Page 38 of Knocked Up By the Silver Fox

"Ms. Reid, may I come in?" he glanced around as if I had any semblance of privacy anyway. If this was important and confidential he'd have been better to invite me to his office.

I gestured at the chair across from my desk and he walked in and sat down. Most of my coworkers would've been intimidated if the COO walked into their space and sat down, but after working directly with Will for so long, this just felt like anotherday to me. Besides, it was only a matter of time before the board called me in to let me know I was fired. My gut had this eerie feeling that it would be any day.

"What can I do for you?" I asked, but I didn't really want to know. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"Well, I have an important question to ask you and while I believe I know your answer, it's important that you be truthful with me."

My stomach churned at his words. It had been more than a week since I threw up, but the expression on his face made me feel sick to my stomach.

"Ms. Reid, it appears that Mr. Nevil Banks…" He dipped his head and narrowed his eyes. "The man buying up all our shares in an attempt at?—"

"Hostile takeover…I know…" Allen scowled as I finished his sentence. "What did he do now?" I sighed and rubbed my palm over my face.

None of this was my doing. Will was the one who bragged about me until Banks decided he just had to have me working at his firm. This entire hostile takeover thing was nothing to do with anything I had or hadn't done. Nevil approached me. I never sought him out and even if I had wanted to get a different job, his firm was the last place I'd go now.

"It appears he's gotten some of our clients' private information and we want to know if you know anything about that…" Allen's eyes narrowed more and I got the feeling this was a friendly visit, that depending on my answer, the board would be very interested in an unfriendly visit shortly.

"Allen—" I wasn't messing around with titles or placating his ego. I didn't care. I was frustrated and on the edge as it was. "You can go back to the board and let them know that I have no clue why that man knows anything. He approached me with a job offer on two separate occasions and I told him no—twice. Ihaven't given any client information out and I won't. I just want to do my job in peace."

I was so upset. I blurted out: "And someone could possibly look into the reason I keep getting hate mail in my work email account. Maybe that person is the one selling information." My glare was nothing short of icy.

My heart hammered and Allen looked a bit miffed, but he sighed and nodded. "I'm sure this isn't easy for you, and I'm really sorry that what happened between you and William turned into all of this. You're stuck in the middle of something that never involved you and I'm afraid the board will scapegoat you. I'll look into that email thing for you, Beth. I'm truly sorry."

At least he was being honest. "Thank you for coming. Now if you'll excuse me. I have to get back to work."

I turned back to my computer and stared at the spreadsheet on the screen until he stood up and walked out. He was right. The board was scapegoating and I was their target, and it wasn't fair. I wanted Will to fight for me, but there was nothing he could do either; his hands were tied. This was his company, and he was poised to lose it if the shareholders didn't stop selling off shares to that evil man.

When I heard noise behind me, I thought Allen had returned and I whipped around with a glare on my face in time to see Will walk in with a red envelope in hand. I was set to lash out and say something in my defense, and my face was screwed up into a glare, but I softened as soon as I saw him.

"Will," I sighed softly. I couldn't let the others hear me call him that, but I knew he heard it.

"Hey…" He tapped the envelope on his palm and stood in the entrance to my cubicle with hesitation.

My first instinct was to walk to him and put my arms around him, to draw strength from him and breathe in his cologne. But I forced myself to stay sitting. We had sent each other emailsregarding projects at work, and he had sent me a good morning text every day. A few times he popped by with coffee and a vague excuse of checking up on projects, but our personal relationship felt frozen in time. When I saw him, I wanted to melt into him and let him carry all the weight on my shoulders.

"I, uh…" He cleared his throat and extended his arm toward me, and I took the red envelope from his grasp. "I've stopped by to give you your invitation to the Valentine's gala in two weeks." I winced at his words and felt my heart splitting in two.

I was sitting there in that chair lying to him. Inside my belly his baby was moving and kicking and growing, and I was a lying sack. Keeping this from him was killing me, but how on earth did I even begin to tell him? I was a weak, sad woman who was afraid of losing my reputation, and it made me cower when I should've been rushing to him happily with the news.

He was willing to throw everything away for me. How could I be so insecure?

"I can't," I breathed out, thinking of what people would say if they saw me in some formfitting gown with my baby bump popping out. And on Will's arm? They were already hateful. It wasn't a secret that we'd had a relationship at all; they were talking openly about me sleeping with him and making up stories about where we had sex. It was awful. But going to the gala with him would mean a very, very public display. I just didn't think I could live that down.

Besides, Rachel would kill me. Literally.

"It's not optional, Beth." Will's eyes were cold, not the warmth he walked in with. I could see the way he shrank back from me after my rejection of his invitation. He'd come here hoping I had made my decision, and I watched that hope disappear. "All management and upper management must be in attendance."

It felt like shame was swallowing me whole. I nodded and my cheeks burned. My hands shook as I held the envelope and made myself stay seated. That job in London might keep him out of hot water and it might distance me from the rumors, but my heart screamed at me for even thinking about it now. I didn't want to be that far from Will. I wanted him closer, closer than he was right now.

"I'll leave you to your work," he said as he started to back away and something inside my chest broke.

"Will," I said, and he stopped and looked back at me with hope creeping back into his expression.

"Yeah?" He gazed at me and something inside me felt like a dam was bursting. He was everything I wanted and everything I knew I shouldn't want.

"I, uh…" I blinked back tears and bit back my confession of love. "I'll be there," I told him, but his curt emotionless nod made me crumble. He walked away, and I barely made it into a stall in the bathroom before I dissolved into a puddle of tears. I hated how this was working out. Doing the right thing for him was harder than I thought. I didn't want to do the right thing. I wanted to be with him. And I wanted him to know about our baby. I just couldn't tell him.

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