Chapter 186: The Trap
People liked to say a man's tears were his best weapon.
That saying needed one condition added to it: the woman watching had to like him first, or at least care enough that his pain mattered.
Giselle was exactly that kind of woman now.
Elias's eyes had only gone red. He had not even let the tears fall yet, and Giselle was already losing ground.
People often said geniuses had high IQs and low emotional intelligence, but that was not quite fair. Fast learning was their gift. Emotional blindness usually came from disinterest, not inability. If they cared enough to study people, they learned as fast as they learned anything else.
Giselle had once been like that. She had ignored most social warmth because it seemed unnecessary, noisy, and inefficient. But after spending time under Victoria Frost's control, watching her mother move through rooms, manage silence, offer tenderness like a blade hidden in silk, Giselle had learned more than she wanted to admit.
