Begin Again novel Chapter 96

Still raw from her encounter with Lucy earlier and reeling from the warning she didn't see coming, Eden dreaded going back to the battleground, to the place where all the drama began, but she'd already missed out on three hours of work.

Matthew's reports and minutes weren't going to type themselves. Gibby's training and handover session, too, wouldn't attend itself.

With a loud sigh, she pushed her office door and stepped inside.

Instead of being blown away by all the elegance surrounding her like she was earlier, Eden was suddenly filled with a rage so fierce if she didn't find something to distract herself, and if she didn't look for something to do, she was so convinced it would swallow her up.

She glared at Liam's blazer on her desk, hating him a little.

She knew it's irrational. But she needed someone to blame for her anger and hurt, and Liam was the perfect scapegoat.

He should have left her broom closet the way it was, and he should never have held her at La Famiglia. Their dinner dates, too, should never have happened. He really should have stayed away from her like she'd asked.

"Well, you should have stayed in the Blue Mountains," she said to the empty room as she picked up the vase. It felt as pretty as it looked.

Fragile.

Delicate.

The art whore in her screamed at her to put the vase back on the credenza. It's not its fault that Lucy had attacked her, and she should keep it because she deserved to look at pretty things while she typed her mundane reports.

Eden wanted it as much as she desired the man who had given it to her.

But as much as she'd love to hold on to it, she couldn't.

The cost of keeping it was too high, and her fight with Lucy had already tainted the joy she'd felt at the idea of owning something so precious. She could never look at it with the same wonder and delight and awe she had when she first saw it.

She bundled it up in Liam's blaze before she could change her mind and stuffed it inside an empty stationery box.

Next, she turned to the painting and spent a little while just staring at it. She'd seen far better pieces by the artist. But this one had cost a small fortune. All his earlier works had tripled in value since he died in a car accident months before her return to Rock Castle.

For weeks after his death, Sienna had cried buckets. Of course, her bestie never knew him personally, but Eden had understood her grief all too well. If one of her idols died, she was pretty sure she'd have to take a few days of family responsibility leave so she could mourn in peace.

Her heart dark with regret, her eyes heavy with the river of tears she was struggling to keep at bay, she reached up and plucked the painting from the wall, surprised by its weight. Its delicate appearance was highly deceiving.

She grabbed the box with the vase inside and tucked the painting under her arm, ignoring the curious stares following her progress as she made her way to the dragon's den.

She paused in Gibby's office first and asked for a ten-minute slot in Liam's diary.

"Everything okay, Eden?" The older woman asked, her sharp, hawk-like gaze shooting rapidly between the ugly welt on her cheek and the box and painting in her arms.

"Everything is perfect, Gibby," she smiled brightly at Liam's assistant, suddenly grateful for her drab grey dress for doing such a fantastic job of keeping her bloody heart hidden away from the older woman's pitiful stare.

"Let me check if Mr Anderson's available."

Eden nodded and flicked her eyes around the office while Gibby chatted to their boss.

She'd only been in here a couple of times, but she was always in awe of the amount of space Gibby had. Her office was way bigger than all the other assistants' offices and exquisitely furnished to match her formidable personality.

The chief assistant came back seconds later with good news and a megawatt smile. "He's free now, his 11:00 AM cancelled."

"Great," Eden said. "So, I can just go in?"

"Sure." Gibby ushered her out. "And don't forget, our session is at noon today."

Eden threw a huge smile over her shoulder. "It's a date!"

Outside Liam's office, she had to juggle the stuff in her hands just so she could knock on his door. By the time he called her inside, she was highly irritated and terrified the bottom of the box would cave in any second now, and the vase would slip out and get smashed to pieces.

Liam lost his head then, and before Eden knew it, they were squaring off as they both shouted over each other. It seemed their fight was inevitable after all.

Liam thought she was disrespectful in her stubborn insistence not to follow company protocol. "I don't care how you act after hours or when we are away from the office. But right here, right now, I'm your fucking boss, have some goddamn respect!"

Eden reminded him that respect is earned. "You don't get respect just because you are the boss. Since I've been here, you've treated me with nothing but disdain, and you've ridiculed me every chance you got! No more! It ends now!"

"What the hell do you think I'm doing right now, your new office, the painting, the vase. That's to make up for everything I've done! I know I haven't been perfect and—"

"I don't want your shiny things! I didn't ask for a new office." Eden sighed in frustration, her mouth twisted in anger. "Because of your over the top actions, everyone now thinks I'm the office whore!"

"What are you talking about?" Liam demanded, leaning over to look at her eye level.

Suddenly overwhelmed by his proximity, Eden asked in a shaky voice, "did you not read the chat?"

She knew that he knew she couldn't fight against the magnetic pull between them, and he was trying to disarm and subdue her and silence her into submission with the raw power of his body.

Seeing right through him, though, Eden took several steps back, putting some distance between them.

"What chat?" His eyes were wide with confusion as he inched closer to her.

"The assistants' chat!" She replied and buried her face in her hands out of sheer frustration.

His shoulders at ease again and the muscles on his face relaxed, Liam said in a gentler tone, "let me see it. "I'm not in that group."

The tears Eden had tried so hard to contain flooded out. She angrily brushed them away while she unlocked her phone and flipped through her apps.

"Here!" She shoved it in Liam's hand and tapped her feet impatiently while he scanned the messages.