Page 59 of Begin Again, Part 1

Eden nodded and excused herself to freshen up, before salvaging what was left of her nightmare of a day.

Matthew and Julian were still in Liam's office when she went in to clean up the mess. She avoided making eye contact with them as she swept up the glass pieces and picked up the uneaten biscuits.

With a shaky breath and on equally unsteady legs, she turned to Liam, still sitting behind his desk, scowling at something on his screen.

"Mr Anderson," she said, her voice catching in her throat when he looked up from his laptop and glared at her.

A little unnerved by his stony silence, she carried on. "I'd like to apologise for my oversight earlier. I assure you, sir, this will never happen again."

"You're right; it won't. I'm reassigning you."

His announcement threw her for a loop. Sure, she'd messed up way more than anyone should on their first day. But to go as far as reassigning her? Wasn't that a little extreme?

Liam's tone was as hard as the look of disapproval in his eyes as he addressed her. "You are incompetent, and I have no desire nor the patience to deal with you. You'll report to Matthew from now on."

Eden swallowed the massive lump clogging her throat as a solitary tear trickled down her cheek. She wiped it off with the back of her hand. "Very well, Mr Anderson. It was a privilege serving you."

Somehow her wobbly legs managed to carry her out of Liam's office without incident.

When she returned to her desk, a short, stocky guy—a little younger than herself—with smiling brown eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses and straw-coloured hair, waited for her with a bouquet of baby's breath.

"Can I help you?" she asked with a smile she hoped was warm enough to mask her tears.

"I'm Shawn," he introduced himself and shoved the flowers in her hands, adding shyly before dashing to the elevators. "It's a welcome gift."

"Wait!" Eden called after him, meaning to thank him, but he was already gone.

She smelled the flowers, happiness flowing through her body for the first time since she came into work. There was still some good in the world. Shawn had restored her hope in humanity.

Chapter

Twenty

EXTREME REACTION

The brothers unleashed their wrath on Liam as soon as they were alone. Their daily check-in to discuss operational matters was suspended for the moment, and they spent a few minutes going off on him.

Julian, the more amiable of the two, did not mince his words. He found Liam's actions extreme and reprehensible at the very least. "I don't care what Eden did, but that was uncalled for. It's her first day. You could have cut her some slack!"

Liam refused to feel bad even when he knew his cousin was right. "Why the hell should she get a free ride? Because I slept with her once? Because you think she means something to me? You both know if it was any other employee, they would have been fired on the spot."

"That's not the point." Matthew jumped in as he pushed his cup aside. "Look, we get it. You have to treat her like any other staff member, but don't you think you were a little harsh on her?"

"No! She almost killed me!" Liam ranted, shoving the briefing document away from him. There was no way he could make sense of any report now. Not after he was almost six feet under. He'd barely recovered from their spat in the kitchen, and the fearless way Eden had jabbed him on his chest. Now she had to pull this stunt! If he didn't find her annoying, he would have been impressed she had the guts to take him on and even call him out for playing his boss card. But he did find her annoying, and he'd make her pay for her little act of bravery. Nobody in his tenure as CEO had ever spoken to him in that manner, let alone put their hands on him.

"Unbelievable! I could have died, and you both want me to be nice?" He fumed anew as he turned on his laptop to check a contract from the legal team.

"It wasn't intentional!" Julian threw up his hands in the air in frustration.

Liam shuddered with disgust as he watched him shove a whole biscuit in his mouth and chomp it down faster than he could blink. With all his wealth and fine upbringing, sometimes his cousin could be as uncouth as they come.

Julian carried on inaudibly as he attacked more biscuits and tried to talk at the same time. "She didn't get a chance to check her emails—"

"Could you not chew with your mouth open?" Liam said crossly. "Aunt Liz taught you better than that!"

A perturbed Julian frowned at him. "Okay, Mom! My eating habits, which are exactly like yours, have never bothered you before. Anyway, as I was saying—"

Liam cut him off with an impatient flick of his hand. He knew Eden hadn't gotten a chance to go through his dietary requirements, hence the oversight. Gibby had explained this to him. But the oversight was too huge. Thank heavens he had the sense to check. With no EpiPen close by, he could have died.

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