Chapter 19 019
Rhea's POV
Alejandro stared at her with a gaze so heavy it felt like he was physically pressing the air out of her lungs.
I watched Penelope Gable visibly struggle to find her voice, her throat bobbing as her bravado evaporated.
It took everything in me not to laugh. I could hear Lisa let out a muffled snort behind me; luckily, Alejandro was too focused on the intruder to notice—or maybe he just didn't care.
"Well? I asked a question," he said, his voice a low, vibrating hum of authority. "I expect an answer."
Penelope's eyes darted between Lisa and me, desperate for a friendly face, a witness, a shred of sympathy. We both immediately averted our gazes.
Now she wanted our help? After calling Lisa a "nobody" and treating me like gum under her shoe? Not a chance. She could channel that same feral energy toward the man she was actually accusing.
"Alejandro," she began, her voice wavering. "I'm Penelope Gable. Quinn's mother. The girl you had a fling with back in New Jersey? She's pregnant. She says you haven't been picking up her calls, and I won't have it..."
Her voice trailed off. Alejandro's grey eyes held absolutely nothing. They were like the thick, impenetrable fog that settles over a valley after a cold rain. I didn't blame her for shaking; if he looked at me like that, I'd be trembling too.
"Look, Mr. Alvarez," she tried again, her tone shifting to a desperate plea. "I just don't want my daughter to be a single mother. She's only twenty-two. You need to take responsibility. When you were trying to get her into your bed, I'm sure you were relentless."
A wave of second-hand embarrassment washed over me. I stayed rooted to my spot, fumbling with the ring on my finger. The metal felt hot, like it was branding me.
I wanted to yank it off and toss it at his feet.
I wanted to erase Alejandro, erase the contract, and erase every memory of us. I wanted to forget he ever existed.
The lobby was so silent you could hear the hum of the elevators.
Then, a smirk curled up his lips—cruel, empty, and terrifying. He took a single step forward.
"In essence, Mrs. Gable, you want me to finance her pregnancy?" he asked, his voice infuriatingly calm.
Penelope didn't answer; she just stared, her jaw clenched.
"Fine," he said. The word dropped like a stone. "But the moment that child is born, a DNA test will be performed."
Penelope's mouth fell open. "How dare you—"
"Let me finish," he snapped, his voice suddenly colder than the Antarctic. "I have no idea who Quinn is, and I don't care to know. She claims she slept with me? Fine. She claims she's been calling me? Fine."
He checked his platinum wristwatch and looked back at a pale Penelope.
"I'll see you and your daughter in court on Thursday. And if you try to manipulate even a shred of evidence, I promise what's coming your way will be worse than a few months in prison for defamation and fraud."
That wasn't a threat. It was the absolute, terrifying confidence of a man who sounded innocent. Or a man who was powerful enough to make the truth irrelevant.
Was Penelope a liar, or was this just Alejandro's way of burying another mistake under a mountain of legal threats?
Penelope's eyes widened, and she began shaking her head frantically.
"What? Court? No, wait... this is something we can settle between us, Mr. Alvarez. You don't have to—"
He didn't wait to hear the rest. He turned on his heel, but stopped and glanced back at me. I felt a shiver roll through my belly.
"To the office. Now."
I didn't move immediately. Part of me wanted to stay and watch Penelope crumble, or at least get more tea from Lisa. But he whirled around, and the sheer intensity of his gaze told me I didn't have a choice.
I gave Lisa a look that said 'Tell me everything later,' and followed him.
I headed for the staff elevator, but he reached out, his hand gripping my elbow firmly, and pulled me into his private one.
The silence inside the elevator was suffocating. Penelope's words rang in my ears like a funeral bell.
We reached the executive floor and walked into his office together. He strode over to the floor-to-ceiling window, his phone already pressed to his ear.
From the reflection in the glass, I could see his jaw clenching and unclenching.
"Paolo. I have a defamation case to file," he said into the phone, his voice harsh. He sounded so believable. If I didn't know about Gabby—about the phone call I'd overheard—I might have believed he was a saint.
Half of me wanted him to be innocent; the other half suspected he was just using his money to avoid a messy responsibility.
He ended the call and turned to me. I had my arms crossed over my chest, my brow raised in a silent challenge.
"Is she telling the truth, Alejandro?"
He stared at me for a beat, then let out a dry, humorless chuckle.
"What do you think, Rhea?"
I rolled my eyes. I wasn't in the mood for his petty games. "Answer the damn question."
His eyes narrowed. He closed the distance between us in two steps and grabbed my hand firmly.
"Don't you dare raise your voice at me," he hissed. "And I don't owe you an explanation for every lunatic that walks into my lobby."
I glared back, gathering every ounce of my strength to pull my hand away from his grip.
"I'm your wife, Alejandro! On paper or not, I have every right to know about your 'affairs' when they're screaming in public. I'm the one who has to stand there and take the fallout!"
He didn't answer. Instead, he buzzed his secretary. "Call a staff meeting. Ten minutes. Boardroom."
^^^^^
The meeting was a blur. Alejandro addressed the staff, changing protocols and tightening security with a ruthless efficiency.
I sat at the table, lost in thoughts of Penelope and Quinn.
Was there a nursery somewhere being painted while I sat in this boardroom?
"What was the last thing I said, Miss Winters?"
The sound of my name snapped me back to reality. I looked up to find every eye in the room on me—especially his stormy grey ones.
My face heated up. I cleared my throat, looking down at my empty notepad. I couldn't answer.
The silence stretched too long. Suddenly, Alejandro slammed his fist onto the mahogany table. The sound was like a gunshot, causing everyone to flinch, including me.
"If you can't pay attention to a simple briefing, perhaps you're as incompetent as I thought you were," he snapped, his words cutting through me like a blade.
"I don't pay you to daydream about your personal life on my time."
The embarrassment was a physical weight. I refused to look up, but I could feel the sympathetic—and some judgmental—gazes of the staff. My eyes burned with unshed tears.
"Dismissed," Alejandro growled, taking a deep breath.
I pushed my chair back, desperate to flee, but his voice stopped me dead.
"Not you, Rhea."
The rest of the staff scurried out, leaving a heavy, charged silence in the room. Every time I looked for a reason to see the good in him, he gave me a thousand reasons to hate him.
"Look at me," he commanded.
I didn't. Instead, I felt his arms wrap around my waist, pulling my back against his chest. The contact sent a jolt through me—a confusing, tangled mess of anger and a betrayal of arousal.
My heart was racing for all the wrong reasons.
He forced me to turn in his arms, his hand gripping my chin, so I had to face him.
"You might be my wife on paper, Rhea," he whispered, his breath hot against my skin. "But you are also my employee. I need you to do a good job in both duties. Do not blur the lines again. If I am in a meeting, you are mine to command. Do you understand?"
I stared at him, my heart breaking and hardening all at once.