GILDED RUIN

THE REVELATION

ELINA POV

I barely made it to the bathroom before throwing up.

Third morning in a row.

I knelt on the cold tile floor, gripping the toilet seat, my whole body shaking.

This wasn't the flu.

I knew exactly what this was.

"No, no, no," I whispered, wiping my mouth with shaky hands.

I pulled myself up and stared at my reflection in the mirror. I looked terrible: dark circles under my eyes, skin too pale, hair a mess.

And possibly pregnant.

I locked the bathroom stall door and pulled out the pregnancy test I'd bought on my way to work; my hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped it.

Two minutes later, I was staring at two pink lines.

Positive.

I pressed my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming.

I was pregnant with a stranger's baby, a man whose name I didn't even know, a man I'd paid a thousand dollars to sleep with me.

"Elina, you in there?"

Jennifer's voice outside the bathroom made me jump.

"Yeah, just give me a minute," I called out, trying to sound normal.

I shoved the test deep into my purse and flushed the toilet for effect, then I washed my hands and walked out like my entire world wasn't crashing down around me.

Jennifer was touching up her lipstick in the mirror.

"You okay, you've been looking rough lately."

"Just tired," I lied.

Back at my desk I couldn't focus on anything; the words on my computer screen blurred together, and all I could think about was him.

The stranger from the hotel.

Dark hair, gold flecks in his eyes, hands that knew exactly how to touch me.

He deserved to know.

Even if I never saw him again, even if he wanted nothing to do with the baby or me, he had a right to know he was going to be a father.

But how could I find a man whose name I didn't know?

I grabbed my phone and called Sage.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I need your help," I said quietly, "can you meet me for lunch?"

"Of course, you sound terrible. What happened?"

"I'll tell you when I see you."

An hour later, we were sitting in a quiet corner of a coffee shop three blocks from my office. Sage took one look at my face and grabbed my hand.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm pregnant," I whispered.

Her eyes went huge.

"What, but you and Damien haven't, I mean, you said you weren't even sleeping in the same bed anymore."

"It's not Damien's."

I told her everything: the hotel bar, the stranger, the one night that was supposed to make me feel in control again.

Sage listened without interrupting. When I finished, she squeezed my hand harder.

"Okay, so we need to find this guy. What do you remember about him?"

"Dark hair, maybe twenty-five, tall, beautiful in a dangerous way, expensive cologne, he ordered scotch without looking at the menu."

"That's something, what hotel was it?"

I told her, and she started typing on her phone.

"Let's go back there; maybe the bartender remembers him."

We left work early and took a cab to the hotel. My stomach was still queasy, but I forced myself to walk into that bar as I belonged there.

The same bartender was working, r guy with kind eyes.

"Excuse me," I said, sliding onto a barstool, "I was here about three weeks ago, I'm trying to find someone I met that night."

He looked at me carefully.

"I see a lot of people. Can you describe him?"

I gave him the same description I'd given Sage: dark hair, young, expensive taste.

The bartender shook his head slowly.

"Sorry, that could be a hundred different guys who come through here."

My heart sank.

"Are you sure? It was late, maybe around midnight, and he was sitting right here."

An older man at the end of the bar looked up from his drink.

"Sounds like one of those Maddox types," he said.

I turned to him.

"Maddox?"

"Yeah, you know, rich playboy types who come here to pretend they're normal, I've seen a few of them over the years."

"Do you know his name?"

The man shrugged and went back to his drink.

Sage grabbed my arm.

"Did he just say Maddox?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Elina, Maddox owns our company, Kael Maddox, he's the CEO."

I stared at her.

"That can't be right, I've never even seen the CEO, nobody has."

"Because he never comes down to our floor, he stays on the top level; apparently, he wears a mask or something."

My mind was racing.

Could the stranger from the hotel really be my boss?

No, that was crazy; there was no way.

"I need to see a photo," I said.

Sage pulled out her phone and started searching, but there were barely any pictures of Kael Maddox online, just blurry shots from business events where his face was partially hidden.

"This is useless," I said, frustrated.

Then Sage grabbed my hand.

"Come on, let's go to the main office, there's got to be a photo of him somewhere in the building."

We took another cab back to the office tower, where I'd worked here for two years, but I'd never been past the tenth floor.

The lobby was all marble and glass, intimidating and cold.

Near the elevators, there was a wall with framed photos of company executives.

And there at the top was a large portrait.

Kael Maddox, CEO.

My blood turned to ice.

It was him.

The stranger from the hotel.

The man I'd paid for s*x.

The father of my baby.

He owned the company where I worked.

I couldn't breathe, and my vision was going dark around the edges.

"Elina, you okay?"

Sage was holding my arm, keeping me upright.

"That's him," I whispered, "that's the guy from the hotel."

"Holy shit."

I don't remember walking to the reception desk, and I don't remember asking to see.

Everything felt like it was happening underwater.

But suddenly I was standing there, and the receptionist was looking at me with professional courtesy.

"Can I help you?"

"I need to see Kael Maddox," I heard myself say, "it's urgent, about Damien Cole."

She picked up the phone and spoke quietly, then she nodded.

"Mr. Maddox will see you now. Take the elevator to the sixtieth floor."

My hands were shaking.

I was about to walk into the office of the man I'd paid for s*x, the man whose baby I was carrying, the man who owned the company where I worked.

And he had no idea I knew who he really was.