Mr Strong, I Refuse To Be Your Duty のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

She wasn't crying. She wasn't close to crying. She was just sitting there looking at the shop front and thinking about the last time she was here, which had been the beginning of the end, though she hadn't known it yet. She had sat in that shop for three hours waiting for a man who was across the city welcoming back the woman he actually loved.She was thinking about that when the shop door opened.Miss Jason came out onto the pavement. She was a small woman with reading glasses pushed up on her head and the particular expression of someone who has just recognised something they weren't expecting. She walked to the car and Nicole lowered the window. "Miss Kevin," Miss Jason said. "Miss Jason."A pause. Then Miss Jason said, simply, "The dress is still here. I kept it."Nicole stared at her. "You kept it." "I had a feeling," Miss Jason said, with the calm certainty of a woman who has worked in bridal retail for twenty years and kn

The banquet ended at eleven and Nicole stayed until the last guest left. She said goodnight to the venue staff by name, the waiters, the woman at the coat check, the man who had been managing the lights all evening. Each of them, by name and William watched her do it from across the emptying room and thought, she has no idea how rare that is.She found him near the exit just as he was shrugging his jacket back on. "William," she said.He turned. She looked tired in the way people look tired after a long evening of performing well, not defeated, just spent. Her eyes were still clear though. "Good evening," he said. "You should go home. You've been on your feet since four.""I will," she said. "I just wanted to say something first." She paused, as if she was deciding how to phrase it. "Thank you for earlier, with Zara."He looked at her. "I just introduced her to someone." "You did it at exactly the right m

Wilson called really early in the morning and William was still in bed when the phone rang, which was quite unusual. He was normally up before six but the banquet had run later than he expected and the conversation in the car afterwards had kept his mind busy well past midnight, and when sleep finally came, it came hard and knocked him out.His phone rang again and he turned to find it. On seeing the caller ID, he wondered why his brother was calling him so early and answered. "It was not a leak," Wilson said, without greeting. "Asher did not get her address from anyone on the inside."William immediately sat up. "What do you mean?" "He figured it out himself. He has been digging into you for a few days now, your schedule, your staff, your usual movements and I do not know why. My guess is that he pieced it together from that." Wilson said.William was quiet for a moment. "Why is he digging into me?" "That I do not know yet. It could be Nicole or it could be her." Wilson's v

The email from Graham was unexpected and uncalled for.Nicole read it when she resumed at the office, surprised by its content. She thought about it for a while. No doubt that it was professional in its language and polite in its tone. But underneath both of those things, it was a direct challenge.It had been brewing for a long time now and she chose not to take note of it. Right now, Graham had tossed in the towel. He had gone to two members of the board with concerns about her restructuring strategy and the board members had responded by requesting a formal review.She called Priya in as she needed to get it over with. "Get me a meeting with the full board," she said. "This week if possible." Priya looked at her. "All five of them?" "All five,” she responded. She wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. When things like this lingered for long, the outcome was not so favourable.Priya nodded and left her office.

Asher remained in his office a little after seven, pondering over how he would go meet this woman and how to actually get the woman to do what he wants. He did not know what he wanted to do yet, but he knew that having this woman on his side would be a great advantage. He just needed to get to her first since she was familiar with his enemy. The relationship with them was not explicitly defined by his PA but he knew that something was up somewhere.While he thought about this, his mind went back to what Luke had shown him the other day. Something was going wrong with his company and he needed to find out as soon as possible. A part of him wanted to believe what Luke had implied but he could not. Yes, Nicole was good at her job but that meant nothing. He had Zara by his side, a fully educated doctor and she was sure to do exceptionally better than Nicole. She was the perfect definition of beauty and brains. Apart from this, one thing that could not stop bothering him was the fact that