*Bael's POV*
"You've been avoiding me."
The office has been quiet all morning, only the sound of pages turning and a pen moving across paper. It's only when the door opens that the stillness finally breaks.
Bael flips another page without looking up.
Xue Lian is standing across his desk, both hands pressed flat against the surface, leaning forward in that way he does when he wants attention.
Bael doesn't give it to him.
"I've been busy," he says.
Not entirely a lie. The merger paperwork has been taking up most of his time, along with the tightened security around the estate after Uncle Ming's little stunt at the wedding.
But that isn't the reason he hasn't gone to see him.
"Too busy to see me when I got back?"
Xue Lian's voice carries that edge of hurt that used to work on him without fail, the kind that used to make him drop everything just to fix whatever was wrong.
Bael glances up.
