Chapter 2 - THE SILVER WATCH
“You’re in pajamas,” Cameron repeated, his words slurring slightly.
Audrey crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly painfully aware of the little cartoon kittens printed on her flannel top. “Yes, Mr. Hayes. It is nearly midnight. People generally sleep in pajamas.”
He let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Cameron Hayes didn’t laugh. He commanded. He intimidated. He fired people who put regular milk in his almond milk lattes. But right now, his head rolled back against the cushions of her cheap IKEA sofa, and he looked entirely defenseless.
“They’re kittens,” he murmured, his eyes slipping shut.
“I’m going to make you some coffee,” Audrey said, her heart hammering against her ribs. She turned toward her small kitchenette, but a sharp metallic thud stopped her in her tracks.
She looked back. Cameron had shifted, and a heavy, antique silver pocket watch had slipped from his suit trousers, clattering onto the hardwood floor. The clasp had popped open on impact.
Audrey hesitated. She shouldn’t touch his things. She shouldn’t even have him in her living room. But the watch was beautiful, etched with intricate vines, and she knelt to pick it up before he could step on it.
As she lifted it, her breath hitched.
Inside the cover wasn’t a clock face. It was a photograph. A little girl with bright green eyes and messy dark hair, maybe six years old, smiling widely with a missing front tooth.
Audrey stared at it. Cameron didn’t have children. He was notoriously single, married only to Hayes Enterprises. The tabloids called him the Ice CEO. Yet, the edges of the photograph were worn, touched so many times the paper was fraying.
“She has my eyes,” Cameron whispered.
Audrey jolted, dropping the watch back into her palm. Cameron was watching her through half-open lids, his arrogant mask completely shattered, replaced by a raw, bleeding grief that made Audrey’s chest ache.
“Mr. Hayes… who is she?”
“They took her, Audrey.” His voice broke. The powerful billionaire sounded like a lost boy. “She took her.”
Before Audrey could ask who she was, Cameron’s eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold on her sofa.
Panic flared in Audrey’s chest. She couldn't leave him in his tailored suit jacket. Approaching him carefully, she gently tugged the suit coat from his broad shoulders. As she pulled the sleeve free, a thick envelope fell from his inner breast pocket.
It had her name on it. Audrey Bennett.
May you like
Frowning, she slid her thumb under the seal. Inside was a formal letter, typed on Hayes Enterprises letterhead. It was a resignation letter. Her resignation letter. It stated she was leaving the company effective immediately due to a hostile work environment.
The signature at the bottom was hers. But she had never written it.
