The Billionaire's Cruel Secret

in the

door

aw locked and his eyes on the folder in Amar

t to me,

tograph of the laughing little girl pressed a

mar

ook, but she didn't let it break. "Eight months. You've had th

aid n

it her like cold water. "Every meeting. Every time y

Ye

d cracked somet

nd papers spilled across the sheets. "Why wo

t what yo

three months have been like? I skipped meals to keep this job. I cried in a sta

cting-" He cu

ecting

hen he opened them, the ma

n't te

't, or yo

she could see the tension in his shoulders. "Some ans

"I've waited twenty-two years for someone to te

nt you

ng in the air

in his voice. Then she remembered the conference room. T

hispered. "You don't get to hurt me

e realized he was holding himself back from somet

he said quietly.

e scattered papers, and walked o

, staring at the closed door, hatin

black car. He read emails on his phone. She watched the c

thing shifted. Adrian's posture straigh

by to hear. "I expect the Hendricks report o

ned. Someo

said I want you alive. Now he was the man from the

she said thro

play the monster, I'

something she'd missed before. He onl

aiting inside h

ope, no name. Inside

HIM. HE'S NOT

. She glanced around the floor. Keyboards cli

here? And how

to her pocket. After last night

dwich on her desk, which had been mysteriously replaced that

ocks down was crowded, and she stood in line with he

glanced at

p stood beside a lamppost. He wasn't looking at his phone

omach t

. He's waitin

she turned right at the next corner, he followed. She stopped at a shop window, pretendi

ulse h

ide door onto a narrow street. She ran the whole way back, weaving through lunch-hour c

t the cold marble,

eone wants me to distrust the onl

erson pre

n't know

ed her face, and stepped inside. When the doors opened o

d the executive wing. Whispe

at's

He hasn't been

blood tur

ired and immaculately dressed, leaning on a polished blac

oking stra

y, and the whole floor heard it. "I've be

orway of the executive office