The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband – Episode 31
Serena’s threat hung over the silent sales floor, but Natalie refused to surrender the meeting she had secured. She held the confirmation against her chest and met her manager’s stare. “The client agreed to speak with me. Reassigning him now would waste the trust I’ve already built.”
“Trust?” Serena laughed. “You made one phone call. Every account generated from company records belongs to the department, and I decide who represents the department.”
Natalie understood the trap. If she yielded, Serena would claim the sale and later fire her for producing nothing. If she resisted, insubordination would become the official excuse. Around them, colleagues lowered their eyes, familiar with battles whose outcomes had been decided before they began. Their silence told Natalie that Serena’s methods were neither new nor limited to her. Winning this argument might protect more than one position.
“Then attend the meeting with me,” Natalie proposed. “Evaluate my performance and step in if I fail.” The compromise left Serena no professional reason to refuse without exposing her motives.
Serena’s smile tightened. “Fine. Tomorrow at ten. One mistake, and the account goes to someone qualified.” She returned to her office, already planning how to ensure that mistake occurred.
Natalie spent the remaining hours preparing. She studied the distributor’s growth, shipping delays, and expansion plans, then built a proposal around problems the owner had described rather than products B.M. wanted to sell. She compared regional costs, drafted two implementation schedules, and marked every claim requiring confirmation. By the time the floor emptied, her nervousness had acquired structure. Fear became a checklist, and a checklist was something she knew how to finish.
At the penthouse, Sebastian noticed the exhaustion beneath her careful smile. “How was your first day?”
“Stressful, but manageable.” Natalie removed her shoes and concealed the blister on her heel. She wanted one part of her new life to remain hers, earned without rescue. “I have a client meeting tomorrow.”
Pride warmed his expression before he could disguise it. “Already?”
“The lead was difficult, but he listened.” She described the company without naming Nick’s connection. Sebastian asked intelligent questions about the proposal, occasionally correcting himself so his knowledge of B.M.’s platform did not sound too precise.
Natalie noticed anyway. “For someone who doesn’t know Bash Myers, you understand his company remarkably well.”
“Daniel talks about work.” Sebastian moved toward the kitchen. The answer was plausible, yet his shoulders carried the tension of a man avoiding a sharper question. Natalie remembered seeing Daniel’s name attached to executive interviews and wondered why he would discuss company strategy with a friend seeking an assistant position. The inconsistency joined several others she was not yet ready to assemble.
She chose to let it pass. “There’s an annual company event on Friday. Employees can bring someone.” The invitation felt more intimate than the kiss they had not discussed. “Will you go with me?”
Sebastian stopped. Friday was the deadline he had given himself: the acquisition would be complete, his position secure, and Natalie would hear the truth from him rather than rumor. “You want to attend?”
“Bash Myers might finally appear.” Her excitement returned. “Imagine meeting the man who built B.M. from nothing.”
Sebastian nearly laughed at the absurdity. She was praising him while looking directly at him, yet the admiration belonged to an identity she imagined as someone else. “What if he disappoints you?”
“Then at least the mystery ends.” Natalie leaned against the counter. “People deserve to know who they’re trusting.” She believed privacy was reasonable, but an identity hidden while other people made decisions around it could become manipulation. The innocent remark struck the secret between them. Sebastian looked away, hearing an accusation she had not consciously made.
He accepted the invitation and promised that Friday would answer more questions than she expected. Natalie interpreted the words as playful confidence and kissed his cheek before carrying her notes to the dining table.
Later, Sebastian called Daniel from the balcony. He instructed him not to influence the client’s decision. Opening the meeting had been enough; Natalie’s proposal must determine the result. Daniel agreed, then warned that Serena had requested access to the account file.
Inside, Natalie found an email announcing that her meeting had been moved to eight in the morning—two hours earlier than the client confirmed. Serena had changed the calendar without notifying him, arranging for Natalie to appear unprepared or absent. Natalie saved both versions, forwarded them to a private account, and set her alarm for five. She had survived more expensive forms of sabotage than a corrupted calendar. Still, as she stared at the conflicting invitations, she realized tomorrow’s negotiation would begin before she ever entered the conference room.