All Chapters of CEO's UNEXPECTED WIFE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Maddison's POVThe question hung in the air, a spoken spear thrown directly at her, and in that moment, Maddison felt a dozen eyes settle on her. Chloe's face was one of slowly growing surprise, but to Maddison, it felt as though it was a cop's flashlight. The heat of the mug in her hands spread up through her arm."I… I don't know," she managed to say, the sentence awkward and strange on her lips. "I didn't really know anyone outside of class."It was a weak lie but it was the best she could do at that instant. She didn't stop to hear a response but walked instead out of the break room, her step steady and slow. She didn't run, nor did she look back over her shoulder. She could feel Chloe's and Liam's eyes on the back of her and could almost hear the sound of their minds connecting. Her way back to her desk, along a hallway which most often was a hundred yards, was a mile-long walk on a tightrope with the deep dark pit of her past open wide under her feet. Every face she saw that mor

Maddison's POVWith a definite click, she minimized the email window, ignoring the question and the person who had asked the question in the background. She opened the Project Sky Piercer folder. The screen was filled with the crossing, careful lines of her bridge design. The master plan, the stress test results, the parts list pages, the flow tests; everything was there. A world of cold and simple logic.This was her safe place. There were no secret plans here, no webs of lies, no past dangers. There was wind and metal, drag and weight. The laws of science did not change. They did not lie…They did not betray…They just WERE.She moved to the side support post files, a part of the building that had been a nagging, annoying small problem for a week and a half now.Even though she had defended herself in front of Grant, Marcus and other board members, the testing showed a small, almost unnoticeable wobble in a certain, strange mix of side wind and constant weight. It was all well within

Maddison's POVShe turned around. Grant Harrison was waiting for her, just in the golden glow of the massive archway of the entranceway. He wasn't waiting there with his usual group of executives and assistants trailing behind him. He was waiting alone for her. He was so handsome that night, his classic tuxedo perfectly fitted, the stark black and white was the perfect choice for the occasion. A quick, natural smile lit his lips as his gaze swept hers; it was a slow, careful look from the tips of her plain heels to the scared throb of the pulse at the base of her throat.The steady hums of the crowd that stood around them pulled back a little, and Maddison felt the shift at once, an actual pressure shift in the air. Heads turned. People stopped mid-sentence. A jade silk-clad woman stood still, a glass of champagne halfway to her lips, her eyes huge. The room was shaken with open, raw attention, and in that moment, she was no longer a party face in the crowd; she was an event. She was

Maddison's POVGrant's hot, rough words were an honest confession that made her shiver. The final wail of waltz music was fading in the vast, suddenly silent ballroom, and they were alone on the floor, the only center of a hundred staring eyes. The heat of his body, the soft pressure of his hand on the curve of her back, the hardness of his eyes; it was too much. Her work face of cool distance had been step by step taken apart in the space of a single dance. She was open, stunned, and scarily alive.She eased back, her elbows still on him, needing to have the narrow bit of room to breathe. Her face was on fire, her heart a bird caged beating against the bars of her chest.Shaking, she gasped out, "I... I need some air," the words tiny, an flimsy excuse for the tidal wave building to cover her.Grant's eyes softened, his rough face creasing with growing worry. He didn't say a word to her. He didn't even make a move to catch her. He merely nodded, his thumb tracing a line along the bac

It was truly the final blow for her. A fake photo of Maddison half-dressed…almost naked in what was clearly Grant's bedroom. The headboard, the ugly carved wooden creature, stood out in the room. There had been a story about his penthouse from years ago in one of those fancy house magazines and that headboard was shown on the front. It was something that anyone who was online could check in about a second. The photograph was badly taken. Her face was likely stolen from some poor social network photo and it was perfectly resting on the fancy pillow in Grant’s room with a calm smile. In an elegant way the sheet covered her, showing deep intimacy like she had been satisfied by a man she was in love with.A choked, raw scream came out of the room, one more loud and confused than the first. It was a scream of final judgment. The other pictures had been pictures of bad behavior but this felt as though it was a victory. This was proof of the ultimate company crime; the powerful boss having s