Nine feet of distance laid between them. His hands were buried in his trousers' pockets, hers were crossed at her chest. On her 4-inch heels, she almost matched his height, and their eyesight was somewhat level. Neither of them had the higher ground.

A very faint sound of the radio was the only thing breaking the silence.

Both felt an impulse to yell. Irrationally, nonsensically, using every bitter word in their vast arsenals, till the other gave up and recognized defeat. Neither of them, however, had fuel for that just yet. Apart from the earlier encounter on the stairs, they hadn't laid eyes on each other in a very long time, and both had repressed the emotions from the aftermath of their breakup for more than a century.

Eva spoke first.

"I don't suppose it is a feather in your cap, but I guess congratulations are in order on your niece and nephew…"

"I'm not here to exchange pleasantries."

She squinted.

"If you want to engage in a screaming match, I suggest you close the door. It is a workplace, after all."

"Oh, ma che cazzo," Baldwin muttered under his breath and shut his eyes for a second. Eva patiently waited for him to gather his wits.

It was once her part-time job to drive him insane. She didn't do it out of ill-will or boredom; it was an exercise they discovered to be quite entertaining, as it put to good use their minds since they needed to think up good comebacks, and made for a good perseverance training. It was a useful thing to have when you're working in high-stakes finance. Neither of them deemed their current conversation entertaining.

"It's been a hundred years, and it didn't bother me," he finally spoke. "I was content with your decision, I moved on."

Eva did not make any attempt to interrupt him. She never interrupted rants or disrespected one's opinion. She'd see his lies through and through if needed. Right now, nothing was giving Baldwin away as a liar or a manipulator. He was simply relaying his thoughts to her.

"However sudden your breaking up with me seemed that night, I did not come chasing you for answers. But as much as I buried it under the piles of errands and misfortunes I've had to deal with, especially those last few decades, I found that it deeply bothers me that you didn't show me respect with at least presenting an explanation."

If Eva was any more hotheaded, Baldwin's instincts of self-preservation would've kicked in right now to warn him that something heavy was about to be thrown at his head. Thankfully, Eva didn't share her former lover's explosive temper.

"It's been a century, Baldwin," Eva replied instead. "I think that explanation hit an expiration date."

"Don't make a fool out of me," he spat out. "If there was something that I'd done to cause you to end a long-lasting relationship, just let me own up to it."

The silence that he got in response went ringing.

"If you want me to say sorry, I'll say sorry, just let me know what I'll be apologizing for."

"How very noble and unselfish of you." Eva took the papers lying in front of her and shoved them to the desk drawer. "However shall your credibility recover after that? Such a blow to your character. Can't have people hearing that you debased yourself to apologizing."

"Eva…"

"I don't want to spell it out for you, just as I don't wish to reminisce. For how little care you showed on the last leg of our dating, right now it has definitely stopped being your business."

Baldwin felt his stomach drop at an indirect accusation. In the final years of their dating he spent most of his time executing Philippe's orders and playing his own cards right in the fluctuating market conditions, sure, but he didn't neglect their relationship. He tried to reflect and pick up on instances she could have been referring to, but nothing came to mind. They didn't even see each other enough in 1911 because of how deep in his family's affairs he was at the time, so there was no way he could screw up…

Porca miseria, he mentally cursed.

"Is this really about the investments I made at the time of the Agadir Crisis?" he asked carefully.

Arguably, that was not the assumption he should have gone with, but he wasn't about to dive head first into it.

"Yeah, sure, that's—that's' exactly why I left. The stock market," Eva let her gaze fall to the low side window in her office. "Cost a couple of my friends their fortune, so I guess, the reason was…justified."

Something was off with the look in her eyes as she spoke, but Baldwin couldn't quite place it.

"I could reimburse them for their losses…"

She looked back at him.

"No need, really. They're no longer with us. Not because of the lost money, but because they were human and there was a war. So… don't bother."

Baldwin took a deliberate step towards her desk and saw her flinch and take a half-step back. He gave her a look-over, trying to decipher the move. He didn't smell fear on her. And she was never scared of him – he never gave her a reason to be. Yet he felt the why she didn't want to get any closer to him now was somehow rooted in the same ground that forced her to make their break-up a blink-of-an-eye exchange.

"There's the door. If you want to take your revenge and walk out on this conversation, be my guest. I won't even hold it against you," she resolved, looking just above his shoulder, not making eye contact, as though it could somehow help him unlock the truth to which she so desperately held on.

Baldwin expected a rush of anger that would force him to take her up on that offer and storm out of the office. Instead, he felt a different rush, and the realization would have made him change colour if he weren't already pale. He didn't want to run from her. He very much wanted to fall on his knees and seek forgiveness for a sin he didn't know he committed if it would only make her look at him again. And that thought was truly terrifying to one of the most feared living creatures.

He followed suit and averted his gaze from her. It was unfamiliar. It didn't feel right. His senses finally kicked in and he committed to physically removing himself from the element he was not comfortable in. As he strolled off to the hallway, a postgraduate student who worked with Matthew and Chris in the laboratory peeked into the office holding a paper folder.

"Could you please look at those files, Miss Jäeger? I think someone got the numbers wrong."

Eva finally moved from where she stood and reached for the folder offered to her.

"Thanks, Nicky. I'll take a look."

"That's Dr Clairmont's brother, right?" Nicky looked out into the hallway in a failed attempt to steal another look at Baldwin. "He sure looks dashing in that suit. Do you know if he's—"

A low growl from behind her back made the girl bite her tongue.