Once Discarded, Now Desired

Nora saw him before he saw her. Ethan Blackwood. Her ex-husband. The man who had handed her divorce papers three years ago without a single explanation and walked out of her life like she never mattered. He was standing at the head of the office in a charcoal grey suit, holding a phone, looking every bit like the powerful billionaire the world knew him to be. And he was staring straight at her. Nora's legs stopped moving. Her heart stopped with them. For one terrible second, the entire world shrank down to just this moment, just this floor, just the two of them and three years of silence standing between them. This was her new job. Her fresh start. The position she had worked fourteen months to earn. And Ethan Blackwood was her boss. She almost laughed. If it didn't hurt so much, she actually would have. The receptionist was still talking beside her but Nora heard nothing. Her eyes stayed on Ethan and he stayed on her. His expression gave nothing away, same as always. Cold. Controlled. Unreadable. The face of a man who had never once lost sleep over anything he had done. She lifted her chin and looked away first. That was the only power she had right now and she was going to use it. "Sorry," she said to the receptionist with a calm smile. "Please continue." She made it in four hours. Four hours of meeting colleagues, sitting through briefings and nodding at information she barely absorbed. Four hours of pretending her heart was not pounding every time she heard footsteps behind her. Four hours of being the composed, professional woman she had spent three years building herself into. Her new colleague Marcus Cole made it easier. He was warm and straightforward, the kind of person who laughed easily and made you feel welcome without trying too hard. He remembered she took her coffee black after she mentioned it once. "You'll like it here," he told her cheerfully. "Mr. Blackwood is demanding but he's fair. Once you get used to how he operates you'll be fine." Nora smiled. "I'm sure I will." She had already spent two years getting used to how Ethan Blackwood operated. She knew exactly what he was. At half past six in the evening, when most of the office had gone home, her desk phone rang. She looked at it. Internal call. She already knew who it was before she picked up. "Come to my office." His voice. Direct. No greeting. Like three years had not passed. Like he still had the right to summon her anywhere. "Everyone has gone home," she said. "I know. Come anyway." "Give me one reason I should." Silence. Then, quieter: "Because if we don't talk now, we will spend the next several months pretending in front of everyone. And I think we are both tired of pretending." Nora hated that he was right. She hated even more that she was already standing up. His office was exactly what she expected. Large, expensive, cold. No personal touches anywhere. Floor to ceiling windows with the whole city glittering below. He was standing with his back to her when she walked in. She did not speak. She used to fill his silences. She did not do that anymore. He turned around. And for the first time without other people around them, she saw something in his face that had not been there before. Something heavy. Something that looked almost like guilt. She did not let herself care about it. "What do you want Ethan?" "I want to explain what happened three years ago." "No." She said it simply, without anger. "That door closed a long time ago. I am here to work. Nothing else. We keep things professional and stay out of each other's way. That is all I want from you." He took one step toward her. She did not move back. "Nora." "Don't." Her voice dropped. "Don't say my name like that. You lost the right to say my name like that the night you handed me those papers and walked away." Something moved across his face. Pain, maybe. Or something close to it. Then the control came back. Smooth. Practiced. The mask he wore so well. "Fine," he said. "We keep it professional." "Good." She turned and walked to the door. "Nora." His voice stopped her. "I am glad you are doing well." She stood with her back to him and said nothing for a moment. She thought about the hospital. The cold room. The phone that never rang. She thought about a little boy at home right now who had his father's dark eyes and had never once heard his father's voice. "Are you," she said quietly. She walked out before he could respond. In the elevator going down she leaned against the wall and focused on breathing. Her hands would not stop shaking. Her phone buzzed. Unknown number. She answered. A woman's voice came through. Smooth. Elegant. Familiar in a way that made Nora's stomach drop. "Hello Nora. This is Diana Blackwood." The elevator doors opened to the lobby. "We need to talk. Before my son gets any ideas about playing father. Because we both know that cannot happen." Nora could not move. She knows about Lily.