CHAPTER 6
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That morning, on her first official day in the office because Liam was rejoining the company, Emma didn't see him arrive as the man was already there when she did.
Despite William's lecture to her, Emma still found herself fearful of Liam's proximity.
She sat down at the huge desk and flipped through the MAC trying to familiarize herself with the data, but she couldn't concentrate.
Could she do this?
Was it worth losing her peace of mind in exchange for that money?
She still had a lot of credit card debt and couldn't recover from the financial blow that asshole Nicholas had dealt her.
What had become of that fool and his stupid daughter?
Like father, like daughter. A mediocre surgeon in search of a drinkable heiress and he just found her to ruin part of his life.
As she remembered it, she broke the tip of the pencil in her hand.
They were no longer worth it anyway, since she now had bigger problems to deal with.
She looked at the closed door.
Liam was inside, perhaps working on the computer or maybe, oblivious to the scandalous reports the magazines were publishing about him.
The clacking noise of heels snapped her out of her thoughts.
A beautiful, dark-haired, blue-eyed woman, elegantly dressed like all the women in the company except for her, stopped in front of her office.
“Can I help you with anything?” asked Emma, although she realized that the newcomer saw her as Miss Richardson, attorney Sanders' secretary, did.
“I doubt it,” the woman replied, looking at her without disguise.
“I was hired by...”
"Yes, I had to come and see for myself what was rumored in the corridors," she looked her up and down. "How did a woman like you become the senior partner's secretary?"
Emma wanted to throw the letter opener at her, but restrained herself.
If all the women in the company came to tell her the same thing, her fate would not be rosy.
She rose from her seat suddenly, startling the woman at her ease for finding her so passive.
“And... you are?”
"I'm Emily Hood, I'm an assistant to the board of directors, so my position is...
“It's the same as mine,” Emma interrupted her. “You're a secretary, there's no need to embellish the positions so much,” she pretended to rearrange some papers.” I have a lot to do and if you have nothing to give me, and since my boss doesn't welcome mere secretaries, I'd ask you to leave”
Emily, incredulous at the challenge batted her eyelashes. According to Richardson's testimony, the new secretary was a modest country girl and had come to test her as she was under orders to always keep an eye on Liam Van Dyke.
She didn't know this new girl and it was better to leave before anyone saw her and it would be complicated to explain her motives for loitering in that apartment that belonged to the senior partner.
She snorted derisively.
“I can assure you it won't be the last time you see me,” she said, and the elegant secretary disappeared, clacking the heels of her silver Formica shoes.
Emma was relieved to see her go.
This was getting out of hand.
Maybe she should take the high road and leave before things got complicated. Mentally she reviewed that Lisa herself had offered her a position as a cleaning operator, that she could get her an opening.
But nevertheless she was already in a nest of vipers and so was Liam. And it was impossible for her to think of him without thinking of her own son. They were two peas in a pod.
What would he think if she confessed to him?
He would surely be outraged, he would never have slept with her in his right mind and he would be horrified to know what a brat he had with that woman.
The mental recriminations came back to her and her hand began to tremble, throwing the broken-tipped pencil to the floor.
The sound of the intercom brought her back.
“To my office, now,” Liam's direct order jolted her. She drank the water she had in the bottle, pinched her face and wiped away the streaks of tears that almost escaped her.
Emma pushed the door cautiously. He was seated and despite the size of the desk, he looked imposing realizing he was the one holding the reins.
He was serious and the Mac was open.
“I always knew you weren't cut out for big challenges. I knew it then and that hasn't changed”
“How did you...?”
“You heard me perfectly. What is Dorothy from Kansas, I mean Emma from Cheyenne doing in a place where she doesn't want to be? No one is forcing you to stay and I can sense your hesitation from afar. I need a committed team and you don't seem to be”
Liam went straight for the jugular. He was no fool and had noticed her doubts.
“Tell me at once if you are in a position to do your part or else I order you to clear out your desk to make room for someone else,” he continued.
Two sensations began to struggle in Emma.
First, the helplessness that he saw her as someone who could not be trusted at work, and on the other, the courage of that hot blood of his to see her brilliant résumé being challenged. She was excellent at her job and hated being put on the ropes.
Worse, she felt pierced by the fixed celestial gaze that seemed like two arrows ready to pierce them. She didn't know whether to be intimidated or to want to fall at his feet.
But she was no longer the young girl of that time and even if he was still an immature oaf occupying a position that surely was too big for him, she had pride.
She didn't give it much thought.
“I'm perfectly capable of doing this job,” she announced.
She didn't even know where she got the strength in her voice to say it.
He studied her for a few moments, as if to make sure she wasn't lying to him, but she spoke the truth.
He seemed mollified.
“Go back to your desk,” he ordered.
The woman nodded and strided out of the office before he realized that she couldn't stop staring at him, and not exactly with the eyes of a subordinate.
She leaned back on the couch and tried to calm herself. She took a deep breath because her chest was still heaving. Heaven forbid Liam hadn't noticed because he could tell he was good at reading people.
He turned the MAC back on and proceeded to go through the email backlog since the last secretary's departure. He was trying to fix the names on the organizational chart he had memorized so he wouldn't make any silly mistakes.
He jotted down the emails that seemed important and proceeded to check the calendar to fix it. She had many overdue appointments and meetings to reschedule.
Emma was grateful for the extra work to avoid thinking about anything inappropriate.
One detail on the calendar caught her eye. The date marked in three weeks of the Board of Directors and it was extremely important because the election of the new CEO would take place.
"So you found out your boss is running for CEO," someone's voice behind her almost scared her to death. "It was about time, it's no secret."
As she realizes this, she bumps into attorney William Sanders, who apparently had the power to materialize surreptitiously.
“Mr. Sanders”
“Miss Darby, you understand why I hired you, don't you?”
Emma looked at him. She had just stepped out of one interrogation into another.
“You were loyal to the firm where you were for the last few years and with that experience I hope you can be of service to Mr. Van Dyke, who, despite the reluctance of the executive floor, is going to run for CEO”
Emma was just starting out in the corporate world, but according to what she had studied the past few nights, to become CEO, he had to present a foolproof business plan.
“If my boss has a proper business plan, I don't see why he can't be chosen”
"Good answer, Ms. Darby. You were hired to watch the flanks and prevent anything weird from happening, because he's not the only one with a candidacy, you understand? I make that caveat because the day before you seemed to express some discomfort".
Emma knew she had looked unprofessional the other day. But no one knows how to react when they meet hand in hand with the father of their child, when they were not supposed to meet again.
“I've spoken to Mr. Van Dyke, and I'll be part of the team”
The lawyer smiled at her, satisfied with the answer. He could tell he expected her to look out for Liam from her secretary's desk, even if he didn't deserve it.
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Liam did not leave the office at any time during the hours Emma was working that day, who for fear of a scolding preferred not to go out for lunch and could not afford to buy the expensive cafeteria food either.
She only spoke to Emma when she told her that she didn't want to take any calls or see anyone.
“Not even Attorney Sanders?”
"No one, do you not hear me?”
Emma bit her lips at the sternness of his manner.
“I understand,” she announced before cutting herself off.
The woman was about to go on with her work when the horrible clacking of shoes broke her concentration.
She only glanced out of the corner of her eye and noticed that this Emily, that secretary with pretensions that tormented her this morning, was back.
“This must be a joke.....”
When she looked up, she found to her surprise that next to Emily stood a sinuously shaped and very beautiful woman. Emma was not yet familiar with the prevailing fashion but the stranger was extremely elegant.
Emma immediately pegged her for some secretary, as they were all dressed as if they were going to a fashion show. Emily had gone for reinforcements to wear her out.
Liam Van Dyke's secretary had a lot of work to do, so she decided not to waste time on introductions. Nor should they try to intimidate her.
“If you have nothing to deliver to Mr. Van Dyke's office, I'd appreciate it if you'd leave,” Emma didn't intend for them to open their mouths.
The woman next to Emily gives a snort of contempt and advances on her own to the door.
"Stop!" Emma shouted at them, afraid of Liam's possible reaction since he had ordered them not to be disturbed.
“How dare you, your peasant ant,” Emily reprimanded, pushing her,” Do you know who she is, Miss Anna Foreman, the daughter of a senior partner in this firm? And a mere secretary is cutting her off”
Emma was startled to hear that.
The Foreman's name was the second most important among the senior partners. The dark-haired, cat-eyed woman looked at her with utter contempt. She only looked at Emily once to speak for her. She could tell that she saw Emma as an insignificant insect who didn't deserve the wear and tear of her words.
Emma couldn't even apologize, but immediately stepped aside to let Anna pass. She didn't even dare to let Liam know over the intercom, too embarrassed by her discourtesy.
Anna walked through the door and Emma was left outside with Emily, who was watching her with a smirk on her face.
“You had better learn that Miss Foreman is Mr. Van Dyke's fiancée and I recommend you not to repeat a scene like this, if you don't want to be banned from working in Manhattan”
That said, Anna set off, turning back to clacking those heels that made her head spin just hearing them.
Emma plopped down on the couch and tried to concentrate again, but the truth was that she couldn't, because of the powerful and strange impulse that made her turn toward the closed door.
Why didn't Google say anything about this romance?
And she had found several, including the false report of a former secretary. Emma raised an eyebrow, thinking that money made everything right.
And no doubt he and Miss Foreman were made for each other. She struck her as a terribly arrogant woman, used to bossing everyone around, who seemed to think that everyone was her servant.
He was not a man to be trusted and was now busy formulating plans to run his father's former company.
“And he doesn't even deserve the job,” the girl mumbled.
Although prejudices plagued her, she was committed to the job.
She looked back at the closed door and could no longer concentrate on the agenda she was preparing.
The woman in there made her feel smaller than ever. She felt her even worse than her sister Faith.
She didn't understand why she felt so disturbed.
She looked at the clock and it read five o'clock in the afternoon. Time to leave.
When she was at the firm, a main rule she had as a secretary was to never leave before her boss, but in this case it seemed ridiculous to wait for those two to leave after finishing the filth they were doing, so she didn't think twice, grabbed her purse and got up.
She preferred to meet her son and besides it was Lisa's day off, so they could have dinner together.
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That night, both friends washed the dinner dishes and had a good laugh at the landlord's witticisms.
Tanner fell asleep early, so Emma took the opportunity to have a beer with Lisa.
She wanted so badly to talk about what was going on.
She told her that her new boss was Liam Van Dyke. He was engaged to a Harpy.
“The same Van Dyke you liked in high school,” laughed Lisa, who didn't know anything about them, because her job was way below everything those big Wall Street companies did.
It was the perfect moment for Emma to confess to her benefactor the secret of Tanner's affiliation, but she preferred to keep quiet, although she would have liked to be able to unburden herself and ask for advice.
“He's still an irresponsible lout and now he wants to be the CEO of the company”
“Are you sure he still is? “Lisa asked, taking a swig of the cold beer straight from the bottle.
Everything she had seen and heard in one day was enough for her to draw those conclusions.
“Men like him never change, Lisa”