All Chapters of Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

OCEANS.The second I landed in Sydney, I dialed Reeves."What have you found?" I asked, taking long strides toward the cars waiting on the tarmac."Nothing yet, sir." He sounded the exact way he always did when the news was bad, and he was managing how he delivered it. "Mr. Gerald had no CCTV in his house. The property a few yards away recorded nothing useful either."Fuck.I loosened my tie like it was suffocating me. The Sydney air was warm and open, and it still felt like the walls were closing.Whoever this was, they were thorough. Disturbingly thorough. The kind of thoroughness that didn't happen by accident or improvisation — it was practiced. The work of someone who had been doing this long enough to know exactly what to remove and what to leave behind. And they were taking it to a whole new level."No trace of violence on the body," Reeves continued. "No foreign substance found. The doctors are leaning toward—""Fuck what the doctors are leaning toward." I cut him off, keeping

KISAREL.We dialed the strange number for the sixth time and got the same nothing we had gotten five times before.Elgin made a sound beside me that sat somewhere between frustration and dread and started pacing the length of Gerald's small living room."Maybe try again later," I said. "Could be a flat battery. Could be anything.""Could be anything," he repeated, not like he was agreeing but like he was turning the phrase over and finding it insufficient. He stopped pacing for a moment. "I have a very bad feeling about this, Arel. A very specific, very French bad feeling, which is the worst kind because the French have always had an excellent instinct for disaster.""We don't need to panic just yet—""I'm not panicking. I'm having a feeling. There's a difference." He resumed pacing. "Grand-père texted a stranger four words that sound exactly like a man who has been asked to do something he wasn't sure about and has finally decided to stop running from it." He stopped again. "That is

OCEANS."The meeting is in thirty minutes, sir," Tim reminded me, and I immediately felt the need to replace him. Since on the flight, I'd found his voice rather too annoying, and now his very presence repulsed me."And the board...""Leave, Tim," I said, still looking at my phone and wondering if calling a third time would make me look desperate."Sir?" He asked."Get the fuck out, Tim!" I almost yelled at him.He didn't hesitate. He gathered his tabs and whatever the fuck he had brought into my suit and disappeared through the door in under five seconds.Good.I needed the silence more than I needed the thirty-minute warning.It was probably around 10PM back in New York. I didn't want to believe she was already asleep. And even though she was, two calls missed? That's unlike her... Unless.Fuck. No.I didn't even want to finish that thought.And, no. I didn't give a fuck if she was fucking her boyfriend right now. That was none of my business, and I had made peace with that fact app

KISAREL.I checked the time for the two hundred and sixth time in one hour.I dragged the back of my hand across my temple and forehead, wiping off the sweat that kept returning no matter how many times I cleared it, and pushed my bangs out of my face in frustration, but they fell right back. They always did. Right now, I wanted to cut them off with the letter opener sitting on the edge of my desk.It was already eight minutes past nine, and thankfully, Mr. Stark hadn't arrived yet. He would have added to my anxiety if he were here.My desk looked like a small explosion had happened on top of it.My hands were shaking as I ticked the last item on the rough list I made of Mr. Stark's schedule for the next two weeks - appointments, meetings, etc.I updated it on my system and forwarded it to Zen's email for printing.I moved on to the next item on the list. I could multitask.I totally could.I picked up the office phone and began dialing the numbers he asked me to call one by one, and

KISAREL.The meeting went on for another two hours, and somewhere in the middle of it, everyone seemed to have forgotten about me and the embarrassment from earlier.It became a little easier to breathe. Not fully, but enough to convince myself I could make it to the end of this without completely falling apart.I sat in my chair, typed my notes, kept my eyes on my screen, and told myself that the worst was over. That I had survived the file humiliation and hadn't broken down in front of twenty-seven people, and that counted for something. That Mr. Stark had made his point and moved on, and the rest of this meeting would pass without incident, and I would walk out of here with whatever was left of my dignity intact.I almost believed it. Until..."My schedule," Mr. Stark said, and even though he wasn't looking at me, I knew he was talking to me.His eyes were glued to his system as he browsed through a document with keen interest."George, take your team to the property tomorrow. Comp