CHRISTIAN POV
The numbers on the screen blurred into nothing. Voices droned around me, but all I could hear was the sound of my own thoughts hammering against my skull.
Whatever Elizabeth was hiding from me was eating me alive. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Every time I looked at her, I saw it—the flicker in her eyes, the hesitation in her touch, the way she guarded her words as if every sentence carried a secret.
it was clawing at my mind, shredding my concentration until I couldn’t breathe without the question burning in my chest.
“Mr. Reed?” One of the executives cleared his throat, hesitating as though he’d already repeated himself twice. “Should we move forward with—”
“I asked for projections, not excuses,” I cut in sharply, but even I could hear it—the edge in my voice wa
