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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Ashlyn
I couldn’t stop dancing around. While the board and shareholders stared, I found myself bouncing back and forth from one foot to another, my arms crossed protectively over my chest. In their eyes, I was still Liam’s girlfriend.
Cici was beside me, her neat dress a deep green that made her eye darken to hurricane levels of blue. Especially when Liam’s head of marketing, the gorgeous Brady Martinez, glanced her way. I couldn’t help but notice that she pointedly didn’t look his way in return. Which was unlike her.
I wish I could appreciate him more, but I was still inevitably hung up on another dark-haired and smirking Leden employee. One who had just strolled into the room, the polished, older woman on his arm clearly his mother.
He all but stole the air from my lungs. No amount of nights spent on my grandpa’s rickety old sofa would take away from the affect he had over me. Even now. Damn him. I smoothed my nervous hands down my dress as his heavy gray eyes swooped over me.
Something close to a smile pulled on his lips as he took his position in front of the camera at the head of the table. And then his mother was moving again, gliding to where his father, his sister, and a few other miscellaneous people were posted up across the room. Carmen Macklen broke away to hug her daughter but spurned her husband easily, turning to face the room with a clap of her hands.
Everyone was in their place.
“Shall we begin?” Brady asked the room, a bright, perfectly white smile blinding the room.
Cici all but rolled her eyes, and I raised my brow at the man. His jovial, smiling nature so at odds with the tension in the air.
“Indeed. Let’s begin,” Daniel Macklen echoed, his face tight as he glanced sideways at his wife. Liam had mentioned the strangeness of their marriage, or really of their agreed separation, and I could tell with just one look that Carmen Macklen was more comfortable with their situation than Daniel was.
I snorted a little as she shooed her husband aside, looking to steal his spot. The other men in the room shifted, staring down at Carmen as if she had grown two heads. Inevitably Liam’s gaze found mine, and his smile wavered. Even from here I could see his fists clench. Peter began speaking behind me, addressing Liam about when the broadcast would be live.
A countdown began.
After all, that’s why we were here. To witness and prepare the press about the fact that the real estate giant in their backyards had indeed found its new leader. And that he was a good man. The best, in fact.
Crap, I had added that last part.
I leaned against Cici’s shoulder. “Why did I need to be here again?”
“The man literally bared his heart and soul to you a few days ago. The least you could do was show up to witness his moment. Even if you are only his fake girlfriend now,” Cici said smartly.
“Excuse me. Whose side are you on anyway?” I hissed back.
Cici shushed me with one hand, the other opening up the camera app on her phone and pointing it straight toward Liam as he assumed his position at the head of the table.
“Let me. That’s why you brought me along anyway,” I said again, elbowing her aside.
Cici gave me a pointed look. “No, I’m doing this today. You just stand there. And listen.”
Something warm slipped down my spine, and for a long moment, I stared at my aunt. I felt from the depths of my soul to the top of my head that something was going on. I jerked my head around to look at Liam once again.
Those silver eyes were hot upon mine.
Fuck.
Something was about to happen. I turned to make my getaway. My aching heart and whirling brain couldn’t take this. Cici’s slender fingers closed on my bicep, holding me in place.
“Thank you all for being here,” Liam began.
Every eye snapped to him and rightfully so. He commanded the space with the ease of a seasoned leader. And while his family all smiled indulgently, I couldn’t help but glare at his perfection.
How dare he look like that, while I could barely drag myself from the bed to the couch each day, my heart aching with every thought of him. He’d told me he wanted to be with me. He had shown me everything hidden, bared himself to me. But here he was, looking like million…or a billion…dollars.
I crossed my arms, adopting my signature pose as Liam settled himself in front of the blinding camera.
“Thank you, members of the board, and to each employee at Leden Co. You have each had such an incredible impact on my life. You were the reason I woke up in the morning, the last thought in my mind before I went to sleep. I spent my days wondering how I could make Leden better and how I could make myself better for you. And being offered the role of CEO this week was amongst the best moments I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
