Chapter 34
*Ashley’s POV
I sat in my office with a smile on my face as I watched Nolan speaking on the television, I could see the clear discomfort boldly written all over his face. The corner of his eyes were darkened and I could see that he was clearly losing sleep.
There was a slight knock on the door and Laura walked into the office, I glanced in her direction as she walked towards my table and saw that she too had her eyes on the television, but quickly looked away when she saw that I had my eyes on her.
“Good morning, ma’am.” She said calmly, placing a document on my desk. I turned my eyes back to the television and the smile on my lips widened.
“Isn’t it a brilliant morning?” I asked her, turning my eyes finally towards her. She hesitated for a moment and a small smile played on the corner of her lips as she stared at the television.
“I guess so.” She muttered quietly, before turning her attention back to her iPad.
“I went through the document as you instructed and made a few changes. I also simplified the numbers, and broke them down so you wouldn’t have to,” she said in a professional tone.
I nodded my head but didn’t say anything. She stood there for a while, looking round the room awkwardly.
“I..umm, should probably get back to my office, I still have a lot of work from yesterday,” she said with a slight stutter while pointing at the door.
“Did you think about what we talked about last night?” I asked her, just as she was about to turn around. Her and her cheeks turned pink almost immediately.
eyes
widened
“What?” She asked, slightly surprised at my question. I raised an eyebrow and smiled at her, reminding her without saying a word.
“Oh.” She said finally. She stood upright and cleared her throat awkwardly.
“I don’t think there’s anything that I can do about it, ma’am. We agreed that we’ll allow things to happen naturally.” She said smartly.
I was pleased at her response, but slightly annoyed at myself for bringing it up. It wasn’t my plan to make her nervous or make everything awkward for her, but I couldn’t help it.
“Yes, yes
that’s exactly right,” I replied quietly, picking up the file in front of me awkwardly.
“You can go now,” I said, lifting my head to look at her. She smiled widely, like a child who knew she was going to be favored by her guardian. She nodded slowly, turned around, and left the room.
I opened the document and scanned through it, fixing my attention on the details, and just like Laura said, it was exactly as I Instructed. I took a deep breath after a while and rested my back against the chair.
There was another knock on the door just before I could get bored and Xavier entered the office. He has an exhausted look on his face, but I was the only person who would notice because just as always, he looked composed and stunning.
“You’re early,” I said with a smile.
He frowned playfully. “It’s good to see you too.” He whispered softly and instead of walking towards the table, he took a short walk to the counter and picked up a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a reasonable quantity, before walking towards the table, taking his seat.
“Are you okay?” I asked, slightly concerned. He smiled at me and took a short sip from his glass.
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Chapter 34
“I guess so. I survived anight with Zoe” He said playfully. I chuckled softly and pointed at the television, so he could listen in to what was being discussed, which was obviously still about Nolan and his company.
Zoe wasn’t the easiest of people, slie was cunning and seductive, but hardly before she could be referred to as smart and I wasn’t bothered about Xavier’s comment, he probably was just trying to make his experience with her less boring.
“How did it go?” I asked quietly, waiting for him to finish his drink. He placed it on the table and looked at me.
“Your foster sister is pretty dumb.” He said honestly, and for a moment I thought he was being funny, but I could suddenly see the seriousness in his expression.
“What did she say?” I asked again, patiently,
“That shouldn’t be your question, dear sister.” He replied, crossing his legs. “It was already a done deal before I went to meet her, what we should be concerned about now is your ex–husband, Nolan.”
1 pushed myself out of the chair and leaned closer, watting for him to say more.
“Zoe is going to convince the rest of the board members to sell their shares, I don’t know how, but she will. Once we have that, then we’ll go to the next step.”
“And what would that be?” I asked. I had the slightest idea of what the plan was, but I just needed to hear from him if anything had changed.
“I sent something really interesting to Nolan, an offer, one that is hard to refuse and is hard to accept at the same time.” He paused for a moment and pointed at the television just as Nolan’s face popped up.
“Everyone of his board members now knows about the offer and they should help us get their trust. Their trust in him right now is fragile and they expect him to accept it.
“But he won’t,” I said sharply, almost as if I knew what Nolan was going to do.
“He won’t, that’s what we should expect. It’ll be harder if he does, but Nolan is smart. He won’t accept because there are too many loopholes, one that only he can see.”
“And Zoe?” I asked, wondering what she might have done for Xavier to be so brutal about her. The smile on his face disappeared when I mentioned her name and then he picked up his glass again.
“She’s not a problem, but there is no guarantee that she isn’t going to be one. Right now she isn’t and that’s all we need.” He said quietly, not wanting to go further.
I drowned in my thoughts for a moment, thinking about a million things, but I lifted my eyes to look at him after a while.
“What do we name the company after we’re done?” I asked. He shrugged slightly and downed the rest of the whiskey.
“Whatever you want,” he replied. “Whatever the fuvk we want, Ashley.”
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