Filed to story: Watch Out, I’m The Lady Boss (Eleanor & Sebastian) Book PDF Free
“Ha!” I jabbed a finger at her.
“So you really did collude with him to trick me onto that cruise.”Yvaine shrugged, completely unrepentant.
“Yeah, I did. So what? You were an idiot for breaking up with him, and I’d be a lousy friend if I let you throw away a good man like that. He asked, I agreed. But he never mentioned another woman.”She cut the apple into neat slices and handed me the plate.
“Thanks.” I picked up a slice and chewed, though it was tasteless. The bitter medicine had killed off my sense of flavour.
“He was alone when he came to see you,” Yvaine added.
“No woman with him.”I chewed slowly, lost in thought.
“Want me to find out?” she asked.
I should have said no. Whoever Sebastian was with was none of my business. I was the one who broke things off, convinced that a man like him, too good to be true, couldn’t possibly want forever with me.
Yet I nodded.
Maybe out of guilt for pushing me into that cruise, Yvaine threw herself into it. She made calls, pulled favours, and within a day, she came back with answers.
Meanwhile, I was rotting in the hospital, the doctor refusing to discharge me until my temperature dropped to a normal, human level.
Yvaine burst in.
“You won’t believe what I found.”
“Spill.”She did, and she was right. It was hard to believe.
Not the part about Lea and Sebastian knowing each other for years. I already knew that.
Not the part about Lea being in love with him. That had been obvious.
What shocked me was that Lea had been the one behind the sabotage at the Aureate Awards. Back then, I hadn’t even known she existed. But while married to Pierre, she had already been plotting to push me out of Sebastian’s life.
“I might almost admire her if she wasn’t trying to steal your man,” Yvaine said.
“You know what she did while you and Sebastian were stranded on that island?”
“What?”
“She sent out rescue teams, even hired private contractors to search the sea. Fair enough. I did the same. But she didn’t stay on the ship. She flew back to Skyline while you were still missing. Turns out she runs a huge company that specialises in cleaning up other people’s messes, and she used that company to attack Sebastian’s. She was trying to take over LGH while he was gone.”I frowned.
“Why?” If she really had feelings for Sebastian, why try to swallow his company while he was still lost at sea?
Yvaine spread her hands.
“Don’t ask me. You know I’m no business brain. But I asked Emmett, and he said she picked the perfect moment. Sebastian holds the controlling shares. He’s the brain and heart of the whole company. With him missing, chaos was bound to break out. Lea leveraged her position as his old friend and business ally and gained a foothold on the board. If Sebastian died, she had a decent chance of becoming the next CEO”
“But why would she do that? Just for money?”
“That’s what Emmett thinks. LGH is massive, with profits anyone would kill for. But if you ask me, I’d say she wants more than that. She’s greedy.” Yvaine gave me a look that was half sympathy, half warning.
“You know why Sebastian left so soon after he woke up?”
“Why?”
“Lea forced his hand. She told him if he wanted his company back, he had to marry her.” 2
The flight back to Skyline stretched on endlessly, though the captain insisted it was just under seven hours.
Time did not obey clocks when your mind was chasing itself in circles.
I barely touched the champagne the flight attendant pressed into my hand. Instead, I spent most of the journey staring at the clouds through the oval window, chewing on the inside of my cheek until I could taste copper.
The man in the seat beside me, a trim sort of executive with a navy suit and a smile polished to boardroom standards, decided I looked like an easy target for conversation.
“First time visiting Skyline?” he asked, with the kind of bright cheerfulness that belonged to someone determined to network at thirty thousand feet.
“No,” I said, adjusting the blanket across my lap.
He leaned closer, as if I had just opened the door to more.
“Do you live there or work there? I’m in tech investments myself. Always interesting to meet someone new in the city. What line are you in?”
“I design jewellery,” I said flatly.
His eyes lit up.
“How fascinating. There’s a lot of synergy between luxury retail and tech investment right now. Partnerships, new retail platforms, personalisation algorithms. I’d love to hear more about your business.”
“I don’t want to talk about my business,” I said, tugging my earphones from my bag.
He laughed as though I were joking.
“Just a short conversation. What’s the name of your studio? Perhaps I can help you with capital expansion. Growth strategies, that sort of thing.”I put my headphones in and turned to the window.
That was the end of that.
He muttered something under his breath, but I had stopped caring. All I could see were the storm clouds shifting below us, their shadows swallowing the sea. My thoughts dragged me back to the island, to Sebastian’s feverish skin, to the way he gripped my wrist as though he might never let go.
Then to Lea.
By the time the wheels touched down on the runway, my chest felt as though it had been wrapped in barbed wire.
***
The cab dropped me off outside Elean Joie. It was early evening, but the windows were still glowing Through the glass, I saw Priya hunched over her desk, two pencils stabbing through her bun, her hands busy with a necklace that glittered under the lamp.
When I pushed open the door, the bell jingled faintly,
Priya looked up and froze, then let out a squeal.
“Elean! Finally!
Before I could say a word, she rushed at me, arms wide. The pencils clattered to the floor as she pulled me into a hug.
“Do you know how close I came to scratching your name on the wall like a prisoner counting days? she demanded.
“You vanish for weeks, and I am drowning here!
Her desk confirmed it. Coffee cups, sketches, gem samples, orders stacked in folders. My chest tightened with guilt.
“I’m sorry, I said.
“Sorry is not going to stop me turning into a corpse buried under unfinished commissions,” she said, half laughing, half on the verge of tears.
“Look at this. Three custom orders overdue, one supplier demanding blood, and I had to beg someone to help with deliveries. I almost sold my soul to keep this place alive.”I squeezed her shoulders.
“I’ll fix it. I’ll be here more. I promise.”
She pulled back and narrowed her eyes at me.
“Do you mean that, or is this just a brief visit before you fly back to Paris, to your new job?”
I opened my mouth, but she had me.
“Never mind,” she said, shaking her head.
“I didn’t mean to sound so pushy. Just… don’t disappear on me again, please. This is your studio, you know.”
“I won’t,” I whispered.
But I was already lying. Because even as I hugged her again, even as I looked around the studio that had once been my pride, my thoughts slipped away.
***
The taxi slowed in front of Sebastian’s house. My stomach flipped, as though the road itself had tilted.
The lights glowed in the windows. Warm. Inviting. And utterly not mine anymore.
I stood on the pavement, gripping my bag until the handles dug into my palm. I had lived here, laughed here, cried here. I had kissed him in that doorway, danced with him in that living room.
Now I was just a trespasser.
I hovered at the gate. My hand lifted, then fell. Lifted again.
What would I even say? That I had come back, hoping he would open the door and forgive me instantly? That I wanted to step into a life I had thrown away?
I was still deciding whether to run when the door opened.
“Miss Elean?”Carmen Alvarez stood there, apron tied neatly, her lined face softening into astonishment.
“Carmen,” I breathed.
She hurried down the steps and gripped my hands.
“Oh, Eleanor, you’re back. I knew you’d be back!
Something broke in my chest.
“Come inside. Quickly,” she said, tugging me through the gate.
“It is too cold to stand here.”
I stepped into the hall, inhaling the familiar scent of polished wood. It felt like walking into a memory.
Carmen shut the door firmly and turned to me with a frown that melted into a smile.
“You look thinner. Have you eaten properly?”
“I’m fine,” I said, but my voice cracked.
“You are never fine when you say that,” she scolded gently.
“Come. Sit. I’ll make tea.”She led me to the sitting room. Nothing had changed. The rug, the photographs, the books stacked by Sebastian’s chair. My chest ached.