“Here,” Julian said softly to Chloe, wiping a microscopic splash of matcha from her wrist. “Are you alright?”
Then, he turned a cold, furious glare on me. “What is wrong with you? Look at the mess you’ve made. Go to the restroom and clean yourself up before the board members see you and you embarrass this entire firm.”
And then, as Chloe reached up to take the handkerchief, her sleeve slipped back.
My breath caught. On her wrist sat a white ceramic watch. Diamond markers. A tiny silver crescent moon above the six o’clock dial. Only ten existed in the world. A month ago, I had begged Julian to leverage his connections to buy that exact, sixty-thousand-dollar watch for his mother’s birthday because I was stuck in London closing a deal.
Now, it was ticking on his secretary’s wrist.
Julian saw my eyes lock onto the watch. The color drained from his handsome face.
I am going to destroy you, I thought, the cold matcha suddenly feeling like war paint. But first, I had an appointment to keep.
I hit the button for the top floor
The Stain of Rot
The doors to the executive boardroom were made of heavy, frosted glass. It was 9:58 AM. I didn’t go to the restroom. I didn’t attempt to dab away the green sludge. I didn’t even shake the ice from my shoes.
I pushed the heavy doors open and walked in.
Twelve pairs of eyes snapped toward me. The chatter died instantly. Martin Hale, the Chairman of the Board, paused with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth.
I was a sight from a nightmare. My beige dress was ruined, plastered to my skin by a massive, dark green stain that smelled aggressively of earthy tea and sugar. I left a faint, wet footprint with every step I took toward the head of the long mahogany table.
Julian, who had taken a different elevator, rushed into the room a second later. He saw me standing there and nearly choked.
“Evelyn!” Julian hissed, his voice a frantic whisper. “I told you to get out of here! What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”
I ignored him. I placed my hands flat on the polished wood of the table, leaning forward to look Martin Hale dead in the eye.
“Gentlemen,” I said, my voice steady, betraying none of the freezing cold seeping into my bones. “Good morning.”
“Evelyn,” Martin said slowly, his eyes darting to the green mess. “We were just about to announce… are you quite alright?”
