I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 85

Sienna swept her gaze across the conference room, and no one dared voice a single objection.

"Ms. Winters is absolutely right. The secretariat will fully cooperate with your initiatives. We will relentlessly weed out anyone taking up space without producing results."

Valerie Yates was the first to brown-nose. A few other executives quickly followed suit with scattered murmurs of agreement.

Several major shareholders sitting around the table, however, frowned at Sienna's declaration.

The Care Facility

Zoe bumped into Hunter at the main entrance.

Having received her text, he had deliberately waited there just to bump into her.

Their previous two encounters had been rushed.

This was the first time Zoe had really taken a good look at Hunter since his return.

He had broad shoulders and stood over six feet tall, though slightly shorter than Hayden. Dressed in a sharp British-style trench coat, he effortlessly drew attention just by standing there.

He was just as handsome as he had been five years ago, though he now carried the mature, shrewd air of a seasoned businessman.

Unlike Hayden's intensely aggressive and suffocating presence, Hunter was steady and gentle.

Just the way Zoe remembered him.

Now that they were finally meeting properly, Zoe had felt since she woke up that she had a million things to say to him.

But standing alone with him, she found herself completely speechless.

All the grievances she had replayed in her mind countless times felt dead and gone, leaving behind only a trail of awkwardness and uncertainty.

Though she still admired Hunter, Zoe instinctively took a step back to maintain distance when he approached. It was a visceral physical reaction, as if—

As if her feelings for him were now purely platonic.

Hunter noticed her withdrawal, and a faint shadow briefly clouded his handsome face.

"You're forgetting that you're my cousin-in-law now."

He spoke with a touch of self-deprecation. His pride told him that their romance was over, and if she was going to guard herself against him this heavily, well, he had a fiancée of his own anyway.

With a scandal like that, Sienna marrying Hayden would be a direct slap in the face to her own family. Her parents had personally visited the Thorne Estate to call off the wedding.

It was their way of saving Sienna's dignity.

Later, Sienna had a glamorous wedding with Charles Thorne, and only then did the uproar over Zoe sleeping with Hayden finally fade.

However, very few people knew that Hayden had actually tucked Zoe away in his gilded cage as his secret wife.

Zoe didn't try to defend herself; it was the truth.

"Thank you for coming to see my grandmother,"

Zoe said, genuinely grateful.

"Let's go in together. I visited her a few times after you married my cousin. She's always thinking about you."

Zoe couldn't describe how she felt right then. It seemed like over the past five years, everyone cared about her grandmother more than she did.

No wonder her uncle had even lied and said she had passed away.