Two Little Secrets From My Boss

Chapter 49

The elevator doors were already closing when I stepped inside.

I'd come to the office after Xander's call, my mind still reeling from the confrontation with my parents, expecting to find him buried in crisis management. What I found instead was Bianca Ashford standing in the elevator like a ghost who had learned patience.

To say that I was surprised would be an understatement. A chill ran down my spine—she shouldn't be here! Not in this building, and not even close to it.

Bianca looked exactly as polished as always—designer suit, perfect makeup, not a hair out of place. Something in her eyes had shifted since the gala. The desperation had crystallized into something colder, more calculated.

"Daphne," she smiled, and the expression didn't reach her eyes. "What perfect timing."

I put on a mask of calm and coldness on my face, and jabbed the button for Xander's floor, positioning myself near the doors. "I have nothing to say to you."

"That's fine, I have plenty to say to you." She moved closer, her heels clicking against the marble floor. "I've been watching your little family drama unfold with great interest. The school incident and the board review. Your parents showing up… Oh, it's been quite entertaining."

My blood ran cold. "How do you know about my parents?"

"I know everything, Daphne. I've made it my business to know," she tilted her head, studying me like a specimen under glass. "You thought you'd won, didn't you? At the gala, when Archie humiliated me in front of everyone, you thought that was the end of it."

"You lost. Move on."

"Lost?" She laughed, the sound brittle and sharp. "I haven't lost anything, my dear. I've been regrouping and planning, waiting for the right moment. You should have known that."

The elevator climbed slowly, each floor feeling like an eternity. I kept my eyes on the numbers, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing my fear.

"I'm coming back for you," Bianca said, her voice dropping to something intimate and terrifying. "And I will ruin everything that you hold close to your heart. Your precious little life that you built on the foundation of my leftovers."

"You're delusional."

"Am I?" She stepped even closer, close enough that I could smell her expensive perfume. "Make sure your husband doesn't make the same mistake—again."

The word hung between us, loaded with implications I couldn't fully parse. Again. What did she mean by again?

The elevator doors opened, and I didn't hesitate. I stepped out and immediately spotted the security desk down the hall.

"Marcus," my voice carried with an authority I didn't know I'd claimed. "That woman in the elevator. She's to be escorted from the building immediately and banned from the premises. I want her access revoked across all our properties."

Marcus looked surprised but didn't question me. "Yes, Mrs. Hale. Right away."

I watched two security guards move toward the elevator, Bianca's expression shift from smug confidence to shocked indignation as they intercepted her. She tried to protest, tried to invoke her husband's name and their partnership status, but Marcus was already on his radio coordinating her removal.

The damage was already done. Her words echoed in my head, poisonous and persistent.

I found Xander in his office, hunched over documents that seemed to blur together on his desk. He looked up when I entered, exhaustion carved into every line of his face.

"Daphne, I didn't expect you so soon."

"Bianca was here," I closed the door behind me. "She threatened me in the elevator."

His expression darkened. "What did she say?"

"She's coming for me, and she'll ruin everything I love, nothing new. Except for—" I crossed my arms, studying his face, "She told me to make sure you don't make the same mistake again. What does that mean, Xander? What mistake?"

"She's grasping at straws," he stood, moving toward me, but I stepped back. "Victor's filed for divorce. The board review has destroyed what little credibility she had left. She's losing everything, and she's lashing out."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the truth. Bianca says things to provoke reactions. She wants you rattled, wants you doubting me. Don't give her that power."

"Is there something you want to tell me that you haven't yet?"

The question landed between us like a bomb. Xander's jaw tightened, and I saw something flicker in his eyes—guilt, fear, something he was working very hard to suppress.

"What are you asking me, Daphne?"

"Be honest with me. Because right now, I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a storm I can't see, and everyone around me knows more than I do."

"There's nothing to tell. Bianca is a bitter woman who can't accept that I chose someone else. That's the beginning and end of it."

"Then why are you looking at me sometimes like you're waiting for something terrible to happen?" The words came out sharper than I intended.

"I have a board review hanging over my head. Of course I'm stressed," his voice rose. "And you've been so focused on your business plans with Archie that you barely notice what's happening around you."

"Don't turn this around on me. Archie's proposal was about giving me actual power instead of just the appearance of partnership."

"It was about Archie, it always is with him."

I stepped closer, my hands clenched at my sides. "This is about you shutting me out. About secrets piling up between us while you tell me everything is fine."

"Everything is fine!" But his voice cracked on the words, betraying him. "Or it will be, once the review is over and all of this settles down."

"You don't believe that any more than I do."

I could feel his guilt radiating off him in waves—guilt and anger and something else I couldn't name. He was hiding something. The certainty of it settled into my bones like ice.

"I can't do this right now," he said finally, turning back to his desk. "I have three conference calls scheduled and a legal team waiting for documents. Can this please wait until tonight?"

"Fine, I’ll wait for it." I moved toward the door, then paused. "But Xander? Whatever you're not telling me—I'm going to find out. You can either tell me yourself, or I'll discover it some other way. And I promise you, the second option will be worse for both of us."

He didn't respond and didn't look up. Just sat there with his shoulders curved under a weight I couldn't see and he refused to share.

I left his office with my heart pounding and my mind racing through possibilities. The word "again" echoing like a warning bell I couldn't silence.

The truth was being withheld. From me, by the person who'd promised to be my partner in everything. The person I'd trusted with my daughters, my future, my whole heart.

I didn't know what he was hiding, how deep the secret went or how much damage it would cause when it finally surfaced.

But whatever it took, whatever doors I had to open, whatever uncomfortable questions I had to ask—I would uncover whatever Xander was so desperate to keep buried.

The elevator carried me back down to the lobby, and I pulled out my phone. There was one person who might have answers. One person who'd known Xander and Bianca back when their history was being written.

Archie picked up on the second ring.