The room was too quiet to trust.
It wasn't comforting silence. It was engineered. Designer silence. The kind you find in five-star hotels where even the air feels expensive and artificial. If I had won this experience through some lucky draw event I might have enjoyed the luxury, but I did not deserve to be here. In a way this was 'luck' too, of course. But it did not feel like lady luck smiled on me this time, but rather, it felt like an error that shouldn't have happened.
I lay awake in the Lang Group's executive sleeping suite, which I refused to call a bedroom. I had not slept. Not even close.
Instead, I'd spent the night catastrophizing in high definition. Every possible humiliation I could suffer as a fake heiress played in my head like an algorithm fed playlist I couldn't turn off. The reels of doom scrolled inside my eyes.
Trip during a speech.
Say something historically offensive by accident.
Get caught googling "what is an IPO."
The bed was perfect. Too perfect. The mattress was oppressively soothing. The sheets were tucked with clinical precision. I felt like a fraud just lying on them. They knew. The blankets. They knew.
Eventually I started whispering to myself.
"If I just lie still long enough, the system will assume I'm defunct and discard me."
"If I hold my breath, maybe I'll get logged out."
"If I dissolve into thin air, Luc will be forced to find someone else."
The third option seemed to be the best, but I couldn't quite find a way to achieve that.
At some point I must have drifted off, because the next thing I heard was a knock.
A quiet, polite knock.
I opened my eyes and saw Luc standing a few steps away from the bed. She didn't knock on my door, I realized. She merely locked on one wall as she already stood inside my room with a tray in her hands.
"Miss Lang," came Luc's voice. "Apologies for the intrusion. I've brought coffee. And minimal conversation."
God, did she scan my brain while I was asleep and figure out exactly what I needed?
Still groggy, I rolled to the edge of the bed, but it did not stop there - I somehow managed to roll OFF the bed and land on the floor.
Laying face down, I wanted the soft carpet to melt and turn into a blackhole I could disappear into, never to see the light of day again.
After the silence that lasted a full five seconds, Luc spoke.
"Miss, would you like me to assist you or should I pretend I didn't see that?"
"Please pretend…"
With that, I heard the footsteps distance away from me.
I rolled to my back and closed my eyes again.
'I just want to lie down and die…' That was all I could think of.
When I finally came out of the bedroom, I saw that Luc stood there holding a tray with two coffees and a white paper bag that smelled like butter and something divine. Her silver hair was in perfect form, her suit was pristine. Her expression was neutral yet emitted ray of kindness like status of saints in cathedrals.
She nodded toward the seating area like a butler in a period drama. I followed on autopilot and sat down across from her at the table. Luc unwrapped the pastries with elegance and handed me a napkin folded into a sharp rectangle.
We ate in silence for a while. The good kind.
I took one bite and made an embarrassingly weird moan. I didn't dare to look at Luc.
"This is unreal," I muttered nevertheless.
"Quite contrary. It brings you back to reality."
I was about to say 'That sucks." But held back.
When I studied this enigmatic lady sipping coffee in front of me, I realized that this was the first time Luc showed a hint - a very very very faint hint of happiness. For some reason I couldn't comprehend that made me smile - probably for the first time too in a while.
"Do you always eat breakfast here?" I asked.
"Here?"
"In the office."
She paused. "I can eat outside the door standing if you prefer."
"Please don't."
After taking her time to thoroughly enjoying the coffee, which was also the best cup of coffee I've ever had in my life, Luc set down her cup and slid a folder toward me. "Your briefing. I've pushed your first meeting by fifteen minutes."
"Out of pity?"
"Heiress of the Lang family needs no pity."
I wanted to protest, but she was right. A heiress of such prestigious family and wealth needed no pity, and a FAKE heiress like me didn't deserve any pity.
I opened the folder and immediately closed it again.
Luc raised one eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"
"No. No problem. It just… freaked me out."
"I see."
I wasn't quite sure what she saw, but just hoped that she wouldn't remember whatever it was.
After we finished eating, I reached for the napkin again, but I noticed it had been folded into a little bird.
When did she do this?
It wasn't a sleek origami crane like the day before. This one had uneven wings and a slightly crooked beak. Something about this clumsily made bird made me laugh - again, for the first time since yesterday.
"You made this?" I asked.
"I had time," Luc said, without looking up. It was truly a mystery just when during our short breakfast she found a time to do this without me noticing.
"It looks... a little funny."
Or perhaps it was just funny because there was such a mismatch between her perfection and this unexpectedly child-like duckling-looking-thing.
"I tried my best."
While I was considering what she meant by that, Luc just stood and adjusted her blazer with a smooth motion.
"I'll return before your next appointment."
And just like that, she turned and walked out of the office without waiting for a reply.
I stared at the door after it clicked shut.
Then down to my coffee.
Then back at the bird.
Maybe I'd survive today after all.