Instead, I drifted towards the exterior doors, my heart beating rapidly. It wasn’t broken, but I could still feel bruises in places of my heart I hadn’t noticed in a while.I finished off the champagne and stepped onto the balcony, needing air. Clean air, not the filtered perfume-drenched glamour th
Emily I told myself I was going for the Pack. But really, I went because staying behind would’ve felt like defeat.After the audit whispers and Julian’s carefully neutral concern, I needed to be seen. Needed to remind myself I wasn’t crumbling, no matter what the tabloids or staff thought.Still, a
It was like someone had set off a silent alarm, and everyone was waiting to see whose name would echo back through the halls.I didn’t panic. Not outwardly. Not even when Carla “accidentally” forwarded me a list of flagged discrepancies that mysteriously hadn’t been flagged the day before.She playe
Emily Julian knocked once on the edge of the open door before stepping into my office, already smiling like we were old friends rather than colleagues with entirely different agendas.“You’ve been busy,” he said lightly, nodding toward the half-open folders scattered across my desk. “Press tours, s
I shut the drawer with more force than necessary and forced myself back into motion.There was a supply report to review, a proposal to revise, an office that wouldn’t manage itself. I threw myself into it like drowning in work might delay having to deal with my feelings.But later that night, the s
Emily The tabloid was waiting for me when I walked into my office. It was perfectly folded, strategically placed so I couldn’t miss it. Carla wasn’t even trying to be subtle anymore.The “accidental” delivery had arrived in the form of a courier envelope marked urgent, as if our trade negotiations