After I Saved Him My CEO Said We Were Strangers Chapter 09
He didn’t stop all afternoon.
At the meeting, he sat at the head of the table, listening to reports from each department.
He interrupted frequently, his questions sharp, his tone colder than usual.
The finance director was sweating by the end of his presentation.
He rejected the marketing department’s proposal on the spot and told them to start over.
Reed rarely let his emotions show.
But this time, everyone in the room could tell their boss was in a foul mood.
The meeting dragged on until seven.
Afterward, he returned to his office and worked through a mountain of backlogged documents.
His assistant brought him coffee three times.
Each time he entered, Reed was hunched under the desk lamp, his brow low, his pen scratching relentlessly across the page.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city had gone completely dark.
At eleven o’clock, he finally closed the last folder, picked up his coat, and walked out of the office.
The lights in the main workspace were off, leaving only the faint glow of the emergency lights in the corridor.
As he passed her empty desk, his stride faltered for less than half a second before he continued on.
The elevator descended to the silent parking garage.
The driver already had the car waiting, engine humming.
After Reed got in, the driver stole a glance at him in the rearview mirror.
Mr. Blake looked terrible.
The driver had been with him for five years. He could guess why.
Back when Reed was single, almost nothing could rattle him.
But for the last two years, even when he returned exhausted from long business trips, he was usually in a good mood.
He certainly wouldn’t have come straight from the airport to the office and stayed this late.
But that was because, before, there had been someone waiting for him at home.
The driver hesitated, then ventured carefully, “Mr. Blake, should we… go pick up Miss Kelleher?”
In the rearview mirror, Reed’s face turned to stone.
“No.”
The driver immediately fell silent.
Outside the window, the streetlights smeared past, one by one.
Reed leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.
The deep crease between his brows never smoothed.