Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

OCEANS.

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“The meeting is in thirty minutes, sir,” Tim reminded me, and I immediately felt the need to replace him. Since on the flight, I’d found his voice rather too annoying, and now his very presence repulsed me.

“And the board…”

“Leave, Tim,” I said, still looking at my phone and wondering if calling a third time would make me look desperate.

“Sir?” He asked.

“Get the fuck out, Tim!” I almost yelled at him.

He didn’t hesitate. He gathered his tabs and whatever the fuck he had brought into my suit and disappeared through the door in under five seconds.

Good.

I needed the silence more than I needed the thirty–minute warning.

It was probably around 10PM back in New York. I didn’t want to believe she was already asleep. And even though she was, two calls missed? That’s unlike her… Unless.

Fuck. No.

I didn’t even want to finish that thought.

And, no. I didn’t give a fuck if she was fucking her boyfriend right now. That was none of my business, and I had made peace with that fact approximately forty–seven times since landing in Sydney. What I cared about – the only thing I cared about – was the Avillion proposal I had sent my EA to assign to her. That was a professional concern. Entirely professional. A boss checking in on a work assignment was not only reasonable, but it was also expected.

I know I should have called my EA instead. But I had every right to call my PA directly about it, didn’t I?

Of course I fucking did.

Sydney felt unbearably boring this time around. I’d been here a couple of times before, and it had never felt like this – this flat, this slow, this completely devoid of anything worth my attention. So much so that I had hastened through everything I was meant to accomplish here, consolidated two days of meetings into one, and made a decision I hadn’t planned on making when I boarded that flight.

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Jala

11:59 Fri, May 22

Chapter 36

I was leaving tomorrow. One week had become four days, and I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t know exactly why.

I dumped the phone on the couch when she didn’t answer the third call.

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I almost beat myself up for even trying. Three calls. That was a significant bruise on my ego, and I intended to forget it had happened as quickly as possible.

I put on my suit jacket and walked out of the suite, deliberately leaving my phone behind. I didn’t need distractions during the meeting. I also didn’t need the specific temptation of a bathroom break in the middle of closing a contract, just to try her a fourth time like a man who had completely lost his mind.

Two excruciatingly long hours later, the meeting was done.

One more at 4PM, and Sydney would be finished with me. Or I with it.

My eyes found my phone the moment I stepped back into the suite. The small red light on the side was blinking, indicating a missed call.

Something fluttered in my stomach immediately, but I didn’t let it thrive. I killed it.

‘It could be anybody’s call. Not necessarily hers. I kept telling myself as I went into the bathroom, freshened up, and slid into something casual before going to sit on the bed just beside the couch where I had dumped the phone.

I slowly lifted up the phone like I hadn’t been dying to see who it was.

My thumb swiped too eagerly to unlock the phone. And the moment the screen lit up, all the careful, constructed indifference I had been building since I walked back through that door collapsed into something considerably embarrassing and less dignified.

“Fuck.” I cursed, running my fingers through my wet hair.

It wasn’t her.

It was Moon.

Not that I was angry, Kiss hadn’t called me. I wasn’t angry about that at all. I was angry because she had an outstanding work assignment and had been unreachable for hours, which was a completely legitimate professional grievance that any employer would share if they were in my shoes.

It had absolutely nothing to do with anything else.

Obviously.

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11:59 Fri, May 22

Cha

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I stared at Moon’s call for a moment. She’d been calling me all week, but I did well to iganore her calls.

I texted her once that I was in Sydney for a meeting, hoping that would pass the memo to her, but it didn’t. Because she still hadn’t stopped calling.

I thought people going into arranged marriage didn’t fall in love with each other? So, why the hell was she acting like she was so in love with me and couldn’t bear to live without me?

I thought people going into arranged marriage

I didn’t find it flattering.

I found it exhausting.

I pressed the dial button, but it wasn’t Moon I was calling.

It was Kiss.

This last call was purely professional. If she didn’t answer, it would simply confirm that she no longer took her responsibilities to this company seriously, and I would act accordingly upon my return and relieve her of her duties.

That was the full and complete reasoning behind my thumb pressing her name and bringing the phone to my ear.

Simple.

www

If she doesn’t answer, I’ll…

I didn’t finish my th when the like clicked.

She’d picked.

She fucking picked the call.

A small, sudden, completely unreasonable wave of relief moved through my chest before I could intercept it.

But it didn’t las

long.

I heard a voice from the

almost funny.

other end of the line that wasn’t hers. The relief died so fast it was

“Hello, again. Still her fiancé speaking.”

Fucking bastard.

It was Jace.

And this confirmed the same thing I’d been doing my best to shy away from thinking.

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11:59 Fri, May 22

Chapter ab

She had spent the night with him.

Again.

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AD