THE CEO's REGRET

CHAPTER 22- STANDING INSTRUCTIONS

There was a leak inside the Hale Industries gala team. Someone was building a story, and I needed to find them before they found Isla. I moved fast and quietly.

Within the hour, I had the meeting access logs pulled and cross-referenced with the exact time that gossip column dropped. Six of the nine regulars were out immediately. Three names left, all junior, all with full document access, and none with any good reason to be whispering to the press.

By noon my assistant had run soft background checks on the three of them. Nothing heavy, just public stuff and social media. Two cleared themselves on timing alone, the third one? She’d made a secondary account go private exactly three weeks ago. That kind of clean, deliberate move only stands out when you’re already looking for it.

I put every detail together…timestamps, access patterns, the column’s schedule lined up against our internal meetings. Then I called Sebastian, no small talk or a hello. Just business.

“There’s a leak in the planning team,” I said the second he picked up. “I’ve found the most likely source. Sending the file now. You should move within forty-eight hours before they publish anything else.”

A short pause. “You already did the full analysis.”

“It’s my company’s reputation on the line,” I answered. “Yeah, I did.”

“Send it.”

“Forty-eight hours,” I repeated, firmer this time. “Not a day more.”

“I heard you.” His voice had that careful edge, the one that meant he was already three steps ahead. “I’ll handle it.”

I sent the file and went back to work, but something in my stomach wouldn’t settle.

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He handled it in thirty-six. The staffer disappeared from the project so smoothly it was almost eerie. No drama, no announcement, no awkward questions. Access gone, name wiped from every shared folder. The rest of the team just kept their heads down like they’d seen this kind of quiet exit before and knew better than to ask.

I noticed he moved faster than I demanded. I also noticed I didn’t expected him to. The gala was six weeks away, and after that things ran cleaner. The original column had been vague enough…names dropped, old history hinted at, that the story died in two days.

Isla never mentioned it, which worried me more than if she had. My daughter doesn’t let things slide unless she’s decided not to. I kept my work tight and the distance strictly professional, and I made damn sure Isla’s name never left my lips inside Hale Tower.

Whatever this contract really was, whatever sixteen years of silence had turned into, it needed to stay locked down until I was the one who decided to open it. I was deep in catering numbers on a Tuesday afternoon when my office door swung open without warning.

Marcus looked up, then shot me a quick glance. Sebastian stood in the doorway. He hadn’t called or set foot in my office before. His grey suit looked rumpled, like he’d thrown it on hours ago and forgotten about it.

Exhaustion sat heavy on him…not just tired, but worn down in a way that went bone-deep. The kind of tiredness that sleep couldn’t touch. He looked at Marcus. “Give us a few minutes?”

Marcus checked with me, I nodded once. He grabbed his laptop and slipped out, closing the door softly behind him. Sebastian crossed the room and dropped into the chair across from my desk. He didn’t fix his jacket or sit up straight. He just sat there like the weight of whatever he was carrying had finally pulled him under.

I waited, heart beating a little too loud in the sudden quiet. “It was my mother,” he said.

Everything in me went still.

“The staffer wasn’t acting on her own,” he continued, voice low and rough. “She was following standing instructions from Diana’s personal office. Set up before the contract even started. A contingency plan in case things went in a direction my mother didn’t want.” He exhaled sharply. “The girl thought she was just doing routine internal reporting. She had no clue it was feeding straight to the press.”

I felt a slow chill crawl up my spine. “Your mother set this up before I even walked through the door.”

“Before you signed the contract,” he said quietly. “She was already planning for your return. She saw it coming.”

I thought back to Diana at that charity luncheon…her soft smile, those careful words, “I would have chosen differently.” All that fake grace while she already had someone inside my team, watching. Always three moves ahead. Something cold and angry twisted low in my gut.

Sebastian leaned forward, forearms on his knees, eyes locked on mine. The air between us felt thicker now, harder to breathe.

“There’s something else,” he said, and the shift in his tone made my stomach drop. I braced myself, but it wasn’t enough.

“She knows about Isla.” The words landed heavy, no cushion. “I don’t know how much she knows, or exactly how she found out, but she knows, Naomi.” His jaw tightened. “I wanted you to hear it from me first before it comes at you some other way.”

The office went dead silent. My daughter’s name hanging in the air between us felt like a c***k running through glass. I stared at him, my pulse roaring in my ears, remembering my sixteen-year-old girl on our kitchen floor just last night, her voice steady and fierce as she said “he was looking for us”. That moment had already cracked something open inside me.

Now Diana Hale knew her name, and the way Sebastian was looking at me told me this wasn’t just information, but a warning.