Todos os capítulos de A ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH MY EX'S UNCLE : Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

The 40th-floor finance suite was usually a temple of quiet calculation. At ten o'clock on Monday morning, it sounded like a minor war."Absolutely not." Carter Cross didn't look up from his tablet, his voice clipped and precise. "You cannot reallocate thirty thousand dollars to custom video rendering without a three-tier sign-off. That's not me being difficult, Miss Bennett. That's the actual policy."Across the table, Chloe Bennett — Elena's creative lead, all bright lipstick and barely contained energy — threw her hands up. "The policy was written for a department that still thought stock footage was cutting-edge, Carter. I'm trying to make something people actually want to watch.""And I'm trying to make sure this company doesn't get audited into the ground." Carter finally looked up, rimless glasses catching the light. "You submitted this request forty minutes before the deadline. Did you think urgency would make me skip the review?""I thought urgency might make you human for onc

Gavin found her the next afternoon, not in her office but in the small kitchenette on the fourteenth floor, where Elena had taken to hiding for ten minutes at a time when the walls of her own office felt too much like a fishbowl."I have something," he said, sliding into the seat across from her and setting his laptop down with the careful, over-casual air of a man who knew he was being watched by at least two people who shouldn't have been watching. "And I have to be honest with you — I don't love what it looks like."Elena set down her coffee. "Tell me.""The signature's real. Serena Croft does have signing authority — but not the kind she's using it for. She's cleared for internal admin changes. Nothing client-facing, nothing contract-related." He turned the screen toward her, a wall of access logs scrolling past. "Someone elevated her permissions eleven days ago. Temporarily. It was supposed to auto-revert after forty-eight hours.""Supposed to.""It never reverted." Gavin's jaw t

Carter found Elena in the middle of restacking a pile of vendor contracts that had somehow multiplied overnight, the particular chaos of a desk belonging to someone who had too many active problems and not enough hours to solve any of them properly."You have a minute?" he asked, already closing the door behind him without waiting for permission — a habit Elena had learned meant whatever he wanted to say wasn't for the open floor."Depends what kind of minute.""The kind where I tell you something that's going to make you angry at Mark, which I realize is not exactly breaking news at this point."Elena set down the contract she was holding. "Go on."Carter told her about Barnaby — the missed feedings, the two days alone in the penthouse, the housekeeper quietly absorbing a responsibility that wasn't hers because nobody else would. He watched Elena's expression shift as he spoke, the careful professional mask cracking just slightly at the edges."That's not neglect," Elena said finally

Chloe walked the route on Wednesday evening exactly as instructed, a lanyard borrowed from a temp badge Viktor had quietly authorized clipped to her blazer, a takeout bag in one hand as cover in case anyone questioned why a member of the creative team was loitering near the executive elevator bank after hours.Nobody questioned her. That was, she reflected, either a good sign for the plan or a genuinely alarming commentary on the building's security — though given that Viktor himself had approved the route, she suspected it was more the former.She timed the elevator ride to the penthouse floor — ninety seconds, longer than she expected, the express car apparently slower than the ones serving the lower floors. She timed the walk from the elevator to Mark's door — thirty seconds at a normal pace, less if you didn't stop to admire the absurd modern art he'd hung in the hallway, which Chloe did anyway, on principle, because it was truly baffling. She noted the housekeeper's car still in

For one full second, nobody in the group thread said anything at all. Carter stood frozen near the lobby wall, watching Mark stride out of the elevator car with the brisk, self-important energy of a man who had never once in his life considered that anyone might be actively working against him. He didn't look toward the service corridor. He didn't look toward Carter at all. His attention was entirely on his phone, thumb scrolling through something that had put a faint, irritated frown on his face."He's here," Carter breathed into his earpiece, forcing his voice level. "Lobby. Walking toward the executive elevators. He hasn't clocked me.""Chloe, status," Viktor's voice cut in, tight and controlled in a way that made the danger feel more real than any amount of shouting would have.Chloe was three floors up, the service elevator doors half-closed, Barnaby pressed against her leg with the instinctive stillness of an animal who could feel tension even when he didn't understand its sourc