Filed to story: Watch Out, I’m The Lady Boss (Eleanor & Sebastian) Book PDF Free
“I’ve missed you,” he said quietly.
My heart sank. Not this again.
“Thanks for helping me just now,” I said.
“But I’m not interested in dating any of the Grangers. Not you, not Daniel.”I turned to go, but his next words froze me.
“What if I could help you meet the Deputy Commissioner?”I
Sebastian’s knees buckled and he went down hard on the marble floor, the sound echoing over the chatter of champagne glasses and false laughter.
The hall erupted into gasps and shrieks. A circle of glittering gowns and tuxedos pressed forward, every pair of eyes wide with morbid curiosity.
“Sebastian!” I dropped beside him, my knees skidding on the polished tiles. His skin was burning beneath my touch. His eyes fluttered open, glazed, then rolled back.
“Someone call an ambulance!” I shouted.
“I’ll handle it.” Prescott crouched at my side, his phone already out.
“Do it fast,” I snapped, brushing Sebastian’s damp hair back.
“Sebastian, can you hear me? Stay with me.”
A murmur ran through the crowd. I caught snatches. Fever. Infection. Poor man, after that ordeal at sea. Isn’t he the one supposed to be marrying that Lopez woman?
“Give him some space!” I barked, glaring up at the gawkers. No one moved until a man in a tuxedo reluctantly tugged his wife back.
Sebastian groaned, low and rough. My heart clenched.
“I’m here. Don’t talk. Just breathe.”The ambulance came in a wail of sirens, but the minutes until it arrived stretched like hours. Paramedics pushed through.
“Miss, please step aside.”
“I’m going with him,” I said.
No one argued.
The ride was a blur of flashing lights and medical jargon. I sat hunched in the corner, clutching his uninjured hand. The bandaged right hand rested across his chest, swollen under the gauze. Even now, fever burning him up, his body still carried that commanding presence.
At the hospital, they rushed him through swinging doors. I was forced to let go. The corridor swallowed me whole. I sat rigid on a hard plastic chair, staring at the linoleum until the words floated to me from a group of doctors.
“Infection stabilised, but… risk of permanent nerve damage.”
“The hand might never regain full function.”My stomach pitched. Permanent. Nerve damage. Because of me. Because I had dragged him diving, because I had been too stubborn to admit when I was out of my depth.
I pressed my fist against my mouth, eyes burning.
If I had stayed away, none of this would have happened. He would be whole, not broken.
But leaving had only hurt him more.
Not again.
Never again.
I straightened, wiped my eyes, and forced myself to stand.
By the time Dominic Everett appeared in the waiting area, I had been pacing for hours. His tie was loosened, his usual composure rattled.
“Miss Vance,” he said quickly, “how is he?”
“Stable,” I told him, and for once my voice didn’t shake.
“The fever’s broken for now. He needs rest.”
“I know, but…” Dominic’s mouth tightened.
“LGH is in chaos. The shareholders are unsettled, the press is circling, and Miss Lopez-“
“No.” I cut him off.
“You’ll not disturb him with company matters until he recovers. Do you understand? Tell whoever you must that Sebastian Laurent is unavailable. That’s final.”He studied me, as though weighing whether I had the authority to issue such commands. Then, to my surprise, he nodded.
“Very well.”When he left, silence seeped back in, thick and oppressive. I sat at Sebastian’s bedside. The beeping monitors were steady, but his bandaged hand rested lifeless on the sheet.
Lea’s words at the caf? replayed in my mind. She had sipped her coffee, eyes smug, and told me she was willing to risk everything for Sebastian. She had said she would even kill.
What was I willing to do for him?
When Prescott appeared the next morning, I didn’t dismiss him outright.
“I heard about the collapse. Thought you might need help,” he said casually.
“I don’t need you. But you said you could arrange a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Haldane.”His brows lifted.
“I can. But nothing comes free.”
“I know,” I said flatly.
He brightened.
“So it’s a yes on the date? Just dinner, I promise. Maybe a film. No strings. Just one night.”I gave him a long, hard look.
“You don’t lack women, Prescott. Why me?”He grinned and gave me the truth this time.
“Because you’re the one Daniel still dreams about. Hurts him more if you’re with me.”
“So this is about Daniel.”
“Partly,” he admitted with a shrug.
“But also because I want you. Win-win.”I folded my arms.
“I’m not going on a date with you, but I can offer you something better. You’ve been fighting Louisa Granger at the company, haven’t you? She’ll never let you take your place while she’s protecting Daniel. If I talk to her, persuade her to stop sabotaging you, you’ll have a clean shot.”
For the first time, his smirk faltered.
“You’d really do that?”
“I will. If you deliver Haldane.”He studied me for a moment, calculating, then nodded slowly.
“Deal.”I extended my hand. He took it.
I hadn’t seen Louisa Granger in months-not properly, not since my broken engagement with Daniel.
She had always liked me. Sometimes I even thought she loved me more than my own mother did. When I was younger, she would invite me for tea in her sunlit drawing room, listen to my chatter, and beam at me as if she were already imagining me as her daughter-in-law. She wanted me to marry Daniel so badly it seemed like it was her dream as much as his.
But that was before everything went wrong. Before Daniel destroyed whatever we had with a slap, before he married Catherine, and before the Granger family unraveled.
Since then, I had kept my distance.
Now I was walking into a quiet caf? in Midtown, the kind of place with whitewashed walls, leafy plants, and soft jazz floating from hidden speakers. Neutral ground. I thought it safer than her house, which was haunted with memories I didn’t want to stir up.
She was already there, sitting near the window with a cup of coffee untouched in front of her.
Louisa had always been immaculate, the type of woman who never had a hair out of place, who made sixty look like forty with the right lighting and an easy smile.
But today she looked tired. Her blond hair was still swept into its usual chignon, but the lines around her mouth had deepened, and the faint puffiness beneath her eyes spoke of sleepless nights.
“Elean,” she said as I approached, her voice cool.
“Mrs. Granger,” I said politely, slipping into the chair opposite her.
“Louisa,” she corrected automatically. She had always insisted on that, even when I was a teenager. But there was no warmth in it today.
We sat for a moment in silence. She stirred her coffee, though she didn’t drink it. I folded my hands in my lap.
“You’ve changed,” she said finally, her eyes scanning my face.
“A woman now, not the girl who used to sit in my kitchen sipping tea.”
“I suppose I have,” I said.
“You’ve made quite a name for yourself as a designer. I saw your portfolio the other day. Very elegant.”
“Thank you.”
Her mouth tightened.
“You’re doing well. But Daniel isn’t. If you’d stayed with him…”
I had expected that, but the words still stung.
“He hurt me first,” I said quietly.
“I know what he did,” Louisa admitted, glancing away.
“But he’s my son. No matter how badly he behaved, he’s still my son. And now… look at him. Divorced. Drinking too much. Losing favor with his father.” She pressed her lips together.
“And you… you walked away. Perhaps you could have steadied him, but instead you left.”
I bit back my instinct to defend myself. This wasn’t about me, or even about Daniel.
“Louisa,” I said softly, leaning forward.
“You know I always cared for you. I always will. But let’s speak plainly. You know why we’re meeting today. Prescott is not going anywhere. Clive acknowledged him, officially. He has his name, his place in the company. Sabotaging him only creates instability, and you know instability is poison to business.”
Her eyes snapped to mine, sharp and cold.
“So you’re here on his behalf? That bastard boy sends you to plead for him?”
“No,” I said firmly.
“Prescott didn’t send me. But I spoke to him, and I know he wants a place at the table. He’s ambitious, yes, and reckless sometimes, but he has a head for business. You undermining him only strengthens his resolve. It makes him hungrier. What you’re doing now, it won’t make him disappear. It will just make the Granger family weaker.”