CHAPTER 11 – The Heir and the Shareholder
1197 Words
By the following Monday, Elena had learned two important things about Wolfe Global.
The first was that nobody willingly challenged Adrian Wolfe.
The second was that Ethan Cole seemed determined to challenge him whenever possible.
She discovered this during the weekly executive briefing.
Technically, she wasn’t supposed to be participating.
She was only there to take notes and organize documents.
At least, that had been Adrian’s instruction.
Instead, she found herself sitting quietly at the far end of a conference room while some of the most powerful people in the company discussed investment strategies, acquisitions, and quarterly projections.
The atmosphere was serious.
Professional.
Controlled.
Then Ethan walked in.
Ten minutes late.
Carrying coffee.
The room collectively sighed.
Adrian didn’t even look surprised.
“You missed the first ten minutes.”
Ethan sat down comfortably.
“Good morning to you too.”
Several executives exchanged amused looks.
Adrian’s expression remained unchanged.
“We started at nine.”
“It is nine.”
“It’s nine ten.”
“Still technically nine.”
The room fell silent.
Elena quickly lowered her eyes to her notes.
Mostly to hide her smile.
Across the table, Adrian noticed.
Unfortunately.
And for some reason, the sight lingered in his mind longer than it should have.
The meeting continued.
For the next hour, Elena listened carefully.
The discussion was complicated, but fascinating.
She quickly noticed something unusual.
Whenever Adrian spoke, everyone listened.
When Ethan spoke, people listened too.
Just differently.
Adrian commanded respect.
Ethan earned attention.
One led through authority.
The other through personality.
Yet somehow both had influence.
The realization stayed with her until the meeting ended.
As executives began leaving the room, Elena gathered her documents.
She was organizing the final reports when Maya suddenly appeared beside her.
“Survived your first executive meeting?”
“Barely.”
Maya laughed.
“They’re not always that entertaining.”
“Ethan makes them entertaining.”
“That’s Ethan.”
Elena glanced toward the hallway where Ethan had disappeared moments earlier.
“Can I ask something?”
“Of course.”
“Why does he work here?”
Maya blinked.
“What kind of question is that?”
“I mean…”
Elena lowered her voice.
“He’s obviously family, but his role seems different.”
Maya smiled knowingly.
“Ah.”
“What?”
“You’re trying to figure out the Wolfe family.”
Elena immediately looked guilty.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Maybe a little.”
Maya laughed.
“Everyone does eventually.”
They continued walking toward the elevators.
“Ethan isn’t just Adrian’s cousin,” Maya explained.
“He’s one of the company’s shareholders.”
Elena frowned slightly.
“A shareholder?”
“His father was Richard Wolfe’s twin brother.”
That much Elena already knew.
“Before he passed away, he left part of his shares to Ethan.”
Understanding slowly dawned.
“So Ethan actually owns part of Wolfe Global?”
“Exactly.”
Elena looked surprised.
“And yet he acts like…”
“A normal human being?”
Maya grinned.
“That’s because Ethan never cared much about titles.”
The answer somehow made perfect sense.
By lunchtime, Elena found herself thinking about it again.
The heir.
And the shareholder.
Two men from the same family.
Raised under the same legacy.
Yet completely different.
One carried responsibility like a permanent weight.
The other seemed determined not to let responsibility define him.
She was still thinking about it when Adrian’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Miss Hart.”
Elena immediately looked up.
He stood beside her desk holding a folder.
Professional.
Composed.
Impossibly intimidating.
As usual.
“Yes, Mr. Wolfe?”
“I need these reports reorganized before tomorrow.”
She accepted the folder.
Their fingers brushed briefly.
The contact lasted less than a second.
Yet both seemed unusually aware of it.
Elena looked down first.
Adrian cleared his throat.
“The investor review is at eight.”
“I’ll have everything ready.”
He nodded once.
Then returned to his office.
Elena released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
Strange.
Very strange.
The afternoon passed quickly.
Around three o’clock, Ethan appeared beside her desk.
Again.
At this point, Elena had simply accepted that he materialized whenever he felt like it.
“Question.”
She sighed.
“Should I be worried?”
“Possibly.”
“Ethan.”
He grinned.
“Who do you think is harder to work with?”
Elena immediately knew where this was going.
“No.”
“Come on.”
“No.”
“Eleanor.”
“It’s Elena.”
“Answer the question.”
She laughed despite herself.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I enjoy being employed.”
Ethan looked disappointed.
“That’s fair.”
Before either could continue, a voice cut through the conversation.
“Ethan.”
The smile disappeared from Ethan’s face.
Slowly.
Dramatically.
He turned.
Adrian stood a few feet away.
Expression unreadable.
“You’re distracting my assistant.”
Elena blinked.
My assistant?
The words shouldn’t have affected her.
Yet somehow they did.
Ethan noticed too.
His eyes moved briefly between them.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
“I was having a conversation.”
“You were avoiding work.”
“Same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
Ethan sighed.
“You really need hobbies.”
“And you need discipline.”
“See?”
Ethan pointed dramatically toward Elena.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about.”
Adrian ignored him completely.
“Ethan.”
“Fine.”
Ethan raised both hands in surrender.
“I’m leaving.”
Then he looked toward Elena.
“I’ll continue this conversation another time.”
Before Adrian could respond, Ethan walked away.
Leaving silence behind.
Elena focused very hard on her computer screen.
Adrian remained standing there for a moment.
Then finally spoke.
“You don’t have to entertain him.”
The statement surprised her.
A little.
“He’s not bothering me.”
Something flickered briefly across Adrian’s face.
Gone too quickly to identify.
“He bothers everyone.”
“He seems nice.”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Immediately, she regretted them.
Not because they were untrue.
Because Adrian’s expression became impossible to read.
After a moment, he simply nodded.
Then returned to his office.
Elena stared after him.
Confused.
Because she couldn’t shake the feeling that the conversation hadn’t been about Ethan at all.
Upstairs, Adrian stood by the glass wall of his office.
Below, employees moved through the building in steady streams.
Meetings.
Deadlines.
Business.
Normal.
Predictable.
Controlled.
Everything should have felt familiar.
Instead, his thoughts returned to a single moment.
He seems nice.
The words irritated him far more than they should have.
Not because Ethan wasn’t nice.
He was.
Most people liked him.
That had always been the problem.
No.
What bothered Adrian was something else entirely.
Something he couldn’t quite explain.
Or perhaps didn’t want to.
For the first time since hiring Elena Hart, he found himself asking a question he had carefully avoided.
What would happen if Ethan genuinely started pursuing her?
And for the first time, Adrian realized he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
- Writer
