Never was a leader

Never had a thing for fairytales

Not really a believer

Small voice in the quiet

Guess I never dared to know myself

Can my heart beat quiet?

Hailee Steinfeld, "Capital Letters"

–

It was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon on a particularly unassuming, unsullied Friday in early February when the last person Elsa ever wanted to see stepped into her office.

Since becoming the official CEO of Arendelle Publishing the previous year, the elder heiress's days had become filled with lawyers and board meetings, contracts and buyouts, budgets and accounts, mergers and acquisitions. When she wasn't on a call or in a conference, there seemed to be an endless stream of people carrying paperwork coming and going from her desk at all hours of the day. And of course, there was the the occasional required appearance at a charity ball here or industry gala there, to rub elbows with the upper crust and placate the company's investors.

Well, she didn't literally rub elbows with anyone. Elsa shuddered at the thought and held her gloved hands together in front of herself anxiously; even the mere concept of touching or being touched by another human being made her feel physically ill. Except for her younger sister, Anna, who worked in Arendelle Publishing's editing department, Elsa avoided all physical contact with people and most objects.

Anna was the only human on the planet whom Elsa had allowed to touch her in any way, shape, or form since their parents died when they were only teenagers.

So, when it was finally five o'clock, and the floor quieted– as one by one Arendelle's employees packed up and scooted out the door to begin the weekend– Elsa let out the breath that she felt as though she had been holding in forever.

Smoothing out the front of her long-sleeved teal dress, Elsa took a moment to collect herself, gazing out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of her office suite at the frozen, sunset-drenched city below. A ferocious winter storm had blown through the previous week, burying Manhattan in ice and snow, but a recent warm spell had melted large pockets of it. The higher temperatures left sparsely-placed tufts of cottony white around the landscape, but still the streets were gritty and gray with slush.

After a few minutes, she turned back towards her desk and glanced at the calendar atop it one last time, committing her weekend schedule even further to memory; she had already memorized it at least six or seven times since lunch. She had brunch scheduled with her sister tomorrow morning, and a thirty-page contract to read over and make a decision on by Monday, but other than that her weekend was void of any real social plans, as per usual.

But that suited Elsa just fine. She preferred to be alone.

It was then, when her eyes flicked down the page, that her focus landed on the date marked in red.

It was a little over a month to go until she had to testify against her sister's ex-fiance in court.

She had never liked her sister's ex-fiance during the time that they had been dating, but it was easy for Elsa could see what naive Anna had seen in him; he was incredibly charming, and disarmingly handsome, but in that off-putting sort of way that sucked the air from the room. Although Elsa was considered a rare beauty herself (she personally didn't see it), with her naturally pale hair and porcelain skin, Hans's good looks were downright intimidating. It was enough to make one feel inferior simply by experiencing the misfortune of being in his presence– which was perhaps one of the many, many reasons why Elsa had never taken a liking to him. In fact, she had refused to even make an attempt to know him for the most part.

And those eyes. Those intense, piercing green eyes. She'd have to face those eyes again. The very thought of confronting the man who crushed her sister, ruined her reputation, and tried to dismantle her father's legacy from beneath her own nose shook Elsa to her core, but she pressed her fingertips to her temples and pressed lightly, focusing on her breathing, until the fear passed.

She had never fully trusted him, and it was a blow to find out that she had been right about guarding herself when it had been discovered that he had been scamming her younger sister all along, feigning his love for her to steal Arendelle Publishing's company secrets to sell to their competitors as well as Anna's own money, which included the inheritance she received from their deceased parents' estate.

Elsa began to feel sick again just thinking about it. They very thought of Hans's betrayal was enough to make her blood boil; he was as scummy as they came.

That whole fiasco had gone down over a year ago, and the charges against him were finally moving forward. Although Arendelle's lawyers had been hard at work for the past year, putting together a bulletproof case against Hans Westergaard for industrial espionage and conspiracy, the final word would come down to Elsa herself; as CEO of Arendelle Publishing and Hans's official victim, it was her testimony that would ultimately seal his fate.

Stop it, Elsa scolded herself. Stop thinking about it.

But that was how she was; Elsa couldn't cope and so she fixated on things, in ways that were unhealthy and obsessive. Like the way she organized her desk, or her fear of germs, or her need to isolate herself whenever possible.

Throwing on her double-breasted winter coat and snatching her purse from the hook behind her desk, Elsa began to lock up the drawers of her desk when she heard the unmistakable swish of the heavy cherrywood door to her office being pushed open.

She could feel the change in the air of the room before she even looked up.

A footstep.

Who could possibly be here to see me this late on a Friday?

Another footstep.

They were coming into the room.

Elsa glanced up to address her surprise visitor, and felt her blood freeze in her veins immediately upon recognizing the russet-haired man who stared back at her.

She had inexplicably found herself face to face with those green irises which could belong to none other than Hans, her baby sister's ex-fiance and the man who had tried to sabotage her life and everything she knew.

–

A/N: Hi! I've been toying with the idea of this sequel to Disrupted pretty much since I wrote Disrupted, but didn't really have the inspiration until recently. I had to fudge the timing of the end/epilogue of Disrupted to fit this story (so now it's one year later instead of two) but other than that everything should fit. Thanks y'all and I hope you enjoy!