All Chapters of HIRED BY THE RUTHLESS CEO : Chapter 61 - Chapter 65

Aria POVThe sound of the gunshot splits reality in two.One second, Victoria is screaming, the gun pointed at me. The next, Damien is throwing himself between us, and the world explodes into noise and chaos.He staggers backward into me, his hand going to his shoulder. Blood seeps between his fingers, dark and spreading fast."Damien!" My scream doesn't sound like my own voice.Everything happens at once. Security floods the room, tackling Victoria to the ground. The gun skitters across the floor. Henry's shouting orders. My father is yelling something I can't process.But all I see is Damien, falling to his knees, blood soaking through his shirt.I catch him before he hits the ground completely, lowering him as gently as I can. My hands are shaking so badly I can barely hold him."You're okay." I'm crying, pressing my hands over the wound even though I don't know what I'm doing. "You're going to be okay.""Aria." His voice is strained but conscious. "Are you hurt?""Am I—" I can't b

Aria POVMy father had the television on when I got to his room at Cedars-Sinai, the volume low, some morning news anchor cycling through overnight stories. He didn't look up when I came in—he was watching the screen with an expression I'd never seen on him before, something careful and held very tight.Then I looked at the screen and I understood why.Richard Hastings named primary responsible party in Emily Cross wrongful death. David Holt exonerated—DA's office releases official filing."Dad." My voice came out wrong—too thin, too high.He finally looked at me, and his eyes were wet, and he said, very quietly, "Eight years, Aria."My mother had been sitting in the chair by the window and I hadn't even noticed her until she made a sound that wasn't quite a word and pressed her hand over her mouth, and then the three of us were all just sitting there with the news anchor's voice filling up the silence.Henry arrived twenty minutes later with paperwork, real paperwork with the DA's se

Aria POVJulian put the invitation on my desk on a Thursday morning without any preamble, which was how I knew he thought it was a big deal."The National Corporate Accountability Conference," he said, tapping the letterhead. "Keynote speaker slot. They want you specifically—they mentioned the Cross Technologies case by name in the ask."I stared at the paper. "How long have you had this?""Since Tuesday." He sat down across from me. "I wanted to think about it before I brought it to you."That told me everything. Julian had been in my corner since day one of this mess—he'd backed my public statement, he'd approved every TechVista initiative I'd proposed, he'd shown up at the hospital without being asked. If he'd waited two days to show me this, he had concerns."Say what you're thinking," I said.He folded his hands on my desk. "Accepting this makes you the public face of corporate whistleblowing in this country for the next several years. That's either a platform or a cage, dependin