Blair and I sat across from each other, surrounded by fancy people in a fancy restaurant with food before us that didn’t look appetizing enough to try. It was still the only place I could confront her without her possibly killing me. Would be an accident? Couldn’t be sure with Blair.

She acted pretty oblivious, but it was possible she was just happy with the current turn of events. Her fingers scrolled across the screen of her tablet, eyes skimming with glee over the news.

“Does this count as a blow to your career?” she feigned curiosity with a glance at me. I gave her a sarcastic smile, scrunching my nose in contempt and stabbing a fork into the ravioli on my plate. Of course, it didn’t, failed engagements didn’t count. She raised her brows at me and went back to reading the article, no doubt about Cristo’s and Suzan’s failed engagement. Her eyes narrowed onto something so violently that it even piqued my interest. “Has his family lost his mind?”

My hand froze before the ravioli could sit in my mouth, “What happened?”

“They’re looking for someone else for him,” she grunted, knuckles going white around her fork as she slammed the end of it onto the table cloth. “It’s never going to end, is it?”

“You have any insight into the way these guys work?” I asked cautiously, hoping she’d let me in on any information at all that could be useful to me.

She shook her head, genuinely exasperated, “Selene only cares about money, Lilith. Their business isn’t doing well these days because John isn’t in the best health. Obviously, they need Cristo to take the lead and expand the empire. Selene’s too used to the luxury.”

I shook my head at the levels of greed Selene was reaching. No one but Blair and I, and Cristo too, knew the truth about Selene. Hell, was John even aware of how manipulative she was? I don’t understand what Selene could’ve said to John back in Greece that got them married so soon…

Something clicked in my head.

“I’m not sure why you target the girls Cristo is paired with,” I sighed. “No wonder it’s taking so long to get Cristo out of this mess.”

Her head shot up to look at me in confusion, and I just shrugged. “I mean…” I started softly, “clearly his mom is the problem here, no? Once she’s out of the picture, things calm down.”

Blair only blinked at me, the realization in her eyes making her rethink everything she’d been doing. I could see the gears in her mind finally starting to turn after a good oiling, her lips parting in surprise. With a slow nod, she turned her tablet off and straightened up, placing all of her focus onto me. With her hands clasped and eyes trained on mine, she breathed deeply as if nervous.

“Selene’s not an easy target,” she said softly, leaning forward towards me. “I’m not sure it will work out as well as you think it would.”

“Because stuff like this needs planning,” I deadpanned. “We don’t have to ram our heads into it without thinking it through like you usually do.”

“We?” Blair scoffed. “I have a hard time believing you’d want to help me with anything.”

I rolled my eyes at her, “I’m helping myself, Blair. We could use each other’s expertise to get Cristo out of this hellhole of a situation and then I’m the only thing standing between you and him.”

“You know Cristo will choose me eventually,” she said smugly.

“Frankly, I don’t care,” I lied. “He’s been a good friend to me. I want to help him have a life of his own.”

Blair looked a little surprised at my words, but nodded. “Fine, I could use a hand. What do you suggest then?”

I had to bite down on my lip to keep from smiling. I finally had Blair right where I wanted her.

Lyra seemed stunned when I filled her in on my lunch with Blair.

“I can’t believe you got her on your side…” she breathed in awe.

“Well,” I sighed, “not quite? I mean, she’s only doing this to get Cristo. I’m doing this for…ulterior motives.”

She looked even more confused than she was before, which was weird since I thought she would piece my intentions together with hos calculating she was. I decided to explain it to her, “I need to get Selene out of the way without jeopardizing my life, Lyra. Who do you think is going to take the brunt of the backlash when things finally come into the open?”

Her jaw dropped open as it finally dawned onto her, “Lilith…this is new. I didn’t think you’d go this far for anybody.”

“I’m doing this for my own peace,” I insisted. “As long as Cristo has his eyes on me, Blair won’t stop even if he cuts her out of his life.”

Lyra nodded solemnly, “That’s definitely true. She’s quite the lunatic. I just…hope you don’t over-exert yourself. With the club and all, it must be tiring you out.”

“I’m bringing in a manager to deal with the company,” I said decidedly. “I push myself too hard. I need to focus on the club.”

“Will operations proceed as normal?”

“Yes, I’m the only one going on a hiatus from taking on elite clients. The rest will remain to provide the services to the upper-middle class and below.”

She nodded, “Looks like you’ve thought this through. Will I still be working at the office?”

“No,” I shook my head, “You’ll be working with me on the club. A lot of matchmakers have already responded to the invitations. Could you sort through them for me?”

“Of course,” she smiled at me.

My phone rang. It was Hugo. “I better take this,” I sighed.

“Remember, Lilith,” Lyra said warningly, “Boundaries.”

“I know,” I groaned. I was aware that Hugo wasn’t completely over me and that we had a lot to work on emotionally if the Billionaire Matchmaking Club was going to be a success at all. This was just the beginning, and there were lengths to go to that could take years and I wasn’t willing to take any more risks that could jeopardize it. I didn’t have anything besides my company, and it was important to expand my streams of income if I was going to stay financially afloat. I was nearly 30, and while people say that its young enough to dip into more endeavors for trial and error, they didn’t realize how volatile the marriage industry was in the world of billionaires.

The faster the money came, the faster it went. I couldn’t keep working myself to the bone and expect to live peacefully. This club was the one thing that could finally be the key to earning while having the time to actually relax for once.

I needed this.

“Hey,” I greeted him as I walked towards the balcony. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been reading the news,” he sighed. “Are you all right?”

“There wasn’t much I could do about Cristo and Suzan,” I sighed. “She was the one who wanted to back off.”

“I asked about you, Lilith,” he said exasperatedly. “Think about yourself for once?”

“Not like I’m suffering because of it,” I said pointedly. “My name hasn’t been in the papers for a while.”

“I guess that’s a good sign,” he agreed. “What about the club? My assistant’s been getting some responses.”

“So did Lyra and I,” I nodded. “I think we should have a welcome event soon.”

“That sounds great,” he said. “Somewhere around the holiday season? A lot of us go on a break during that time of the year.”

“Sure,” I said hurriedly as my eyes spotted a very familiar car driving towards my apartment complex. “Would you want to take care of that? I think I have a lot on my plate already for this month.”

“Ah, you must be going to check out the main HQ for the club.”

“Exactly,” my voice came out breathily as a familiar silhouette stepped out of the car and disappeared into my building. “Hugo, I really have to go. I’ll shoot you an e-mail with updates.”

“Sure,” he sounded hesitant, but I guess my voice made it obvious what was going on. There was a disheartened sigh before he hung up. “Take care, Lilith.”