CHAPTER 11

Oliver's POV

The silence in the boardroom after my announcement was absolute. For three agonizing seconds, nobody breathed. You could have heard a pin drop on the thick mahogany table.

Then, the murmurs started. It began as a low buzz at the far end of the table and quickly escalated into a flurry of hushed, frantic whispers. The older board members were exchanging baffled looks, shuffling their papers, and staring at Elena as if she had just materialized out of thin air.

"Wife?" one of the senior investors muttered, his glasses sliding down his nose. "Since when is Mr. Wyatt married?"

My uncle Richard stood frozen at the side of the room. The smooth, paternal composure he had worn like armor all morning completely shattered. His face transitioned from a satisfying shade of pale to a dark, furious crimson. He stared at our joined hands, his fingers twitching against the edge of his folder. He looked like a man who had just watched his carefully constructed trap get blown to pieces by a single word.

"Oliver," Richard finally managed, his voice cracking slightly before he forced it back into a calm, measured register. "What is the meaning of this? Is this some kind of stunt?"

"It’s not a stunt, Richard. It's a reality," I said, keeping my voice cool, steady, and entirely dominant. I squeezed Elena’s hand slightly, giving the room a flash of pure confidence. "Elena and I were married this morning. I understand it’s a surprise to all of you, but given the board's sudden concern over my lack of stability, I thought it was time to make our relationship official."

The board members immediately began murmuring again. Old man Sterling, who had been leading the charge against me just ten minutes ago, cleared his throat loudly. He looked at me, then at Elena, and finally turned to the rest of the committee.

"Well... this certainly changes the context of our discussion," Sterling said, adjusting his tie. "If the CEO has indeed taken a wife, the public perception of the merger changes entirely. We need time to review this. I propose we adjourn this meeting until tomorrow morning so the committee can digest these new developments."

"Seconded," another board member called out immediately.

"Agreed," a chorus of voices echoed around the table.

"Meeting adjourned," Sterling announced, rapping his knuckles against the wood.

The room erupted into a flurry of activity. Chairs scraped against the floor as the board members stood up, but nobody left immediately. They packed their briefcases with agonizing slowness, their eyes darting over to where Elena and I stood. Several investors purposely lingered near the water pitcher, pretending to check their phones but clearly straining their ears to catch whatever happened next. They were sharks waiting for a drop of blood, looking for any sign that this was a fraud.

Richard didn't wait. He marched across the room, his heavy steps vibrating through the floorboards until he stopped right in front of us. The fake, warm uncle persona was entirely gone, replaced by a sharp, aggressive glare.

"Wife?" Richard hissed, dropping his voice but letting the venom pierce through. "How come I have never heard a single word about her, Oliver? I am your family. I manage your father’s legacy alongside you. And you get married at a courthouse without a single phone call?"

I opened my mouth to step in, ready to hit him with a pre-packaged corporate excuse about privacy and avoiding the paparazzi. "Richard, let me introduce you—"

"No need to try to defend us, dear," Elena interrupted smoothly.

I stopped, my jaw tightening in surprise as she gently released my hand and stepped right into Richard’s personal space. She didn't look intimidated by his height or his scowl. In fact, a warm, perfectly radiant smile spread across her face as she extended a hand toward him.

"I can handle this myself," she added softly to me, before locking her gaze onto my uncle. "Hello. You must be Oliver’s uncle, Richard. He speaks so highly of you. He always tells me how much you care about the family name."

Richard blinked, completely thrown off balance by her directness. He looked down at her small hand, hesitating for a fraction of a second before his old-school manners forced him to take it. "Yes, I am Richard Wyatt. And you are..."

"Elena," she said, her voice dripping with a quiet, grounded charm that instantly made the lingering board members lean in closer.

Richard let go of her hand, his eyes narrowing as he tried to regain control of the conversation. He adopted a fake, paternal sigh, tilting his head with practiced disappointment. "Well, Elena, it’s a pleasure. But you must understand my shock. Oliver has not told me a single thing about you. Not a word. For a man who claims to be head over heels, he kept you completely hidden from the people who love him most. It makes a man wonder why."

I felt a surge of tension in my chest. I hadn't prepared her for this specific line of questioning. We hadn't even discussed a cover story for how we met or why it was a secret. I braced myself to cut in and save her before she stumbled over the details, but Elena didn't even blink.

"Oh, please don't blame Oliver, Richard," Elena said with a soft, genuine laugh, shaking her head. "The truth is, it all just happened so incredibly fast. We were both terrified of the media turning our lives into a circus before we were ready."

Richard folded his arms, his expression rigid. "Fast? How fast exactly?"

Elena smiled, looking back at me with a gaze so filled with warmth and mock-affection that for a second, even I almost believed it.

"We actually met a few months ago at a small coffee shop near his private startup office," Elena said smoothly, spinning the lie with the ease of a professional storyteller. "I had absolutely no idea who he was. To me, he was just this incredibly stressed, intense man who kept barking orders into his phone while waiting for a black coffee. I actually snapped at him to turn his volume down."

A few of the lingering board members chuckled softly behind us. Richard’s eyes darted toward them, his irritation growing.

"And that was it?" Richard asked, his voice dripping with skepticism.

"Not at all," Elena continued, stepping closer to me and naturally slipping her arm through mine. The warmth of her body pressed against my side, and I instinctively adjusted my stance to anchor her. "He kept coming back. Every single morning at the exact same time. It took me weeks to realize he was only showing up to see if I’d snap at him again. Oliver is used to everyone saying yes to him, Richard. I think he was completely shocked to find a woman who looked him in the eye and told him when he was being completely ridiculous."

I stared down at the side of her face, my heart doing a strange, heavy thud against my ribs. I was completely stunned. She was improvising an entire romantic history on the spot, drawing elements from our actual argument in the stairwell and the coffee power play, but weaving it into something beautiful, grounded, and completely believable.

"He’s a brilliant man, Richard, but he can be his own worst enemy," Elena said, her voice dropping into a tender, protective register as she looked back up at the board members who were openly listening now. "He gets so caught up in the numbers and the battles that he forgets to take care of himself. When the press started getting brutal this week, I looked at him and I just knew. I knew he needed someone in his corner who didn't care about the Wyatt Enterprises crown. I'm here to save him from himself, even if that means dragging him to a courthouse to lock things down before the sharks can bite."

The room went quiet again, but this time, the atmosphere had completely shifted. I could see the older board members nodding approvingly. A regular, grounded woman who wasn't a model, who claimed to keep the arrogant billionaire humble and focused? It was PR gold. It was exactly what an old-fashioned board wanted to hear.

Richard’s mouth opened and closed, his arguments completely drained away. He looked at Elena, then at me, realizing he had been completely outmaneuvered in front of his own allies.

"Well," Richard muttered, his voice strained as he forced his fake smile back onto his face. "It seems my nephew found a very eloquent defender. I suppose I will see you both at the rescheduled meeting tomorrow morning."

"We look forward to it, Uncle Richard," I said, letting a dark, victorious edge slip into my voice.

Richard turned on his heel and practically marched out of the boardroom, the remaining investors quickly scrambling to follow him out, leaving the two of us completely alone in the massive room.

The heavy doors clicked shut.

The second the room was empty, Elena let go of my arm and took a massive step back, her shoulders dropping as she let out a long, shaky breath. The confident, radiant wife instantly vanished, replaced by the tired, stressed assistant who had spent the morning at a civil court.

I stared at her, my mind still reeling from the performance she had just put on.

"Where the hell did you learn to lie like that?" I asked, my voice quiet but filled with a genuine, profound respect.

Elena wiped a stray lock of hair from her forehead, looking up at me with a tired, sharp look in her eyes. "I didn't lie, Mr. Wyatt. I just took our five-minute argument in the stairwell and your ridiculous black coffee obsession and made it sound like a romance novel. You told me to play the part. I played it."

A slow, genuine smile spread across my face. I walked over to the head of the table, picking up my tablet. "You didn't just play it, Elena. You completely destroyed my uncle's entire strategy. I was impressed."

"Good," she said, her voice returning to its flat, professional tone as she turned toward the door. "Because that performance just cost you a million dollars, and I have a sister to take care of. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go check my email and make sure your real business isn't falling apart while we pretend to be in love."

I watched her walk out of the boardroom, her spine perfectly straight, her head held high. For the first time in my life, I realized I hadn't just hired an assistant to play a part.

I had hired a partner who might actually be smarter than I was.