Chapter 58 · After the Cameras

"Accept it," Jae said, "or I walk back in there and tell the whole kitchen what I heard on that call."

His hand was still locked around my arm, right where he'd yanked me out of the cafeteria doorway. The little glass panel in the door framed us like a scene in a play nobody wanted tickets to. Marites, Kuya Ben, Joy with her face still wrecked from crying — all of them could see the new Head of Operations get cornered by the COO like a maid caught stealing spoons.

"Let go of me." I twisted, and his grip only tightened.

"Answer me first."

"I heard you sell your father's stake to a man named Choi." I kept my voice flat, even though my pulse wasn't. "I heard you use my name so he'd trust the room. That's it. That's all I'm accepting."

His jaw worked, muscle jumping under the skin. This close, his cologne was cedar and something sharper underneath — sweat, maybe, the smell of a man who hadn't slept right in days.