All Chapters of The CEO Wife On Paper : Chapter 11 - Chapter 17

Monday came in gray, drizzle tapping the window while Clara stirred her coffee one-handed and scrolled email with the other. A new message sat at the top of her inbox.Blackwood Group Human Resources.Her spoon stopped moving. She clicked it open.Dear Ms. Hart, thank you for your application. We are pleased to invite you to an interview for the position of Executive Administrative Assistant. Date: . Time: 10:00 a.m.She read it twice, Todaythen checked the clock. Still time — barely.Twenty minutes later she burst into Mimi's with her laptop already turned toward the counter.Denise looked up from the espresso machine. "You look like you've seen a ghost."Clara turned the screen so she could read it.Denise's grin spread slow and wide. "I knew they'd call.""You really think I have a chance?""I think you'd be crazy not to take it." Denise was already untying her apron, waving toward the door. "I've got your shift. Go knock their socks off."Clara laughed — short, a little shaky, but

The door clicked shut, and for a second the sound of it was the loudest thing in the room.Clara stayed where she'd stopped, three feet inside his office, her resume pressed so hard against her sternum that the paper had started to soften under her fingers. She didn't cross the room. Some instinct she'd learned in a dozen other offices told her to wait until she was told where to stand.Leo didn't sit down. He walked around the desk, put his hands flat on the back of his chair, and looked at her the way he'd look at a line item that didn't add up — like the numbers were right there and he still couldn't make them mean what they were supposed to mean.A month ago they'd stood in a courthouse with a stranger reading their names off a form, and he'd signed *husband* next to hers without either of them looking up. It had felt like paperwork. It had felt like nothing, which was the point.It didn't feel like nothing now.His wife was standing in his office holding a resume."You came for a

The next morning, Daniel was already at his desk when Leo's office door opened."Daniel."He looked up. "Sir."Leo walked past him and set a folder on the desk. "Did you get what I asked for?""Yes." Daniel opened it. "I pulled together what's available."Leo shrugged out of his coat and hung it over the back of his chair. "Start with the basics.""Clara Hart graduated with a degree in business administration. Her employment history is limited — she worked at a café before applying here."Leo's hand stilled on the desk. "The café?""Mimi Café." Daniel turned a page. "Several years there."Leo said nothing."She left recently. Her records show multiple applications to other companies before Blackwood."Leo leaned against the edge of his desk. "Any corporate background?""No. She hasn't held anything comparable to this role.""And her family?"Daniel hesitated. "Complicated. The records don't give us much there."Leo reached for the folder and skimmed the first pages himself.Business a

Leo's phone rang right as he signed the last page.Grandfather."Saturday," his grandfather said, no hello. "Six-thirty. Bring your wife.""She'll be there.""I've waited long enough to meet her."Leo looked through the glass wall. Clara sat at her desk, pen in hand, shoulder hitched up the way it always did when she was deep in a report."She's not being inspected."Arthur just laughed and hung up.Leo walked over to her desk."My grandfather called. Saturday. He wants you there.""Okay." No questions. She went back to her screen like he'd told her the weather.He stayed a second too long."You'll need something to wear."Her eyes narrowed. "You've been paying attention?""I notice things."Something crossed her face fast. She looked back down. "I'll find something.""We'll go shopping.""Why?"He had a few true answers. He gave her the simple one."Because I'm going with you."The store was quiet. The prices weren't.Clara checked a tag and put the dress back. Leo noticed."It's exp