Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 76

Chapter 76

KISAREL

I arrived at the office, already rehearsing how my day would go.

I had to keep up the act until one of the places I applied to finally accepted me.

Last night. Elgin and I sent my resume to four different companies. I’ve been hopeful and keeping my fingers crossed.

I had to put my life in order, especially with Jace… Whatever was happening with him, he had been trying. Genuinely trying. And I owed it to myself to at least find out what that was worth before I burned everything down.

I pushed the office door open and stopped.

My desk looked nothing like my desk.

Small, beautiful, expensive boxes covered almost the entire surface. They were the kind with velvet lids and gold edging that you didn’t find in ordinary shops.

I counted six boxes, and my curiosity spiked.

=

And sitting on top of all of it, tilted slightly against the largest box, was a single red rose.

I stood in the doorway and stared at it.

What the hell?

Through the glass wall, Oceans was on a call, his back partially turned, with one hand in his pocket. I watched him for a moment, then looked back at the boxes and told myself very firmly that I did not know who had put them there and that I was not going to assume anything until I had actual evidence.

I closed the door behind me and approached my desk slowly, like the boxes might explode if I moved too fast. I set my bag on the floor and lowered myself into my chair, my eyes never leaving the desk.

‘Don’t open them, I told myself. Just work. Pretend they aren’t there.‘ I kept chanting to myself.

My gut was already telling me who had done all this. But I ignored it, and curiously reached for the first box anyway, lifting the lid slowly, and the breath left my body so fast I heard it go.

A diamond necklace. Glistening and cold and arranged against black velvet like something from a window display – the kind of thing you saw in magazines, not on the desk of a personal assistant.

It caught the morning light and scattered it across my office in tiny, glittering fragments.

I closed the box and opened it again. The diamonds were still there.

My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat.

My hands were not entirely steady when I reached for the second box.

A delicate diamond bracelet. It looked simple, but you didn’t need anyone to tell you exactly what you were looking at.

Jesus.

Oh. Cod No

The third box held carrings that made the first two feel like an introduction.

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Chapter 76

I sat there with all three open in front of me and didn’t even have the courage to open the other three

My vision was blurring. I blinked and realized my eyes were wet. But it wasn’t from happiness. It was from something closer

to panic.

He was pulling me deeper. Everything he was doing was all designed to tangle me further in whatever web he was weaving. And I was no longer comfortable.

I saw a piece of paper tucked under the largest boxes, I pulled it out with trembling hands and unfolded it.

“No other man is allowed to adorn you, Kiss. That’s my job now.”

I stared at the words.

I saw the shopping bag beside my desk. It was the same jeweler as the boxes.

I sat very still for a moment.

Then I stood up, picked up the shopping bag, put every box inside it, and walked to Oceans‘ office door.

I pushed it open without knocking.

He was off the call, leaning back in his chair. His thick, neatly trimmed dark hair fell slightly across his forehead in a way that should have softened him, but didn’t. Nothing about this man was soft.

He was watching me with those silver–grey eyes that had absolutely no business being that color on a human being. The color of winter clouds before a storm. They stripped you bare like they were dissecting your very soul. They had been doing it to me for months, and I still wasn’t used to it.

“I can’t accept these.” I set the bag on his desk. My voice was steady. I was proud of how steady it was.

His eyes moved from my face to the bag, then back to my face.

He said nothing. His dark, straight brows pulled together slightly as he watched me keenly.

“It’s too much. All of it is too much. We need to slow down, Oceans. You’re taking this somewhere it was never meant to go.

Say that. and I need you to hear me when I

He was still quiet.

“I mean it.” I pushed the bag slightly closer to him. “I’m serious. We have to slow this down.”

He still said nothing, and the silence of it was embarrassing, so I turned and asked for the door.

And that was when he spoke for the first time.

“Kiss.

The depth of his voice and the way he said my name told me this was far from what I had envisaged.

“For every gift you refuse.” he said, “I send back double. And even more.”

My throat closed as I turned slowly to look at him.

You can try me if you want

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