"I wouldn't marry him if he were the last man on earth. I simply wanted him to look at the empire I commanded, and realize he had burned his only bridge to the sky."
The double doors to my office swung open with a heavy, muted click.
I didn't look up immediately. I kept my eyes focused on the quarterly financial projections glowing on my tablet, deliberately letting the silence stretch and pull at the tension in the room. I could hear Archie's breathing—shallow, ragged, and entirely panicked—as he stepped onto the thick Persian rug.
"Miss Waldorf is ready for you," Sarah, my assistant, said coldly, stepping back out into the hallway and pulling the doors shut behind her.
The silence returned, heavier this time.
I finally lifted my gaze.
Archie Sinclair looked like a ghost. He wasn't
