Second Chance His Unending Love (Calista Hartwell) novel Chapter 5

Calista packed up her things and left.

In the elevator, she ran into Gregory.

Gregory shoved a stack of crumpled receipts at her. “Perfect timing, Calista. Process these for me real quick, then I don’t have to go upstairs.”

Calista flipped through them.

Gregory was the sales director, and his expense reports were always ridiculous. Forget about properly organizing the receipts. This time, he was actually trying to expense nine million dollars he had lost playing poker.

He always pulled this kind of thing. Over the years, he had gotten away with all kinds of shady deals because Stephanie and Killian spoiled him, and he had pocketed a lot of money on the side.

When Calista used to handle the books, Gregory at least tried to hide it a little and kept things looking somewhat legitimate. Now, he didn’t even bother to pretend.

Calista tossed the receipts back at him. “Go talk to your brother. I quit.”

Starting now, the Frost family could deal with their own financial mess. And if they couldn’t handle it, they could watch it all fall apart.

Gregory teased, “Come on, Calista, are you serious? Look at how much my brother’s built up. You are really gonna walk away from all that?”

Calista ignored him. The elevator doors opened and she stepped out.

She had a meeting with a lawyer today and didn’t have time for his nonsense.

*****

At the CEO’s office, Killian heard a knock and glanced at his watch. It was 10 AM.

He made a casual sound of acknowledgment, confident he knew exactly what was going on.

It had to be Calista.

Their relationship wasn’t public knowledge, so she couldn’t just show up at the CEO’s office whenever she wanted. She only came on Wednesday mornings at ten o’clock, bringing the expense reports for him to sign.

Calista loved him. She wouldn’t pass up this rare opportunity to be alone with him.

Killian’s head was still pounding. He figured he’d have Calista give him a massage—partly to ease the pain, partly as a way for her to apologize.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. His voice was cold when he spoke. “Come in.”

The door opened.

“Massage my head for me,” he continued flatly. “And I’ll let the whole blocking thing slide.”

“Wait, what? Calista blocked you?”

Killian opened his eyes and saw Gregory’s cocky grin.

Gregory added, “Calista’s really got some nerve now. She didn’t just block you, she quit too. Killian, you must’ve forced her out, right?”

Killian sat up straight and checked the system on his computer. His face darkened.

She actually quit?

He had been generous enough not to fire her, and now she had the audacity to quit on her own?

Anger flared up inside him. Killian felt like she had made a fool of him.

He pulled out his phone and quickly tapped through a few screens, then canceled Calista’s supplementary credit card.

Calista had cut ties with her own family years ago. Now she’d quit her job, she had no money and no one to back her up, and she had a kid to take care of. She’d come crawling back within two days.

Gregory made a quiet sound of satisfaction. He really hoped Calista would stick to her guns this time.

Once they got divorced, nobody would be around to catch him embezzling funds and filing fake expense reports.

“Killian, just sign this for me,” Gregory said.

Killian’s head was killing him. He barely glanced at the receipts Gregory handed over before signing his name.

He knew about the shady stuff Gregory did on the side. He just chose to look the other way.

Gregory was his little brother. There was nothing wrong with helping him out.

“Thanks, bro. Love ya!” Gregory was grinning ear to ear.

“Get out!”

Killian’s blood pressure spiked, and he felt awful.

Wait, my blood pressure.

That was why he had that headache. He forgot to take his medication this morning.

When he was younger, he’d ruined his health chasing career success with bad eating habits and heavy drinking. Now, he had high blood pressure and high cholesterol, needing medication every single day.

He had too much going on to keep track, so Calista took over that job for him. For years, she never once let him forget.

Killian searched through drawers and cabinets until he found his blood pressure pills and swallowed them.

He was in a terrible mood. All these annoying little things were driving him crazy.

Then someone pushed his office door open again.

A bright, cheerful voice rang out. “Mr. Frost, are you busy?”

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