Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 125

Chapter 114: Observations

Cameron’s POV

The silence lasted long enough that I became aware of my own heartbeat, which was operating at a pace that seemed excessive for a Tuesday morning in an office and I tried to control it, but it wasn’t possible,

“A glass,” he said.

“Yes.”

“At the quarterly review dinner.”

“Yes.”

Another silence. It was shorter this time.

“The legal team associate,” he said. “Who kissed my cheek.”

“Yes.”

“I wondered about that,” he said. The words came out with a quality I couldn’t parse over the phone, couldn’t see his face to read what kind of expression he had on, whether it was a thoughtful one or one out of disbelief.

“You left early. I thought I’d done something wrong-missed something in the evening’s logistics.”

“You hadn’t.”

“I know that now.” A pause. “I thought at the time that/something was off. With you, specifically. But I didn’t -I couldn’t have said what.”

“You shouldn’t have had to notice. That’s the-that’s what I mean when I say I managed it. You should never have had to notice.”

“Cameron.” His voice had the specific quality of someone who had thought things through and was determined to say what was on his mind. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“The salary,” he said.

I went still.

“The salary you pay me is not standard for my position. I looked it up three months after you hired me, because something didn’t add up in my calculations, and I found out what the market rate was.” A pause. “It’s roughly three times the standard package, you paid me thrice my monthly salary and my monthly salary was already in six figures.”

“It’s within my discretionary-”

“Why?” The question was clean and direct, the way he asked everything.

3

The Obseruatreon

Hooked at the desk.

“Because the work warranted it,” I said, which was true.

“You hadn’t seen three months of my work when you set it.”

“I’d seen enough.” I said, hoping to convince him but he wasn’t buying that.

“Cameron.. Why?”

Claim

I exhaled. “Because I looked at the work you’d done in the first month and I calculated how much worth you have brought into the company by then and I paid that. Because the standard package was insufficient for what you were producing and I don’t like underpaying for things that are worth more than the stated price.” I paused. “And because-I wanted you to be comfortable. That’s less professional a reason. I’m

aware.”

The silence this time was different from the others.

“You live in a two-bedroom apartment in a neighborhood that the salary should have moved you out of two budget cycles ago,” I said. “I don’t-that’s not a criticism. I noticed it yesterday, and I’ve been-where does it go? If you don’t mind me asking.”

A pause. “Lake’s mother left when he was eight months old. She had-she had some difficulties. Financial ones, among others. I’ve been covering some of her expenses for the past three years, to make sure-” He stopped. “He’s going to want to know her eventually. I want to make sure she’s stable enough to be known.” Another pause. “That’s a personal thing. I don’t generally tell employers about it.”

“You don’t have to-”

“I know I don’t.” His voice was steady as he continued speaking. “I’m telling you because you asked, and because you told me something that you clearly didn’t find easy to tell, and-” He stopped.

And then he said: “The broken glass.”

“Yes.”

“Eight months ago.”

“Yes.”

“I had noticed your odd behaviour back then but I couldn’t draw any conclusions back then because I had no data wo work with and I liked to be a very thorough person.

“And now?” I asked, and my voice did something at the end of the question that I hadn’t instructed it to do, something that let the question be a real question rather than a professional one.

“Now you’ve given me additional data,” he said quietly, ending it there as I could hear the background sound coming from his side, the sound of a four year old babbling away. It was quite a contrast to my empty office, where I was alone.

“Lucian,” I said.

“You’re my employer,” he said. “Or you were. Or-the status is currently unclear.”

23

< The Observatron-

Claim

The status is that I’d like you to come back. To the position. And I’d like-” I stopped. “I’m aware that there Ts a significant professional concern here, and I’m not asking you to-I’m not suggesting that anything would or should be different from a professional standpoint. I’m just telling you the complete reason, which you asked for, and which you deserved to have.”

“I know,” he said. “I-I know,

Another silence. Longer than the others, or the same length with different content in it.

“The Meridian call is tomorrow,” he said finally.

“It is.”

“I’d need to brief Caroline on the account history if I’m coming back before then. There are three nuances she won’t have from the file-the currency conversation from last month, the relationship dynamic between the two senior partners, and the fact that one of them doesn’t respond well to being presented with more than three options at once.”

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