Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 97

Chapter 97

OCEANS.

By the time I stepped into Stark Industries. I had already used up whatever patience the morning required.

I had left the house before I did something cruel enough to make even me pause.

The elevator doors opened to my floor, and the first thing I noticed when I pushed the door open was the silence

Kisarel’s desk sat empty outside my office.

Her chair was tucked in.

Her computer was off.

The mug she loved using was not there,

I stopped walking.

For one stupid second, my chest gave a hard, uneven thud, and I hated it so much my jaw tightened.

Then I moved again.

She was late. That was all. She was emotional. Dramatic, maybe. Punishing me in the only way she could, with absence and silence and those wounded eyes she knew damn well had started getting under my skin.

I pushed my office door open and threw my coat over the back of my chair. Everything felt so fucking wrong.

I stood behind my desk and stared at the files waiting there. None of them was arranged in her order. No yellow note

attached to the board packet. No corrected schedule was placed over the printed one because she hated it when my calendar had gaps.

My hand curled around the edge of the desk.

Ridiculous.

I was not going to stand in my office unraveling because one woman had chosen to be late.

I pressed the intercom.

Noella answered on the second ring. “Yes, sir?”

“Where is Miss Harry?”

There was a small pause. “She hasn’t come in yet, sir.”

I looked toward the empty glass wall as if Kisarel might appear if I stared hard enough. “Did she call in?”

“No, sir. I checked the attendance log earlier. There’s no leave request either.”

My teeth pressed together “Find out if the reception saw her.”

“Yes, sir.”

I ended the call before she could say anything else.

For a few seconds, I did nothing.

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16:43 Fri, May 22 M

Chapter 97

Then I picked up my phone and called Kisarel.

The line did not connect.

I lowered the phone, stared at the screen, then called again.

Nothing

A cold, ugly pressure formed under my ribs. 1 loosened my tie with one hand, dragging the knot down because the damn thing suddenly felt like it was choking me.

“She’s being childish, I muttered, but the words sounded weak even to my own cars.

Kisarel ignored messages when she was angry. She avoided eye contact when she was hurt. She said too little when she was breaking. But she did not disappear from work without notice. She was too careful for that. She’d never give anyone a reason to call her irresponsible.

I called again.

Still nothing.

“Fuck.”

I scrolled to Elgin’s number and called.

It rang, but there was no answer.

I called again.

Still no answer.

My control fucking shifted.

I dragged a hand through my hair and turned away from the glass before I did something unprofessional by breaking it because my

assistant wasn’t at work and couldn’t be reached.

I shouldn’t even care, right?

We both agreed this thing between us was a mistake at some point.

But, I still fucking cared.

I cared because she was my employee. Because her absence disrupted my schedule. Because whatever existed between us was a mistake with consequences, and I preferred to know where my mistakes were.

That was all.

I called her again.

The line refused me.

Something inside me went dangerously quiet.

I opened my contacts and called Reeves.

He picked up immediately. “Sir?”

“Find Kisarel before I do something I can’t undo.”

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Chapier 97

Is there a specific location you want me to start with?”

“Everywhere. My voice was cold. “Check the building logs, her apartment, the street cameras, ride records, ber last phone ping, every hospital within the city, and anyone who had access to her schedule.

“Yes, sir.”

“And Reeves?”

“Yes?”

I looked at her empty desk through the glass again, and something possessive, something I had spent days trying to bury. rose through my chest with teeth.

“Move fast,” I said. “I’m not in the mood to be reasonable today”

***

“What the fuck is she doing at the hospital?”

The words tore out of me the second Reeves spoke.

I did not wait for his answer.

My chair scraped back hard enough to hit the wall behind me, and I was already moving before he could finish whatever useless sentence came next.

Hospital.

That was the only word my mind kept returning to, beating against my skull until everything else blurred.

“Which hospital?” I snapped, crossing the office in long strides.

Reeves gave me the address, and I almost stopped.

What was she doing in the small, private hospital that sat too close to a crowded road?

That was too far from any medical standard I considered acceptable.

Fuck.

I pushed through the outer office, and Noella’s head snapped up the moment I breezed past her.

“Sir, do you want me to-

“Cancel everything.”

I was in the elevator before she could respond.

The ride down felt like it took years. I stood with my hand braced against the wall, my jaw so tight I could feel it in my temples.

My employees stared at me like they were watching a stranger wear my face, and I didn’t give enough of a fuck to correct the impression.

I did not care who saw me leave.

I did not care that my rie was loose, that my hair other men millions just to sit across from me.

rough, or that my schedule was loaded with meetings that had cost

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Chapter 97

Kisarel was in a hospital.

That’s all that was fucking ticking in my head,

By the time I reached my car, my pulse was no longer steady. I turned on the ignition before my driver even lisad the opportunity to ask me questions.

I was driving myself today.

The engine came alive beneath my hand, and for once, the smooth luxury of the machine irritated me

A bitter, unreasonable anger moved through me the moment I stepped out of my car.

If I had been there for her, she would not be here.

The building was clean enough from the outside, painted white with dull blue signage and a narrow parking area that made my car look out of place the moment I pulled in. A nurse in pale green scrubs glanced up from near the entrance, startled by the sound of my tires against the pavement.

The hallway smelled like antiseptic and sickness, and every step I took made the

I walked through the entrance, and the receptionist thought it wise to stop me.

“Excuse me, sir. Here to see someone?” She put up a smile.

“I’m here for Kisarel Harry,” I said impatiently.

Her fingers paused over her keyboard. “Are you family, sir?”

The question nearly made me laugh.

Family.

pressure under

my

ribs worse.

What a small, useless word for r what I felt standing there with my blood hot and my patience gone.

“I’m here to see Kisarel Harry.” I spat out through gritted teeth.

Her smile weakened. “Sir, we have policies. I’ll need to confirm-

I leaned one hand on the counter, and I was so damn sure she noticed the change in temperature between us.

“If I have to stand here for another ten seconds while Miss Harry is somewhere in this building, your policy will become the least interesting problem you have today.”

She swallowed.

A man behind the desk shifted like he wanted to intervene, then looked at my face and chose his health.

“Third floor,” the receptionist said quickly. “Room 307.

I straightened.

“Good.”

I shoved the door open.

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Chapter 97

And the anger that hit me almost sliced my chest clean open

Kisarel was lying on the hospital bed, pale against the pillows, her hair loose around her face. She looked on fragile, breakable beneath the thin blanket tucked around her waist.

An IV line ran into her hand, and the sight of it alone was enough to make my vision sharpen at the edges

But that was not what froze me in the doorway

It was the kind of focus she gave to the person sitting next to her that she didn’t even hear me walk in.

Jace.

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He was sitting beside her, his chair pulled so close that his knees touched the mattress. His hand was wrapped around hers His thumb moved over her skin in slow, intimate strokes. Then he bent his head and kissed her palm.

My entire body went still.

Then her cheek.

Then her forehead.

His fingers moved through her hair like he had done it a thousand times, slow and tender and so gentle it made me want to

vomit.

Jace kissed her cheek again, whispering something I couldn’t hear, and the rage that had been building since Reeves spoke finally found its shape.

It was hot and sharp and absolutely fucking violent.

Just then. Jace leaned forward and kissed her lips. The doorknob left my hand, making the door jam close with a violent thud, and that was when everyone’s attention turned to me.

And the moment her eyes mine, every reasonable thing left in me died at once.

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