Todos los capítulos de THE BILLIONAIRE WHO CAME CRAWLING BACK: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

THE WOMAN BEHIND THE BILLIONAIRE Mia Carter knew three things about Alexander Vale before eight o'clock every morning: he took his coffee black, he scheduled his meetings early, and he did not want to be spoken to until the first cup was gone. She knew because she had spent three years paying attention. At seven forty-five she stood outside the glass doors of his office with her tablet pressed to her chest and the paper cup warm against her fingers. Black. No sugar, no milk. The lid had left a damp ring of steam on her thumb. She waited until the murmur of his phone call stopped, took one breath, and pushed the door open with her shoulder. "Good morning, Mr. Vale." He didn't look up right away. He sat behind the long desk in a black suit cut so precisely it seemed to hold him upright, his dark hair still damp at the edges, his gray eyes fixed on the papers in front of him. The silver watch at his wrist caught the light from the window. Forty floors below, the city was only begin

"I think I need to tell you how I really feel about you." The words were out before she could catch them. For a moment, the office went completely still, and Mia could hear the clock on the wall, a dry, steady ticking she had never noticed in three years. Alexander set down his pen. "What do you mean?" She had expected him to understand at once. His calm question made everything harder. Her thumbnail found the edge of her tablet and pressed into it. "I've been trying not to say this for a long time." "Say what?" "I have feelings for you." He didn't move. She had pictured so many versions of this moment, surprise, a smile, even in her most foolish hours, him telling her he felt the same. She hadn't pictured this silence. But she had come too far to stop, so she kept her eyes on his face and went on. "I know you're my boss, and I know that makes this complicated." Her voice wobbled, and she steadied it. "I told myself it would fade. That it was just because we worked together ev

She didn't stop walking until she reached her desk.Her hands shook as she set the tablet down. A colleague looked over. "Mia? Are you okay?""I'm fine.""You don't look fine.""I'm tired." She made her mouth smile. The colleague nodded, unconvinced, and went back to her screen.Mia sat in front of her monitor and watched the words blur. All afternoon she answered emails, returned calls, and confirmed meetings in a pleasant, steady voice that belonged to someone else. At six she gathered her bag and walked past Alexander's closed door without turning her head.That night she sat at her kitchen table with a mug of tea she never drank and wrote the letter three times. The first draft was angry, the second was apologetic, and the third was only four lines long. She folded it into an envelope and set it by her keys.In the morning she was at the office before anyone. She walked into Alexander's empty room and laid the envelope in the center of his blotter, squarely, where he couldn't miss

Outside, the city moved around her as though nothing had happened. Taxis idled at the curb. A man shouted into his phone. Somewhere above her, forty floors up, a man she had loved for three years was standing in a room that still smelled faintly of her handwriting, and none of the people hurrying past her knew. She stood on the pavement and let the cold air fill her lungs. Her phone rang. It was her oldest friend. "Well? Did you actually do it?" "I resigned." A long silence. "Are you okay?" Mia looked up at the glass tower, bright and enormous in the afternoon sun. She thought of his cold voice and his gray eyes, and the careful way he'd said by me. Then she looked down the street. "I will be." "So what now?" "I have no idea." "You don't sound scared." "I'm terrified." She laughed, surprising herself. "But maybe it's better than staying somewhere that makes me small." "Mia," her friend said slowly. "You've been talking about starting something of your own since

That afternoon, Mia was alone in her office, reading a contract she had already read twice, when Ethan appeared again."You have a visitor. Victoria Sterling."She looked up. For a second, nothing in her moved. "Send her in.""You're sure?""I'm sure."Victoria came in like a woman entering a room she already owned: tall, blonde, in a pale silk dress that cost more than Mia's first month of rent had. She smiled. "Mia. It's been a long time.""Victoria."She looked around the office, at the windows, the brass monogram, the long walnut desk. "You've done well.""Thank you.""I suppose leaving Vale International worked out for you.""It did."Victoria sat down without being asked. "You were very devoted to him. I remember that.""I was devoted to my work.""Of course." The smile didn't move. Something about the way she said it made the back of Mia's neck prickle. "I wanted to see you, that's all. I'm curious about the people who were close to Alexander.""Why?""We're to be married. A wo