My Ex-Fiancé Uncle's Obsession

Nothing More

The door shut behind Ethan. For a few seconds, the office was completely silent.

Ava stood frozen in front of Adrian’s desk, staring at the door Ethan had just walked through, her entire body tense.

Then she turned. “What the hell was that?”

Adrian didn’t look up immediately. He picked up a file from his desk as if nothing had happened, flipping through the pages with calm, measured movements.

“Ava.”

“No.” She took a step toward the desk. “You do not get to stand there acting like this is normal. You had no right to say that to him.”

That made him pause. Slowly, Adrian lifted his eyes to hers. “I answered a question.”

“You humiliated me.”

“No,” he said evenly. “Ethan humiliated you. I simply chose not to protect him from the consequences.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make.”

“No. It was yours.” His gaze sharpened. “And you made it mine too the moment you brought your personal life into my office.”

She went still. “What?”

“You heard me.” For a second she could only stare at him.

Because this was not what she had expected.

A few minutes ago, when he had looked at Ethan with that cold, dangerous calm, when he had said she left the ring in his apartment, there had been something else in his voice.

Something that had made her think— i***t.

“You don’t get to do that,” she said quietly.

“Do what?”

“Pretend this is about professionalism now.” He set the file down.

“In this office,” he said, his tone clipped and controlled, “you are my assistant. Nothing else.”

The words hit harder than they should have. Assistant. Nothing else. Ava looked at him, really looked at him.

At the expressionless face. The cool tone. The way he was already putting distance between them, as though the last few days had meant absolutely nothing.

And suddenly she understood. This had never been about her. It had been about Ethan.

About power. About getting under his skin. Of course it had.

Adrian Blackwood did not care about her. Men like him did not look at women like her and see something worth wanting.

He had seen an opportunity. An easy way to hurt his nephew. And she had been stupid enough to think it was more than that.

Her chest tightened painfully. “That’s all I am?” she asked before she could stop herself.

Something flickered in his expression. Too fast to understand. Then it was gone.

“In here?” he said quietly. “Yes.” She looked away immediately. Because she hated that it hurt.

Hated that for one stupid moment she had started to believe he cared. That the way he looked at her meant something. That the late-night conversation, the tension, the way he noticed everything about her—

Trash. Every bit of it. He was using her. Just like Ethan had. The difference was that Adrian was better at hiding it.

“Understood,” she said. Her voice sounded strangely flat.

She moved to the other side of the desk and picked up the nearest file before he could see the expression on her face.

“What do you need me to do?” For the first time since Ethan had left, Adrian looked directly at her. Too directly.

“As I said, the board meeting starts in ten minutes. I need the quarterly reports, the investor projections, and the revised staffing breakdown.”

“Fine.” She turned away before he could say anything else.

The filing cabinet stood against the far wall. Ava pulled the drawer open harder than necessary and started sorting through the documents inside.

She could feel him watching her. Good. Let him. Because she was done being weak. Done letting herself get pulled into whatever twisted game existed between him and Ethan.

She would do her job. Nothing more.

“Second drawer,” Adrian said after a moment. “Blue folder.”

“I know where it is.” The answer was so annoyingly calm that she nearly slammed the drawer shut.

Instead, she took a slow breath and pulled out the folder.

Investor projections. Then the staffing reports. Then the board agenda.

By the time she returned to the desk, her expression was perfectly composed. She placed the files in front of him one by one.

“Quarterly reports.” Another file. “Projected losses.” Another. “Staffing breakdown.” Adrian looked down at the papers, then back up at her.

There was something unreadable in his expression. “You work quickly.”

“It’s my job.” A small pause. “Yes,” he said quietly. “It is.”

Something about the way he said it made her grip tighten around the last folder in her hands.

Because for one dangerous second, it sounded almost like regret. But no. She was not doing this again. Not with him.

“Is there anything else, sir?” The word sir hung between them like a blade.

His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “No.”

“Then I’ll prepare the boardroom.” She turned toward the door.

“Ava.” Her hand stopped on the handle. She turned around.

“Miss Sinclair, sir” The silence stretched for a second too long.

Then he thought against whatever he had to say “You can go.” Of course.

Because whatever he had almost said, he was not going to say it now. And she was done waiting for men to choose her when it was convenient.

Without another word, Ava opened the door and walked out. The hallway outside was already crowded with nervous employees and hurried assistants rushing toward the boardroom.

No one looked at her directly, but she could feel it anyway. The whispers. The speculation. They had seen Ethan leave Adrian’s office.

They had seen the expression on his face. By tomorrow, the entire company would have a story. Ava straightened her shoulders and kept walking.

If Adrian wanted her to be his assistant, then fine. That was exactly what she would be. Nothing more.