The CEO Above My Desk (Mckenzie Shinabery) novel Chapter 57

The CEO Above My Desk

Chapter 57

Violet

The administrator stops me before I can reach my mother’s room.

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Her hand comes up gently, not grabbing, not forceful, just enough to halt my forward momentum like a physical warning I don’t understand yet.

“Ms. Pierce,” she says softly. Too softly.

I look past her anyway. The door is only a few steps away. I can almost see the familiar corner of the bed through the crack. “I need to see her,” I say. “They told me there was an incident.”

Rowan is right behind me. I can feel him there without looking, solid and steady, like a wall I haven’t leaned on yet.

The administrator’s expression tightens. Professional. Controlled. The kind of face people wear when they’ve practiced delivering bad news.

“Please,” she says. “If you’ll come with me.”

Something in her tone finally cuts through.

My stomach drops.

She turns and walks back down the hall, away from my mother’s room, away from the ambulance lights bleeding through the windows, away from the truth that suddenly feels too big to fit inside my chest.

I follow her.

My legs move, but I don’t feel them. It’s like my body has decided this is happening whether I consent or not.

Rowan follows too. I don’t tell him not to.

We stop near a small alcove with a couple of plastic chairs and a hand–sanitizer station bolted to the wall. The administrator turns to face me fully now.

She folds her hands in front of her.

“Ms. Pierce,” she says, voice calm and clinical, “there’s been an accident.”

The word accident echoes in my head, hollow and wrong.

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She continues, “Your mother suffered another cerebrovascular event approximately forty minutes ago. Our staff responded immediately. Emergency protocols were initiated. We contacted EMS. She was stabilized briefly, but

“No.” I say, shaking my head. My heart is pounding so hard it feels like it’s trying to escape. “No, she was fine. She was fine last night. She was talking. She

The administrator doesn’t interrupt me. She waits. That somehow makes it worse.

“I’m very sorry,” she says when I finally stop. “This stroke was more severe than the previous ones. Despite all intervention, we were unable to save her.”

For a second, nothing happens.

No sound. No breath. No thought.

Just a sharp, paralyzing pressure in my chest, like the world has suddenly collapsed inward.

Then I hear a noise.

A sound so raw and broken it takes me a moment to realize it’s coming from me.

My vision blurs instantly. Tears spill over without permission, hot and relentless. My knees buckle, the strength draining out of me all at once.

I don’t hit the floor.

Rowan catches me.

His arms come around me quickly, securely, pulling me into his chest before I can even register the movement. I clutch at his coat like it’s the only thing keeping me upright.

“I–I-” I can’t finish the sentence. I can’t even find the words.

My sobs echo down the hall, ugly and loud and impossible to contain. I don’t try to hide them. I don’t care who hears.

I turn into Rowan, pressing my face into him, my entire body shaking as the reality slams into me over and over again.

She’s gone.

My mother is gone.

The administrator takes a step closer, then stops, giving us a moment. When she speaks again, her voice is quieter.

“Ms. Pierce,” she says gently, “there is something else you need to know.”

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Chapter 57

Rowan stiffens.

“Now is not the time,” he says firmly, his voice low but sharp. “She’s in shock.”

“I understand,” the administrator replies, meeting his gaze without flinching. “But this information is relevant to the circumstances surrounding your mother’s passing, and it cannot wait.”

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The CEO Above My Desk

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