Chapter 81

Present time...

Emma's POV

My alarm went off, bringing me back from memory lane. I realized that I didn't sleep a wink for the whole night, just kept thinking about how we met and I didn't even realize that I was going to make the biggest mistake of my life.

Shaking my head, I got ready and went to the office, or he would not hesitate to fire everyone on the staff; I could not let it happen to my colleagues, so I went to the office.

When I stepped into the office that morning, the atmosphere felt suffocating. The familiar hum of the air conditioner, the muted conversations, and the clatter of keyboards all seemed like distant noises, buried beneath the heavy weight of what lay ahead. After six long years of avoiding Ryan and burying the memories and heartache, I was back in his world, and I was completely unprepared for it.

Ryan, my husband...though I struggled not to even think of him in those terms anymore, was now my boss. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I was to be his assis