My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 384

I am an employee. You are in charge

Delia’s POV

Noah Vesper’s office sat on the top floor of the same glass building. The desk was black stone. The chairs were low enough that anyone sitting across from him had to look up. I noticed that the second I

walked in.

He did not stand when I entered. He pointed at the chair opposite him with two fingers.

“Sit.”

I sat and placed the printed guest list and seating chart on the desk between us and kept my back straight.

Noah picked up the first page and scanned it in silence. His eyes moved slowly. When he reached the top of the list, he stopped.

“Windsor, Julian, and Katia,” he read aloud. “Main table. Center seats.”

He looked up at me.

“Explain.”

“They are the most powerful couple in the city right now,” I said. “Every donor on this list watches what the Windsors do. If they attend and sit anywhere else, people will assume Vesper Group is either afraid of them or not important enough to keep them close. Either way, it hurts the launch.”

Noah set the page down.

“You spent two years pretending to be his wife. The entire city watched that fall apart in public. And now you are the one placing him and his real wife in the seats of honor.”

I met his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Does that bother you?”

“It is business.”

“That is not what I asked.”

I held his gaze. “Yes. It bothers me. I still put them there because the alternative is worse for this event

and worse for me.”

Noah leaned back in his chair. He studied me the way someone studies a problem that might still be

useful.

“You need this job,” he said. “You need the money and you need the doors it opens. That means you do not get to protect your pride when it conflicts with the work. If I tell you the Windsors sit at the main

1am an employee You are in charge!

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table, they sit at the main table. If I tell you that you will be the one to greet them at the door, you will greet them at the door. Clear?”

Heat crawled up the back of my neck.

“Clear.”

“Say it properly.”

I kept my voice even. “I will place the Windsors at the main table, and I will greet them when they arrive.”

Noah nodded once, satisfied. He turned the next page.

“Sterling, Tessa. Why is she here?”

“She is one of the most connected racers in the city. Keeping her inside the room is safer than leaving her outside inventing stories.”

“And your parents?”

“They still carry the Kensington name. Leaving them off would start questions I do not want attached to this gala.

Noah flipped through the rest of the list without speaking. When he finished he set the papers down and looked at me again.

“You are good at this,” he said. “You know where every important body in this city belongs. That is why Adrian hired you. It is also why I am still deciding whether keeping you is worth the noise that follows you.”

I tilted my head. “The noise is already public. It does not get louder because I am organizing a seating

chart.”

“It gets louder if you make a scene the night of the event.”

“I will not make a scene.”

“You made several very public scenes over the last month.”

I smiled without warmth. “Those scenes happened when I still thought I had something to lose. I do not have that problem anymore.”

Noah’s mouth moved slightly. Not quite a smile.

“Good. Because if you create problems for Vesper Group, I will end this contract the same day and make sure the only work you find afterward is answering phones in an office no one important ever visits. I do not care how well you know the guest list.”

The threat sat between us, clean and open.

I leaned forward a fraction. “You brought me in because you needed someone who already understands

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these people. You do not get that from a stranger. You get it from me. So yes, I will smile at Julian Windsor and his wife. I will seat them where you want them. I will make your father’s first public night look perfect. And when it is over, you will remember that I delivered exactly what you paid for.”

Noah watched me for a long moment. Then he stood, walked around the desk, and stopped beside my chair. He was close enough that I had to tip my head back to keep looking at him.

“You talk like someone who still believes she is negotiating,” he said quietly. “You are not. You work for me. That means when I tell you to stand at the entrance and welcome the man who publicly discarded you, you do it without complaint. When I tell you to adjust a seating chart at the last minute, you adjust it. When I decide your past is becoming a distraction, I remove the distraction. Do you understand the difference between an employee and a partner, Miss Kensington?”

My jaw tightened. “Yes.”

“Say it.”

1 am an employee. You are in charge.”

“Again.”

I forced the words out. “You are in charge.”

Noah stayed where he was, looking down at me. The silence stretched until it became uncomfortable. He wanted it to be uncomfortable.

The seating chart is approved,” he said at last. “The guest list is approved. You have five days to lock the remaining vendors and send me the final run-of-show. If anything is late or incomplete, I will know.”

He stepped back and returned to his chair.

“You may go.”

I stood. My hands wanted to shake. I did not let them. I gathered the papers, slid them into the folder, and walked to the door.

Noah’s voice stopped me with my hand on the handle.

“One more thing.”

I turned

He was watching me with the same assessing look he had worn since I walked in.

“The night of the gala, you will not drink. You will not disappear into corners to recover your composure You will remain visible, professional, and pleasant for the entire evening. If I see you falter when the Windsors arrive, I will consider it a failure of the work I hired you to do. Clear?”

“Clear”

“Good.”

Tom an employes You are in charge

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I left the office with my spine straight and my face blank. The elevator doors closed, and I finally let out the breath I had been holding. My pulse was still high. My pride felt scraped raw.

Noah Vesper had made the hierarchy unmistakable. He owned the room. He owned the contract. For as long as I needed this job, he owned the version of me that would have to smile at Julian and Katia while the entire city watched.

I walked back to my office on the fourth floor, sat down at the desk, and opened the seating chart again. Main table. Center seats. Windsor, Julian, and Katia.

I left them exactly where Noah had ordered them to stay.

Then I opened a new document and began the run-of-show, every line precise, every timing locked, because the only power I had left was to make the night so clean that even Noah Vesper would have nothing left to criticize.

Five days.

I would deliver exactly what he demanded.

And I would hate every second of it.

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