Lahat ng Kabanata ng TAMING MR. WHITMORE: THE CEO FROM HELL.: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

HUDSON'S POV:Being back here was suffocating. I would have taken almost any other plan for tonight over standing in the same room as Gray. But I was doing this for mom.I stood at the entrance to what had once felt like home, staring at the front door without actually seeing it.my shoulders tightened. My eyes went straight to the staircaseI still remembered running down those as a kid, Gray chasing me during hide and seek, both of us laughing so hard we could barely breathe.I remembered him handing me armfuls of Christmas presents to carry inside, more than any one kid needed, just so I'd feel like I was helping. That version of him was gone.He decided ordinary wasn't good enough for either of his sons. He became a controlling, psychopathic perfectionist. We had to be perfect in everything. Grades. Internships. Everything!When Adrian or I actually managed to hit whatever mark he'd set, he'd hand over anything we wanted, a car, a trip, whatever. One mistake, though, and all of i

HARPER'S POV By the time I made it through the jet bridge and into the terminal, my carry-on was digging into my shoulder and my phone was already open to the Uber app. First time in this city, and even exhausted, I could tell it was beautiful. Green everywhere. Mountains sitting in the distance under a layer of clouds. The air smelled different than Michigan, cleaner somehow, colder too. I followed the crowd toward baggage claim, grabbed my suitcases, and headed outside to catch my Uber. Ten minutes later, my Uber pulled into the pickup area, and I climbed into the back seat. I gave him the address of the motel I'd booked online three days ago. I put my head against the window and my mind wandered somewhere I didn't want it to go. That bitch, Elena, had tried to hide my documents so I couldn't leave. If Nicole hadn't caught her digging through the filing cabinet, I'd still be stuck because Elena had hidden my passport, driver's license, and the copies of my qualifications I

HARPER'S POV: I had never been on a motorcycle in my life. The world blurred. Wind tore at my dress. My bags tried twice to fly over my head, and I clamped one hand on the straps and the other around his waist and screamed a little more, just to be safe. Around us, cars sat bumper to bumper, horns blaring, a delivery driver leaning out his window to curse at a bus. He didn't stay on the main road. He turned down a side street I would never have found, then cut through a parking lot behind a Thai restaurant, where a cook taking out the trash raised his spatula at us in salute. We shot into an alley so narrow that my knee scraped a dumpster. I screamed again. He shouted something I couldn't hear, and I screamed louder in case it was important. Somewhere behind us, a siren wailed. For a moment the wind stopped feeling like an adventure. I thought about the kids, the teachers, the families waiting outside that school for news. I whispered a quick prayer into the helmet and held on

HARPER'S POV: The second the interview room door shut behind me, I lost it right there in the hallway. "Yes! Woohoo!" I threw both fists in the air, laptop bag swinging off one shoulder, my purse smacking me in the ribs on the way up. I didn't care. I had the job. Everything after the weird interview with the robot had moved so fast it barely felt real, Susan walking me through the offer on the spot, Shawn shaking my hand and telling me welcome to the team, numbers getting thrown around that made my stomach flip. Three thousand dollars every two weeks. For a starting position. As a fresh graduate with zero industry experience. This was a mind-blowing opportunity. The job still didn't make perfect sense to me. But honestly, who cared. I wasn't about to question a blessing with that kind of paycheck. I would figure out what my specific role was later. A few people walking by stopped mid-step to stare at me. "Sorry," I muttered, shrinking a little, cheeks burning. I tried to smooth m

HARPER'S POV: At first, I swore it couldn't be him. Not a chance. Seattle was two thousand miles from Vegas, and Hudson was supposed to be a memory I only visited at night, alone, with the lights off. Then a cufflink rolled across the tile and stopped against the toe of my flat. I looked down at the little silver square, then up at the man standing ten feet away. The charcoal suit. The white shirt. The jaw I had traced with my thumb countless times. Hudson. My one week of fun. Standing in my new office building. What was he doing here? My brain went blank. My legs wouldn't move and my mouth wouldn't open. All I could think was that if the floor would just crack open and swallow me whole, I'd say thank you. Was he going to come over and demand to know why I'd left? No. No, not here. I couldn't have him dragging our past into my new job. I'd barely settled in, and I couldn't afford to ruin this opportunity before I'd even started. What would I do if he confronted me in front of e