CHAPTER2
1049 Words
LEAH MORGAN
Talk about timing.
Clara's face is the last thing I see before my alarm goes off, and I wake from a dream that has me feeling murderous before eight in the morning.
Half past eight. No one needs to tell me twice. A good first impression today is the foundation for everything else I have planned.
"Don't forget your key, Leah," Sylvia, my roommate, calls out as I rush to leave for work.
At the entrance of the building, I think of Clara again, how she would have remembered me, if she'd spared me more than a glance. How she would have seen, somewhere behind my eyes, exactly what's waiting for her.
Inside, two women from accounting pass me near the elevators, not bothering to lower their voices much.
"...fraud, of all things. After everything she did for him."
"That's what they're calling it, anyway." The other one shrugs, like she's already bored of the topic. "Whatever happened, she's gone, and good luck to whoever's next."
They notice me a beat too late. One of them gives me a too-bright smile. "You're new, right? Good luck."
I smile back, and say nothing, and file it away.
Fraud, of all things.
Whoever built that story did it well enough that even the people closest to it don't sound like they're questioning it.
In the elevator, my heart nearly stops when a pair of blue eyes lock onto mine.
"Do you need a special invitation to get into the elevator?" he says, and I realize I've been staring a beat too long.
"No, Mr. Holton." I step in beside him.
Alexander isn't the kind of man you stare at because he's handsome, although he is. It's something else; a quality that makes you want to catalogue every detail of him, like understanding the shape of his face might explain the shape of his control over everything around him.
Getting close to the man Clara wants is the first pin in my plan. When I pull it loose and her world comes down with it, she'll finally understand the kind of pain she handed me.
The elevator dings. He steps out first; I follow. Then he stops and turns.
"I'm having lunch with my fiancée's father this afternoon, Leah. Clear my schedule, or move whatever's in the way."
"Consider it done, sir." A small, sharp smile pulls at my mouth, one he doesn't catch.
That lunch isn't until tomorrow. I moved it up myself, last night, buried in the scheduling system where no one would think to check. I needed his office empty for an hour, and this was the cleanest way to get it.
What Alex has forgotten is his meeting with the CEO of Queen's Consolidated that's slated for this afternoon to discuss financial affairs. The perfect opportunity for me to step up as his secretary and win his trust.
Just as I step into his office, blonde hair and black eyes are the first thing that catches my attention.
"Hey, baby." She opens her arms to him. He walks past her like she isn't in the room, drops his bag on the desk, and sits.
Her cheeks go red. Shame, unmistakable, right under the surface. Her eyes flick to me for half a second — pure humiliation, dressed up as irritation.
I let myself smile.
So, the rumors are true. Whatever this engagement is, it isn't love. It's a transaction.
That makes this easier. Bring him down, and she falls right alongside him.
"What are you staring at? Get lost," Clara snaps. I don't answer to her, and I never will.
She still hasn't recognized me. She will. Soon.
"Sir, the Boltons are at reception," I say. "They're here to close the New York export deal."
The Boltons are Holton family; distant relatives, but family all the same.
"Send them up." His voice leaves no room for discussion, and no room, either, for whatever Clara is still waiting for him to say to her.
Her face darkens further. She wraps her arms around herself and waits anyway.
This is nothing compared to what's coming for her, for both of them. For the family whose hands are all over the worst years of my life.
They say children shouldn't pay for their fathers' sins. The Holtons have never believed that applied to them either.
The door opens. Three bearded men walk in, and one throws his coat at me without looking.
"Be a darling and hang that up."
The coat is soaked through from the rain outside, and it drips down my arm.
"And careful with that. It's worth more than you'll make this year."
My jaw tightens until it aches.
"Oh, hey, Clara. Didn't see you there," the one they call Jax says, already turning back to his cousin.
Clara grabs her bag and storms out without looking at me. I'm about to follow when Alexander's voice stops me cold.
My blood goes cold, immediately.
Now what?
I turn and face him with a clear expression on my face. Jax and his brothers drag their eyes all over me.
Their attention isn't the one I'm after.
“Call Mr. Houston and tell him lunch has been rescheduled to dinner.”
Alex's voice vibrates in my eardrums and rattles down my spine.
He's rescheduling what…?
I stand for more than a second, my lips slightly apart as I try to decipher the puzzle before my own eyes.
“Did I stutter, Miss Morgan?” Alex utters, and the sound of his voice pulling my thoughts back together.
“No, Sir,” I respond. “I'll get on that, right away.”
I turn to take my leave when echoes once more behind me.
“While you are at it, bring three cups of coffee to my office, Leah.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I nod and head for the door, already running the numbers. Less than thirty minutes until Mr. Queen and his assistant arrive, and now Alexander's lunch has just collapsed into the exact window I need clear.
I need a plan, fast, or this is the day I get fired for a meeting Alexander never approved.
I reach the reception desk, and my stomach turns to ice.
Someone is standing there thirty minutes early.
Mr. Houston.
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