All Chapters of The CEO I Insulted Is Now My Boss : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Beth sat bolt upright out of the water.She got out of the bath too fast — far too fast, her whole head swung and the room slid sideways and she grabbed the rail and stood there dripping, dizzy, waiting for the tiled floor to settle back into place.She pulled a towel off the rail, tied it around herself, walked into the bedroom . A cotton top. Matching trousers . She dragged them on over damp skin, shoved her feet into the first pair of flat shoes she found, and didn't bother with her hair .Then she went out of the room and down the stairs.One at a time. Fast.She came down the stairs two at a time with her hair still wet and her feet bare in flats, and went straight through the hall into the drawing room, where she could hear voices.Her mother was on the sofa with a cup she hadn't drunk. Jerry was at the window with his phone in his hand.Both of them turned."Beth." Jerry straightened. "You're supposed to be asleep.""Where's Isla.""What?""Where is she."Jerry looked at the

Beth's eyes were filling now and she wiped at them hard with the back of her wrist."I'll watch her," Emma said. "That's all I can promise. And if she trips over something in front of me I'll notice.""How could someone that looks like that be an *addict*, Emma? How does nobody know?""I don't know." Emma shook her head slowly. "That's the part I can't get past. She looks like — she looks *finished.* You know? Like she came out of a box. Perfect skin and perfect manners and a perfect apology for everything." She pulled a face. "But I've been wrong about people before."Beth let out a wet little laugh."There's one thing, though." Emma leaned forward. "The accident. What actually happened to you — nobody knows. Not me, not Jerry. I wasn't near the stairs that night If she did it, then the only person who's ever known what happened to you on those stairs is *her.* And she's been sitting in that hospital every day since."Beth went white."Every day?""Every single day. Jerry told

Emma turned up at the house at half six with a folder under her arm that she had no intention of opening — one papers Jerry had said he'd want to see.What she actually wanted was to look at Beth. The butler took her coat. Jerry came out of the study with his sleeves rolled."She's not here."Emma stopped. "What?". She muttered before pouting she almost wanted to deny the fact she wasn't here for beth but both knew that wasn't true . why did he guess that right she thought huffing quietly. "Beth. She's gone shopping — dragged back at nine and my mother's at a dinner party , also Isla "."So the house is empty.""The house is empty." He replied staring back at her with a small smile .---They had one drink in the study and then he said, "Not in here," and she followed him up.His room was bigger than she'd remembered, and darker than it needed to be. Heavy curtains already drawn at half eight. Two lamps, low. The bed was enormous and dark and the rest of it was waln

Isla came out at twenty past six. She came round from the back of the café and stood under the light, before entering into her car "Go," Beth said. "Go, go — not close. Not *close*—" "I know what I'm doing," the driver said, and pulled out two lengths behind with his lights down. They followed her out of the town and onto the north road. The buildings got lower and thinner and further apart, and then it was fence and scrub, and then it was nothing at all. The sky was coming up grey and dirty over the water. "Emma." "Mm." "This isn't a business place." "I can see that." "There's *nothing* out here." Emma looked. There was a long low building with a corrugated roof and letters half fallen off the front. A chain on the gate, only the chain had been cut and the gate stood open a foot. One light on inside. Everything about it looked abandoned and had looked abandoned for years. "Stop here," Emma said. "Not by her. Here, by the trees." The driver pulled onto the

Emma didn't know if she should tell him.She stood in that hallway with her shoes still in her hand and watched him come down the last three steps, and in the space of two seconds she went through it forty times. *He'll believe you. Of course he'll believe me . .* And then, right behind it: *With what? What have you got? A wig, a taxi receipt, and two phones that stayed in a car.*No photograph. No recording. Nothing anyone could hold up.Jerry came off the last step and stopped in front of her."I'm going to say this slowly," he said, "because I'm angry, Emma, and it's in the morning, and I'd rather say it slowly than say it badly.""Jerry—""Beth was supposed to be back at nine. At eleven I was ringing jenny her friend , and Jenny hadn't seen her since six, and at midnight I had six men on the north road." His voice was very level, which was worse than shouting. "And you were not at home. So I'll ask you once. Where were you.""I can explain.""Your hand is shaking."Emma