All Chapters of CEO's UNEXPECTED WIFE : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Maddison's POV“The name was Cook, Miss Carter," Jon said, his voice dropping even further. "Tyler Cook."Her breath caught in her throat. The name hit her like a fist, a punch in her throat that took her breath away. Tyler. Here. It was so silly, so totally absurd, that for a moment she couldn't understand it. She let her eyes track him to the seating area, over the sleek green tops of the ficus trees.Sitting in one of the massive leather armchairs was a man who was thin, ill looking. An expensive but rumpled suit jacket spread over his bony shoulders like something borrowed. His hair, his pride and joy one time, was now a greasy tangle of knots. His complexion had a yellowish, grayish tint. He was shaking with a nervous tension that she could feel even on the opposite side of the lobby, his knee following a wild zigzagged move that appeared to spread throughout his entire body. There were two huge shouldered security guards in black suits standing a few feet on either side of him,

Maddison's POVThe door had spun shut moments ago, quieting Tyler's final, hateful shout, but the words hung in the air, echoing against the cold marble of the lobby. Question him about his scholarship! Question him how long he has been spying on you!! They were cruel things that had cut deep into the fragile truce she had so newly found. Jon walked along beside her, his voice a harsh whisper, but she hardly heard it.Everything outside of her range of sight had blurred to fuzziness at the edges, the only solid parts of reality were the red welts on her arm where Tyler had gripped her and the cold lasting picture of his final question. She allowed Jon to guide her to the small elevator, her limbs moving stiffly and mindlessly. The ride was a silent, ten-story ride through a personal hell. The glass walls of the elevator reflected a stranger; a wide-eyed, white-faced woman wearing a lovely diamond ring on her finger now burdening her. With every soft ding of a lost floor, Tyler's words

Maddison's POV"Jesus, that GUY is a total liar. He lies constantly. He lied about where he was on Tuesday evenings, remember? He lied about who Brooke was for six months, and all his friends and family thought she was his WORK FRIEND. He is a liar like the sky is blue. It is his thing.""I know, but Jenna, he seemed…” Maddison interrupted, her voice above a whisper."He was pathetic! That's his new spin!" Jenna cut her off, her voice rising with passion."Can't you see what he is doing? He can't be the hero, so he is trying to be the victim! It's the oldest trick in the book! 'I'm not a monster, I was a poor, stupid, broken-hearted fool who got tricked into having sex with a beautiful woman with a BIG ass and abandoning my girlfriend on the biggest day of her life.' It's pathetic!""But why in the world would he create something so...""Because it lets him off the hook for everything!" Jenna's arms waved overhead in frustration. "And worse, you're a co-victim! It's no longer 'Tyler b

Maddison's POVSleep had not been peaceful, not even close, broken by the image of Tyler Cook's words and the fuzzy, cruel face of the secret email. The two threats, one in the past and the other one for her future, had mixed up in her head, a dirty whirling mud of doubt and lasting disbelief. But morning came, crisp and biting, and with it a kind of fear different, more sensible and serious, but when she woke up, Grant had left her in the penthouse that morning and put a note "WISHING YOU GOODLUCK AGAINST MARCUS TODAY." And also, Grant's words of last night, a quick scribble on the board meeting paper, were now her lifeline and her anchor. The personal mess was one she could not handle, but the boardroom? It was a system. It had structure. It was something she could handle with reason and facts.Before the penthouse bathroom mirror, closing the clasp of a simple pearl necklace, Maddison hid her fear. She had stored the image of Grant with the secret woman in a part of her mind. She a

Maddison's POV"'Seventeen thousand, one hundred megapascals,'" Maddison said, as chilly as a bell. "Mr. Marcus Vance's figure is not just wrong. It's out by an order of ten."A shocked whisper spread around the room just like a wave. Board members slumped forward, their eyes darting between the two graphs and Marcus's racing-bell-face."That's… can't be," Marcus stuttered, the confidence draining from his voice. "It's an error. A typo.""A very strange error," Maddison said, her voice still icy. She reached a finger and swept it across the surface of her tablet, and a third page appeared."Because the figure you've used, one thousand, seven hundred and ten megapascals… that is not a random figure. It is, in fact, the same data for another material." She hesitated briefly, letting the words hang."It's the data on a steel material we turned down and six months ago said was too low, too limited, and just not good enough for this type of project."The room was silent again, it felt as t