Chapter 1 - The Night Cameron Reed Fell Apart|
My arrogant billionaire boss appeared at my apartment at 11:47 p.m., drunk, heartbroken, and barely able to stand.
Then he whispered three words I never imagined hearing from the most powerful CEO in New York.
“I need you.”
Ten minutes later, Cameron Reed was sitting on my cheap couch, staring at my ridiculous kitten pajamas, while I desperately tried to understand why a man worth billions had chosen my tiny apartment as the place to fall apart.
My name is Emma Carter, and until that night, Cameron Reed was the most intimidating man I'd ever met.
He never shouted. Never lost his temper. Never needed to.
One icy glance from him could silence an entire boardroom.
As CEO of Reed Global, he was brilliant, ruthless, impossibly demanding, and devastatingly handsome. Working as his executive assistant felt like walking through a minefield in high heels. One mistake, and you could lose your job before lunch.
So when my doorbell rang repeatedly just before midnight, I assumed Lily had forgotten her keys again.
Instead, I opened the door to Cameron Reed.
His dark hair was disheveled, his tie hung loosely around his neck, and his expensive suit looked as though he'd worn it through a war. The smell of whiskey and cologne reached me before he managed to focus on my face.
“Mr. Reed?”
He took one step forward.
Then his knees buckled.
“Oh my God!”
I caught his arms just before he hit the hallway floor.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He considered that answer.
“Possibly.”
“That's not an answer!”
“Excellent observation, Miss Carter.”
Even drunk, he sounded like a CEO conducting a performance review.
I dragged him inside, shut the door, and helped him onto my faded couch. He looked around my apartment, taking in the secondhand furniture, the stack of library books, and the tiny kitchen that could barely accommodate two people.
Then his gaze dropped to my pajamas.
“Are those kittens?”
I crossed my arms.
“They're cats. And they're none of your business.”
For the first time in two years, Cameron Reed laughed without sounding sarcastic.
“I never imagined you like this.”
“Like what?”
“Real.”
The word silenced me.
At work, I was efficient, composed, and relentlessly professional. He knew my coffee order, my calendar preferences, and exactly how quickly I could prepare a presentation. He had never once asked what I did when I went home.
Apparently, he had never wondered whether I was lonely.
I sat on the armchair opposite him.
“What happened tonight?”
His smile vanished.
“Vanessa left me.”
His fiancée, Vanessa Whitmore, was a socialite whose face appeared regularly in magazines beside photographs of expensive jewelry and charitable galas. Their wedding was supposed to be the event of the year.
“I'm sorry,” I said quietly.
“Don't be.”
“Cameron, you don't have to pretend you're fine.”
His eyes lifted toward mine.
“That's the problem, Emma. I've been pretending for so long that I don't know how to stop.”
For a moment, I forgot he was my employer.
I saw only a man who looked devastatingly alone.
Then he told me that Vanessa hadn't left because he stopped loving her. She had discovered something he had concealed for months.
Something involving me.
My stomach tightened.
“What have you been doing behind my back?”
Cameron stood unsteadily and reached for the back of the couch.
“I should never have let you work for me.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew who you were before you applied.”
I stared at him.
“That doesn't make sense.”
He pulled a folded document from his jacket and placed it on my coffee table. It was an old photograph of a woman holding a little girl outside a hospital.
The woman was my mother.
The little girl was me.
On the back, someone had written a date from twenty-eight years earlier and six words that made my blood run cold.
If Emma learns the truth, tell her.
“Cameron,” I whispered, “where did you get this?”
His face crumpled.
“From my father's private archive.”
I looked at him, suddenly afraid of the answer.
“What did your father have to do with my mother?”
Cameron closed his eyes.
“Emma, your mother didn't die because of the accident you were told about.”
He opened his eyes again.
“She died because someone in my family paid to keep her silent.”
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And before I could ask another question, my phone lit up with a message from an unknown number.
STAY AWAY FROM CAMERON REED. YOUR MOTHER WASN'T THE ONLY WOMAN HIS FAMILY DESTROYED.
