress to White Cosmetics... hostile takeover... comatose for six months... public scandal involving stepmother, Queen Ravenna... company dissolved... re-emerged under new name, EdenTech, with minimal public presence."
Andreas read through the reports, his jaw tightening. The "poisoned past" she carried was far more literal and brutal than he could have imagined. Queen Ravenna – a name he knew all too well. A ruthless, ambitious woman who now controlled the remnants of White Cosmetics, and a bitter rival of his own father's in several market sectors.
He stared at Snow's picture again. The quiet strength he'd sensed, the undercurrent of sadness in her eyes – it all made chilling sense now. She hadn't just been avoiding him; she had been avoiding her past, a past that had nearly killed her. And he, in his usual, blunt way, had inadvertently brought it all back to the surface.
A flicker of something beyond intrigue ignited within him. It was a fierce, almost primal sense of protectiveness, entirely foreign to his usual calculating nature. He felt a sharp pang of regret for his unintended blunder, and a growing determination to understand her, truly.
He picked up his phone. "Grumpy," he said, his voice unusually low, but with an edge of absolute resolve. "Clear my schedule for the morning. And get me a list of all organic beauty tech startups in the city. Especially any that might be struggling."
Grumpy raised a questioning eyebrow, but didn't speak. He simply made a note.
Andreas looked back at Snow's picture, his fingers tracing the outline of her face. "Bianca White," he whispered, testing the name. It felt different, heavier, than "Snow." But the mystery, the vulnerability hidden beneath her calm exterior, only drew him in further. His father wanted him to find a suitable match, a powerful alliance. He had no idea the woman Andreas had found was already tangled in a dangerous web, one that mirrored his own world more closely than either of them could have ever imagined.