CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance - Iona Rose (which ebook reader .txt) 📗

We arrived at the VP’s office and were invited to sit in his little lounge area. Henry and the rest took their seats, while I stood by the corner.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but I have a lunch meeting with the CEO in a few minutes and couldn’t afford to come down,” Daniel said, his gaze settling on all of us, one at a time. His gaze however lingered on me.

It was only then when I remembered my concerns about his possible attraction to me. The nausea swirling around in my stomach increased. I wanted to be anywhere in the world at this moment than right here. How had my world become so complicated?

Henry began the progress report, and I paid as much attention as I could so I could answer the marketing research questions as they were forwarded to me. Twenty minutes later, I was explaining the five most effective energy drink campaigns that had come up within the last year and how we had picked them apart so far, to carve out the unique approach we would take with the Vita500 brand, when there was a knock to his door.

I paused then, as we all turned towards the intrusion to watch as his secretary, a plump gorgeous Russian woman, come in with an announcement. “Sorry to interrupt you sir, but Mr. Edwards and Miller have arrived for your lunch meeting.”

Daniel raised his wrist to check his watch in wonder. “It's already 1 pm? Damn it.” He turned an apologetic gaze towards Henry. “We’ll have to continue this after lunch. I can’t keep the CEO and CMO waiting. I might lose my job.”

The room laughed at his joke.

My heart skipped a bit at the mention of the CEO. He was outside. Oh, dear God.

“We’ll wait for your call, sir,” Henry said, and rose to his feet and so did the rest of our team.

I prayed that the VP would go out before us, so we wouldn’t have to meet the company’s top executives on our way out, on the day when I looked more like the janitor than anything. Henry immediately began to exit the office however, and tears burned my eyes.

All I needed was something or someone on my side, but it seemed more than ever that no one else could see me, and the fact that I was crumbling. And neither did they care enough to hide me just for one day. All that was on top of their minds was saving their heads and advancing forward. I felt so alone.

We strolled out of the office, but to my relief, Daniel called me back.

“Leah, just a moment please.”

I turned to watch him as he grabbed his suit jacket from where it had been draped around his chair. The rest of my team filed out of his office and I was left alone with the Vice President.

He came over to me. “Are you okay?” he asked. “You don’t seem well at all.”

If only I could have a hundred dollars for the number of times I’d heard that today. It perhaps would have made up a severance package big enough to get me out of here. “I’m still under the weather but I'll be back to normal in no time. I apologize.”

“For what?” He asked.

I didn’t bother answering.

His concern just felt more exhausting than consoling, as it seemed quite disingenuous and more of a ploy to curry some kind favor.

“Let’s walk,” he said.

I followed him out of the office.

“How about taking the rest of the day off?”

“I can’t, sir,” I replied. “We have a presentation with you after lunch.”

“I’ll move that,” he said. “You need to rest.”

We stopped then, and for a moment, my gaze was completely zeroed in on him. What truly was his intention? Was this his usual treatment of employees or was this just how he was going to be treating me? “No, sir,” I replied. The last thing I needed was to earn favors from anyone to further complicate my life.

It was then when I removed my gaze from him and sent a polite glance towards the two executives I could sense standing by us in his reception area.

The plan had been to nod politely, with my gaze to the ground and that was what I did, but then a pair of hauntingly familiar green eyes struck me with recognition

My head shot up in shock before I could walk away and I felt my heart come to a complete stop.

Chapter 21

Carter

She looked miserable.

From the moment I had found out that her team was just beyond the door in Coghlan’s office, the entire world, beyond the pounding of my heart as it scrambled for some semblance of balance, ceased to exist.

The CMO had continued speaking to me, but all I could offer him were polite smiles and gentle nods. Until the door was pulled open. Her team had walked out and I’d been almost relieved that she wasn’t amongst them.

Meeting her again agitated me, because it would demand the verdict that she solely had the power to give. And judging from the past, I didn’t expect her to do things as was needed. When it came to our relationship, she gave up easily and I didn’t understand why. Perhaps it was due to some incident from her past. I wanted to find out. There were so many things about her I wanted to take my time in getting to know. So much so that I had uprooted my life and come all the way to her. If she didn’t make the effort to at least meet me halfway, I didn’t know if my pride would allow me to even take a step forward.

Right now however, as she stared at me with shock in her eyes, all I wanted was to go to her. To pull her into my arms and to demand why she looked the way that she did. She looked so