Chapter 2
1069 Words
And together, they walked out, leaving Luna alone in the room she had decorated for their anniversary. Alone with the flickering candlelight, the silent petals on the floor, and the echo of her sobs suffocating the air around her.
But as the door clicked shut behind them, something else flickered in Luna’s eyes.
She felt like crying, but the tears weren't coming.
Instead, she kept hearing his words, repeatedly echoing deep in her ears, “the documents you signed on last week, were the transfer documents, including this suite”
Fuck!
She screamed, roughly running her hands through her hair.
Damnit!
She had foolishly been given the signals from Logan, but had foolishly ignored, hoping she'd change him. She thought.
She had expected to at least sell off her properties and investments to pay up her debts, but now, she had successfully signed it off to her step sister.
Her phone kept buzzing with calls repeatedly, she ignored it.
Texts kept coming in, yet she ignored it.
The silence in the suite was deceptive. A calming breeze blew in through the sheer curtains, sunlight spilling onto the hardwood floor in lazy puddles of gold. But her insides? A chaos of storm clouds and shattering echoes from a moment she'd never forget in her lifetime.
Her phone buzzed for the fifth time in five minutes.
Luna didn’t flinch.
Again.
And again.
Luna picked it up, the muscles in her jaw tightening, her thumb hovering over the red hang-up icon. She was this close to hurling the damn thing against the wall when she saw it—
“INCOMING CALL: COMPANY LINE - SEC. DEPT”
Her thumb paused.
It was the official company number.
Only one person ever called through that line. The secretary. And when she called outside working hours, especially on a Saturday, it meant it was something that couldn’t wait.
Heart skipping, Luna answered. “Hello?”
“Ms. Shawn,” came the clipped, brisk voice of Claire, the boss’s long-time secretary. “You’re late.”
Luna blinked, sitting up, drying a tear, “What?”
“The CEO wants to meet with the top senior staff. Everyone’s already here. He’s waiting for you. Right now.”
“But…it’s Saturday,” Luna's voice came out in sobs, to the amusement of the secretary, while she was already kicking off her slippers and rushing to her bedroom.
“I don’t think I stuttered,” Claire snapped, hanging up before Luna could say another word.
Luna didn’t even bother with a shower. She yanked her black pencil skirt from the hanger, buttoned up her white blouse with trembling fingers, tied her hair into a messy but elegant bun, and grabbed her purse. Her breath was shallow. Her mind raced.
Twenty-five minutes later, she burst into the company lobby, heels clicking with frantic rhythm as she bolted for the top floor. The elevator doors slid open. Her chest heaved from the rush, a bead of sweat trickling down her spine.
But nothing could prepare her for what she saw next.
The CEO’s office door was open.
And the man behind the massive oak desk…
Wasn't her boss, Kris Lenn
He was a bit older.
Colder. And…
Familiar.
Staring directly at her.
Luna froze in place as every eye in the room turned toward her. Her coworkers, at least fifteen of them, were already seated. Silent. Anxious. The tension was thick as smog. Claire stood beside the stranger with her arms folded, wearing a look that said, You’re already on his bad side.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” the man behind the desk said, his voice smooth but laced with warning.
Luna took a slow step forward. “I…I was told Mr. Lenn..”
“—has stepped down,” the man interrupted, standing slowly. He was tall, with tailored authority stitched into every inch of his charcoal suit. “Effective immediately. I am your new boss.”
A pin could’ve dropped in the room and echoed.
Luna blinked hard, stunned. “Stepped… down?”
The man nodded once, his expression unreadable. “Mr. Lenn is no longer in charge of this company. He has appointed me interim CEO until the board finalizes his retirement.”
Retirement?
Kris Lenn?
No, Kris Lenn never mentioned stepping down. He loved control. He craved it.
The new man rounded the desk, clasping his hands behind his back. “For those of you who think this is a joke, let me assure you, this is real. And things around here are going to change.”
Luna was still trying to process the bombshell when the man stopped in front of her.
Up close, he was even more imposing. Striking blue eyes. A hard jaw. And something familiar in the arch of his brow…
“I’m Ethan Lockwood,” he said with a slight smirk.
Luna’s blood ran cold.
No. That wasn’t possible. Ethan Lockwood?
The name was familiar and the face too!
She gasped loudly in surprise when she recognized everything.
Her Fiance, now, Ex, had always told her of his dad.
The one who he always complained of being brutal and inhumane.
The one who despite his wealth, turned his back on his first love who was his mom, the same man who was rumoured to be a chronic womanizer.
And the man was Ethan Lockwood!
Her ex’s dad.
And her new boss!
Holy s**t!
She screamed, her eyes widely open. She was about to scream further when his sharp voice cut in,
“You should be at the rehab center, is this some kind of a play station to you?”
“I'm really sorry sir, I…. I'm sorry sir” she stuttered, head bowed.
“Is that Cummings you've got on your hair?”
Everyone present gasped, Luna swallowed a huge lump of saliva stuck on her throat, face red from embarrassment... and remembered she hurriedly left the house without bathing.
“Since you're quiet, I presume it's Cummings. He must be really good to have poured this much on you” Ethan's voice was low, but marked with a sense of authority and demeanor.
Does that mean he doesn't recognize her? Luna thought and prayed it was so. Though she had visited him once with Logan, she wasn't expecting he'd forget her so soon.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ethan said, reading her expression perfectly.
- Writer
