Chapter 36 WHAT SHE SAW
CALLUM'S POV
"I need you to leave," I said. I did not look at her. I was looking at the door Nova had just walked out of. "Right now."
"You can't seriously be worried about her reaction. She walked in on us, that's not your fault. You can't help what she—"
"Leave." I turned and looked at Vanessa, and whatever she saw on my face made her stop talking. "Leave my office."
She stared at me for a moment. Then she smoothed her dress down, picked up her purse from the floor where it had fallen, and walked out without another word.
I stood alone in my office for a long moment, looking at the folder Nova had left on the chair.
Damn it.
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NOVA'S POV
I closed my office door and sat down at my desk and stared at my computer screen for a full minute without touching anything.
The screen saver had kicked in. I watched it without seeing it.
I was not going to cry. I had decided that somewhere between the corridor and my office door and I was holding onto it hard. I had no right to cry.
I had made my choice. I had sat across from both brothers on Saturday and told them about Matthias, and they had listened, and they had backed off, and that was exactly what I had asked them to do.
Callum was a free man. Vanessa Sterling had clearly been waiting a long time for exactly this. Whatever I had walked into had nothing to do with me.
I kept telling myself that while I pulled up the acquisition files and stared at the numbers until they stopped blurring.
Numbers were good. Numbers needed to be right or wrong and I was good at figuring out which one they were. They did not ask anything else from me.
I worked until my coffee went cold and forgot it was there.
Jasmine stopped by around three with two cups, leaning in the doorway the way she did when she was reading a situation before deciding what to do with it.
She set one cup on the edge of my desk without making a big thing of it.
"You look like your afternoon tried to kill you."
"Long day," I said without looking up.
She stayed in the doorway for a moment. I could feel it, that pause she did when she was leaving space for someone to say more if they wanted to.
I didn't take it.
"Okay," she said. "I'll be at my desk if you need anything."
I put my head back down and did not look up again until the floor had gone quiet and the light coming through my windows had changed. I checked the time and it's nearly seven.
I packed my bag slowly. Then I finally stepped out into the corridor, the far end of the floor was dark. Callum's office door was closed. I stood there for a second looking at it, then I turned and took the stairs.
The lobby was mostly empty. A security guard at the front desk, a woman near the glass doors waiting for her car, and Matthias standing near the entrance with his hands in his pockets.
When he saw me his face did that thing, open and warm, like I was something good at the end of a bad day.
I had not been expecting him and something moved across my face before I could stop it.
"Hey." He crossed the lobby and kissed my cheek. "Thought I'd save you the commute."
"You didn't have to do that," I said.
"I know." He took my bag off my shoulder and held the door open. "You look tired."
"I'm fine."
He looked at me sideways but said nothing, just walked with me to the car, his hand finding the small of my back.
I let myself lean into it a little because I was cold and wrung out and it was easier than holding myself completely upright.
We had been driving maybe ten minutes when he said it.
"I added you to my guest list for the Business Excellence Awards coming up this friday. I want you there with me."
I looked out the window.
The Business Excellence Awards. The same one Jessica had told me about. The brothers are going to be there.
The whole thing would be photographed and written about for days.
And Matthias wanted me on his arm in the middle of all of it.
He felt my silence. I could tell by the slight shift in his posture.
"You're hesitating," he said.
"It's just that Blackthorn Industries will be there. It might be a little complicated."
"You work there," he said. "That doesn't mean they own you outside of business hours,” He paused. "I want to walk in with you beside me. I want people to see us there together."
He said it the right way. The exact right way, making it all sound simple.
I watched a red light turn green outside the window.
"Okay," I said. "I'll go."
He smiled and reached over and took my hand, and I sat with the weight of it in my lap and tried to feel certain about the word I had just said.
He dropped me at the estate gates twenty minutes later, kissed me properly this time, his hand against the side of my face.
I walked up to the front door and pushed it open.
Callum was standing in the entrance hall.
His jacket was back on. His shirt was buttoned and his tie was straight and he looked put together the way he always did, except for his eyes.
His eyes were not put together at all. He was looking at me the way he sometimes did when he forgot I could see him doing it.
I stopped walking.
He did not move either.
The house was quiet around us, just the low sounds a big empty building makes at night, and neither of us spoke and the space between us felt like it had weight to it.
He looked like he had been standing there waiting. Like whatever he needed to say had been sitting behind his teeth since I walked out of his office and he had been holding it there ever since.
I did not give him the chance.