Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 41

Chapter 41

KISAREL.

“Kisarel Harry. It’s been a long time coming…”

The strange words from that strange voice replayed in my head, doing all it could to compete with all the emotions I was drowning in.

When I answered the strange call in the hallway while holding my breath in order not to cry into the phone, those were the only words that filtered into my ears before the call ended.

I tried calling back countless times, but to no avail. And no matter how hard I tried to brush it off so I could focus on the tears that wouldn’t stop pouring from my eyes, it still always managed to make its way to the front of my mind.

My eyes were so sore from squeezing them too hard for the past two hours that I had no

more tears to spare.

Slowly, my embarrassment turned into pure, untamed anger.

Who the hell did he think he was?

Why the hell did he think he could treat people the way he liked and get away with it just like that, because he was the Almighty Oceans Stark?

No. He wasn’t getting away with this one.

The click of the door unlocking and opening behind me made me know it was time I put this man in his place.

I wiped my face quickly with the back of my hand, forcing composure I didn’t even have.

I folded my palms into fists to keep them from shaking too much, as I straightened myself and watched him walk to his office without even a glance my way.

Thank God, he was alone.

Perfect.

Before his door could shut, I pushed it open.

“Mr. Oceans Stark!” I called firmly, marching toward him in a fury so hot that even I thought my next action would be to slap him across his face. But I came to an abrupt halt when I almost bumped into his back as he stopped walking.

He slowly turned to face me, his face still set in that same controlled expression he had worn all through the meeting, as though nothing I had just been through had left the slightest

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impression on him.

That alone was enough to keep the anger burning.

“How could you?” I asked, holding his gaze despite the way my chest still felt too tight. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

He didn’t answer.

He just looked at me, like I was a small, loud thing that had wandered into his office.

That quiet attention unsettled me more than I expected.

“Answer me.” I pressed, my voice lifting slightly despite my effort to keep it steady. “That wasn’t just about those mistakes. You knew exactly what you were doing in there.”

Silence.

“Do you have any idea what you did to me in there?” My voice cracked but I kept going. “In front of all those people? Do you even care?” I felt the tears come again and I hated that he was getting to see them, but I couldn’t stop them anymore. I was done trying. “Who do you think you are? Seriously, who do you think you are to treat a person that way? To treat me that way?”

He still said nothing.

“Do you think you hold

hold my life in your hands?” The words came out broken and furious at the same time, wet with the tears I couldn’t stop. “Do you think because you have money and power and a name that people are afraid of, that gives you the right to humiliate someone? To stand in front of a room full of people and tear someone apart piece by piece and not even flinch?”

I wiped my face roughly with the back of my hand. “That’s not power. That’s cruelty.”

It felt awkward that I was the only one doing the talking, but I kept going.

“God,” I let out a short, broken laugh. “You’re unbelievable.”

He didn’t even blink.

And the more he stood there like that, the more it felt like I was the only one reacting to the words that were meant to bruise him.

“You are so…. cold,” I said in a quieter voice. “So completely void of anything human that it’s almost frightening. Do you even hear yourself when you speak? Do you even see what you do to people?”

My chest tightened painfully.

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Chapter 11

“Or are you just that used to breaking them that you don’t even notice anymore?”

I could swear I saw a slight crack in his demeanor.

“You sat there with that dead, blank face like none of it touches you, because nothing ever gets through to you, does it? Nothing. Because whatever is supposed to be in here-” I pressed my finger against his chest, “-you don’t have it. You don’t have a single functioning piece of it. Your heart is hard and cold and completely, totally dead, and I feel sorry for you. I genuinely feel sorry for Moonie, who has had the misfortune of–”

“Enough!”

For the first time in my life, I witnessed Oceans Stark lose his grip on control.

He yelled.

He actually yelled.

Before I could even finish processing it, his hand came up and caught my chin, gripping it hard enough to stop me mid–breath and force my face upward.

The suddenness of it stole whatever was left of my voice.

His eyes were no longer blank.

There was something in them now. A burning rage that frightened me. It was almost like I had finally touched something no one else ever had.

And, was that a good thing or my worst mistake ever?

I saw him regaining his composure.

“You’ve said enough,” he said. His voice was low but edged in a way that made my stomach drop despite everything still burning inside me.

“You want to keep talking?” he continued, his gaze locked on mine, unblinking. “Keep going. I promise you won’t be using that mouth again for the rest of this week.”

I opened my mouth on instinct, but his grip on my jaw tightened by one small degree that communicated very efficiently that he wasn’t finished.

“You seem to be under a very dangerous impression,” he continued, his grip tightening even harder. “The fact that I fucked you does not give you the right to stand in my office and speak to me like that. It never did.” Something moved through his jaw. “You want to know what you were? A few good fucks.”

The words hit me in all the wrong places.

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Chapter 11

“That’s all you were,” he added flatly. “And that’s all you will ever be. And if you had any sense at all, you would have known that from the first night.”

For a second, I forgot how to breathe.

“So the next time you want to open your mouth in my direction, make sure you remember your place before you do.”

He let

go of my chin just as abruptly as he had grabbed it and stepped back. Although the darkness in his eyes hadn’t gone anywhere.

He cursed under his breath as he turned away from me. And just like that, he thought the conversation was over?

After the further damage he just did?

A few good fucks…

I let out a short, ugly laugh… the kind that arrives when something is so far beyond what you can process that your body doesn’t know what else to do with it.

My brain didn’t have the willpower to process reasoning anymore. But that was fine. I could handle this on my own.

I straightened myself and wiped my eyes clean.

“You know what?” My voice was surprisingly steady as I looked at his broad back one last time, “I quit.”

He stilled, almost like those were the last words he ever expected by the end of his little

drama.

I walked to the door.

“I quit,” I said again, because it felt good to say it and because I wanted him to hear it twice. “I am never coming back to this office. I am never coming back to this building. And I am never, for as long as I live, going to let another person speak to me the way you just did and reduce me to something that fits into your version of ‘place.” I reached the door and put my hand on the handle. “Goodbye, Mr. Stark.”

I walked out.

And the thing about walking out on Oceans Stark – the thing I understood the moment the door closed behind me and the hallway air hit my face – was that it felt nothing like I thought it would feel.

It didn’t feel like victory.

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It felt like the most expensive thing I had ever done.

But I kept walking anyway. Because I couldn’t take back my words, even if I wanted to.

AD