Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43

OCEANS.

Harold was treading a dangerous path, and he fucking knew it.

“I’m asking because I genuinely want to understand.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and looked at me with a careful, unafraid attention. “You buried her. You buried her that very night — the same night it happened – and you have never once spoken her name since, never grieved her properly, never spoke about what happened, never allowed anyone around you to acknowledge that she existed, and you built everything that came after on top of that. This office. This version of yourself. All of it.” He paused. “And we both know that. We have always both known that.”

“Stop talking.” The words came out absolutely quietly.

He didn’t stop.

“And now you are sitting here, unable to do anything productive, and a PA’s name still live in the staff directory because you cannot bring yourself to close that file. And you want to look me in the eye and tell me this is all normal and professional?” He shook his head slowly.

“Oceans. We both know what this is starting to look like. And we both know the last time something looked like this.”

That was it.

He got what he fucking wanted.

I was up on my feet before I could even register the movement, “I said stop!” I growled, slamming both my palms hard on the table.

My voice was shaking, and I hated it.

He rose to his full height, straightened his jacket, and looked at me from across the desk without an ounce of retreat in his face.

“Why are you this angry?” he asked quietly. “Is it because I said something that isn’t true? Or is it because everything I just said is exactly true and you have been doing everything you can to fight it while lying to yourself, even though you already know it?”

I could barely see past the roaring in my ears. I crossed to the door in four strides and pulled

it open.

“Leave. Now.”

He didn’t hesitate.

OGO

12:01 Fri, May 22

Chapter 13.

He walked toward the door with that same unhurried composure, and at the threshold, he paused, and he looked at me one last time, and whatever he saw on my face made something move briefly through his expression that looked almost like grief before he smoothed it

away.

“You’re walking into something you don’t understand,” he said. “And this time, you might not be able to control how it ends.”

“Out.”

He shook his head and walked away.

I closed the fucking door.

***

KISAREL

The moment I stepped into Elgin’s brand–new apartment, I couldn’t help but fall apart in his

arms.

I had held on to my tears and emotions throughout my drive here. I had almost forgotten to ask him for the new address until I was almost at the old house. That prolonged my trip for another twenty painful minutes.

But I was finally here, and I could let it all out.

The entire day’s event kept replaying in my head in an embarrassing loop, bringing fresh waves of shame crashing through me every passing second,

Elgin didn’t say anything. He didn’t ask what happened or tell me it was going to be okay or do of the things people did when they didn’t know how to sit inside someone else’s pain without filling it with words.

any

ugly and

He just put his arms around me and held on, while I pressed my face into his shoulder and cried in the way I had been holding back since I ran out of that meeting room airless and completely beyond managing.

By the time I was done emptying my emotions, I pulled back slowly and looked at him.

His eyes were still red at the edges. He’s been crying all day. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that.

“I’m sorry,” I said in a croaked voice. “I walked into your brand new apartment and cried all over you. That’s a terrible housewarming gift.”

He laughed softly.

22

ODGO

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O

12:01 Fri, May 22

Chapter 13

“You are always welcome to cry on me, cherie,” he said quietly. “In any apartment. New or otherwise.”

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and looked at him again, “Thank you.”

He smiled, “You know you’re always welcome.”

I held his gaze, unable to hide the concern that was already forming on my face.

“Go,” he said, before I could say anything. He squeezed my shoulder gently and nodded toward the hallway. “Go and freshen up. I’ll put something together for you to eat.” He paused. “Then we’ll talk. All of it. Whatever happened today.” He looked at me with those tired eyes. “But you need to eat first.”

I hesitated before nodding.

I didn’t have the energy to argue, and I didn’t want to. The idea of hot water and food and then sitting with Elgin in this quiet new apartment and telling him everything was the first thing that had felt manageable since nine o’clock this morning.

I narrated everything to Elgin.

We were on the couch in his living room by then – a wide, low sectional in a deep grey that still had the faint smell of newness to it, positioned in front of a window that looked out over the city lights beginning to come on in the early evening dark.

It was a lovely view.

I told him everything.

From the missed flight and the morning I woke up at Jace’s to find the world had already moved on without me, to the silent treatment I received from Mr. Stark throughout his time away, to Carol’s warning, to the meeting – all of it, every humiliation in sequence.

I also told him what Oceans had referred to me as… A few necessary fucks.‘

And how I had quit.

Elgin listened quietly, like he was accessing and dissecting everything I was saying.

And by the time I was done, he took a slow sip of his coffee, set down the cup, and let out a small smile.

“What’s funny?” I asked, wondering what part of my story sounded funny rather than pathetic.

22 OOGO

12:01 Fri, May 22

Chapter $3

“Can’t you see, chérie?” He shook his head slowly.

“See what, Elgin?” I asked with narrowed brows.

“Your boss is in love with you.”

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