THE CEO’S HIDDEN SECRET

Chapter 3

ARIA’S POV

“Miss Sunshine. What exactly are you doing here?”

For a moment, I forgot that I was supposed to answer him.

I stared at the man standing in front of me, still trying to reconcile the face I had seen on the plane with the man everyone in this building seemed to be waiting for.

The CEO.

Of all the things that could have gone wrong on my first day at Tierney Dynamics, I had never imagined that the rude stranger who took the last bottle of apple juice from me would turn out to be the man running the entire company.

Apparently, Alaska had a terrible sense of humour.

“Sir?” The employee beside me cleared his throat. “She is one of the new junior systems analysts you asked me to bring to your office.”

Jackson’s eyes moved briefly towards him before returning to me.

Something changed in his expression. His eyebrows lifted slightly, and then a slow smile spread across his face.

“Oh,” he said. “She’s one of the new junior analysts?”

“Yes, sir. Miss West was among the successful candidates recruited into the systems department.”

He looked at me again.

“Interesting.”

I was beginning to hate that word.

“What’s interesting about that?” I asked before I could stop myself.

The employee beside me turned towards me so quickly that I almost laughed.

Jackson, however, seemed delighted.

“Nothing in particular, Miss Sunshine.”

“My name is Aria West.”

“I know. I just read it on your file.”

“Then perhaps you should use it.”

His smile disappeared for a second, but he recovered quickly.

“I see we’re still having trouble with manners.”

I almost reminded him that he was the one who had started it on the plane, but I decided against it. I had been inside this building for barely five minutes, and I would have preferred not to give anyone a reason to question whether hiring me had been a mistake.

“I apologise if I came across as rude, sir,” I said, with as much politeness as I could manage. “It has been a rather surprising morning.”

“I’m sure it has.”

There was something about the way he said it that made me suspect he was enjoying himself.

He turned to the employee.

“What department was she assigned to?”

“The systems department, sir. She was scheduled to report to one of the senior analysts after orientation.”

“Change that.”

The employee looked confused. “Sir?”

“Miss West will report directly to me from today.”

I blinked.

I’m sorry, what?

Jackson continued as though he had just asked someone to bring him a cup of coffee.

“Have her reporting structure updated. Every assignment she works on will be submitted to my office, and I want to review her reports personally. Any system access she requires will need my approval.”

The employee hesitated.

“Of course, sir. Should I inform the head of the systems department?”

“I believe that’s what I just asked you to do.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And make sure her access permissions are ready before the end of the day.”

“I will, sir.”

The employee looked down at his documents, clearly eager to leave.

I, on the other hand, was still trying to understand what was happening.

Directly under the CEO?

I had applied for a junior systems analyst position, not a personal assistant role. There were senior analysts and department heads whose actual jobs involved supervising people like me. Why would the CEO want to review every report I produced?

Unless this had something to do with the fact that I had refused to let him have the last word on the plane.

I looked at him, and he gave me a perfectly innocent expression.

Oh, he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Is there a problem, Miss West?” he asked.

“Not at all, sir. I was just wondering whether this is the usual arrangement for new employees.”

“It is for you.”

“May I ask why?”

“You may.”

I waited for him to continue.

He didn’t.

I took a slow breath. “And are you going to answer the question?”

His lips twitched.

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“I was under the impression that curiosity was useful in my line of work.”

“It is. Provided you know which questions to ask.”

“And provided someone is willing to answer them.”

The employee beside us suddenly became very interested in the papers in his hands.

Jackson held my gaze for another moment before turning away.

“Have the arrangements made,” he told the employee. “I’ll take it from here. You may leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

The man practically escaped the room.

I couldn’t blame him. If I had somewhere else to be, I would have left too.

Jackson walked towards his desk and picked up a file.

“You’ll join the other new employees for orientation. Your department schedule will be ready before the end of the day.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And Miss West?”

I stopped at the door.

“Yes?”

“Try to make a better impression today.”

I looked at him over my shoulder.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Please do.”

I left before I said something that could get me fired.

By the time I found the conference room, I had already decided that Jackson Tierney was going to be a problem.

I just hadn’t figured out how big a problem yet.