All Chapters of Sweet Revenge, Mr. CEO: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

98 Chapters

Chapter 81: The empty chair

Killian’s POV“Come in.”Without looking up from the spread of quarterly reports covering my desk, I reached automatically toward the second ceramic mug sitting near the corner of the glass. Clara always sent two whenever there was a morning strategy meeting scheduled; one black with cream, the other with no cream, two sugar cubes and a dash of cinnamon, just as the owner preferred it. My fingers hovered over empty space.I looked up.The second mug wasn’t there.For a brief, ridiculous second, my eyes shifted to the digital calendar glowing on the monitor beside me, searching for a meeting that wasn’t scheduled. The block beside nine o’clock was blank. There were no strategy sessions today. No expansion project reviews. No reason for anyone to be sitting across from me with a laptop balanced on their knees, quietly correcting the figures I’d overlooked because I was reading too fast.Elena wasn’t coming.The door handle turned. “Mr. Rhodes?”Clara stepped inside, balancing a thic

Chapter 82: We don’t have to do this

Killian’s POVVivian stepped into the room in a fitted cream dress, her blonde hair swept into a knot at the nape of her neck. She smiled the moment she saw me, closing the door behind her.“Morning.”The sound of her heels followed her across the room.I looked down at the contract in front of me for a second longer than necessary before lifting my head. It gave me just enough time to smoothen my expression into something welcoming.“Vivian.”“I thought you’d be buried in paperwork,” she said with an easy laugh as she circled the desk. “I was right.”“I usually am.”She smiled, but I was already aware of how much smaller the office suddenly felt.Over the last few weeks, she’d started dropping into my office without warning. Sometimes after meetings. Sometimes between appointments. Sometimes simply because she was already in the building and wanted to “say hello.”None of it was unreasonable.She was my fiancée.If anything, she probably had more right to walk into this office than an

Chapter 83: An impossible meeting

Killian’s POVThe anger drained from Vivian’s face at my words. Her eyes widened, color left her cheeks, and she looked at me as though she couldn’t decide whether I’d actually said the words or she’d imagined them.“Is… is that what you want?” she asked, her voice shaking before she steadied it. “Is this your way of pushing me away?” She let out a shaky laugh and let out a breath. “After everything we’ve built? After everything I’ve done to make this work?”Her fingers came up to brush under one eye before the tears could fall and she blinked rapidly, drawing in another long breath.“Vivian, this is clearly hurting…”She raised a hand, cutting me off. “Serena would’ve wanted us to be happy, Killian.” Her voice softened, pleading now. “You know she would have. She would’ve wanted us to move on. She wouldn’t have wanted us standing here…doing this to each other.”She looked at me as though she expected me to argue. To reassure her. To tell her she’d misunderstood.I said nothing.What

Chapter 84: The lies we tell

Serena’s POVI’d avoided coming to this gravestone for months.Partly because standing in front of a slab of marble carved with my own name felt too much like giving in; like admitting that I truly belonged beneath the ground and no longer existed in the world.But mostly because of the risk.Elena Reyes wasn’t supposed to know Serena Cole.Elena was supposed to remain invisible. She was supposed to work quietly from inside Rhodes Inc., dismantle everything piece by piece, and disappear before anyone realized what had happened.She was never supposed to be found standing in front of Serena’s grave.And she certainly wasn’t supposed to be found by Killian.Killian stood some distance away, just beyond the line of old maple trees. Their branches, stripped bare by the season, stretched over him like crooked fingers while the evening mist drifted lazily through the cemetery, giving the atmosphere an almost eerie feeling. A bouquet of white lilies rested in one hand.He wasn’t moving.He

Chapter 85: The things we cannot bury

Serena’s POVFor a long moment, I was convinced that Killian didn’t believe a single word I’d said. His eyes lingered on my face with an intensity that made it difficult to breathe, as though he were searching for something just beneath my skin. I had spent years learning how to negotiate contracts without giving away a single thought, yet standing in front of Killian like this felt infinitely more dangerous.If he asked one more question—one question I hadn’t prepared for—what then? What lie could I possibly invent next?For the first time in a very long while, I found myself scrambling for an answer before the question had even been asked.Then, almost imperceptibly, something changed.I watched it happen in real time. The rigid set of his shoulders eased first. The suspicion that had sharpened his features slowly gave way to something else, something that looked almost like reluctant acceptance. He drew in a breath slowly, held it for a second, then let it escape, as though he ha

Chapter 86: Appropriate or not

Killian’s POVWe walked back toward the cemetery gates without another word.The rain continued to drizzle, light enough that neither of us bothered to run. Gravel shifted beneath our shoes, damp leaves clung to the edges of the path, and somewhere behind us the wind stirred through the trees with a rustle that seemed almost too loud in the thick silence that had enveloped us.Killian stayed half a step closer than he needed to.He never reached for me again after touching my elbow, yet every few seconds I became aware of him adjusting his pace whenever the path narrowed or a puddle forced me to change direction. It was subtle enough that another woman might not have noticed.But this was Killian, so unfortunately, I noticed everything about him despite not wanting to. By the time we reached the parking area, a thin sheen of rain coated the body of his car.He walked ahead, opened the passenger door, then stood aside without saying anything.I slid into the seat.A moment later the d

Chapter 87: We aren’t doing anything wrong

Serena’s POVKillian’s car rolled to a stop along the curb outside our destination. And for several seconds after the engine went quiet, neither of us reached for the door.Killian remained behind the wheel, one hand resting loosely against it while the other tapped once, then twice, against his thigh before falling still again. He drew in a breath, as though rehearsing something in his mind.“Elena.”His voice was more restrained than before, almost swallowed by the sound of the rain.I turned toward him.He didn’t meet my eyes immediately. Instead, he looked through the rain-streaked windshield toward the entrance of the lounge before finally glancing in my direction.“You don’t have to come inside,” he said. “You can stay here. I’ll only be a few minutes.”There was nothing unusual about the words themselves.It was everything around them.The hesitation before he spoke. The careful way he chose each sentence. The fact that he sounded as though he was trying to solve a problem tha

Chapter 88: Dangerous liaisons

Serena’s POVI’d imagined that it would take a while for the silence in the car to break. But we’d only gone a few miles when Vivian turned slightly in her seat, resting her arm over the headrest to look back at me. Her dark eyes were bright, tracking my face with an intensity that belied her slurred words.Vivian shifted in her seat and turned slightly, one arm resting over the headrest as she looked at me. Whatever haze she’d been wrapped around when we first saw her seemed to have faded, her eyes bright with curiosity. “So,” she said, her voice warm enough to sound casual, “what did the doctor actually tell you today, Elena?”“Nothing conclusive.” I folded my hands over the pharmacy bag resting on my lap. “They’re still trying to work out what’s causing everything. Until then, they’ve told me to stay off the road.”“Oh.” She frowned sympathetically. “Does that mean you won’t be coming back to Rhodes Inc. for a while?”“I hadn’t planned on disappearing for long,” I replied. “I’ll b

Chapter 89: What we’ve become

Killian’s POVThe silence inside the car became oppressive the moment I shut the door. Neither of us reached for the radio. Neither of us seemed willing to be the first to speak. The only sounds were the growl of the engine, the tires whispering over the wet road, and the occasional click of the indicator when I changed lanes.Vivian pressed her temple against the window and stared outside. Streetlights slid across her face in pale flashes before disappearing behind us, catching the tightness around her mouth each time the car passed under another one. I kept both hands on the steering wheel, my eyes fixed ahead, but the silence had become so awkward that I could feel it every time she shifted in her seat.Hours earlier, I had been standing behind my desk while Vivian stood across from me, angry enough that her voice had cracked. Do you want to call the wedding off?The words had left my mouth before I could stop them.I could still remember the way she had gone still afterward. The

Chapter 90: Reasons to stay away

Chapter 90Killian’s POVI drew in a breath like I’d been shot in the chest at her question.If anything, Vivian was giving me the opportunity to backtrack, to apologize for asking if the wedding should be called off.But I couldn’t find it in me to tell her that I didn’t regret my question and that it wasn’t a slip of tongue. I didn’t want to lie to her. “You haven’t been happy, Vivian.”Her fingers stopped moving.“Not for a long time.” I paused, watching her face. “And pretending otherwise isn’t going to change that. If I asked you to stay simply because the wedding is already planned, because our families are expecting it, or because cancelling everything would be inconvenient while ignoring the reality of things, that wouldn’t be fair to either of us.”She lowered her eyes.For several seconds, she said nothing. Then her shoulders dropped, as though she had finally stopped holding herself so rigidly.“I’m sorry,” she murmured, the words barely audible.I looked at her.“I should

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