Chapter 4

The elevator doors slid open to the lobby, and I stepped out, clutching the gourmet lunch basket I'd prepared for Ethan. The marble floor gleamed beneath my heels as I scanned the spacious atrium of Blackwood Industries, looking for a place to wait.

I'd arrived early, wanting to surprise Ethan with lunch again. These small gestures were becoming my armor—each one a carefully calculated move in a game he didn't know we were playing.

"Mrs. Hayes?"

I turned to find a tall man in an impeccably tailored charcoal suit watching me. His dark hair was styled with precision, and his…