Chapter 1

I never believed that silence could be this loud.

The soft murmurs of voices from behind the closed door felt like a sharp blade stabbing my heart, and every whispered word and muffled laugh cut into me deeply.

I sat outside the five-star hotel suite with my hands clenched into tight fists on my lap and my nails digging into my palms to distract me from the ache in my chest.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to drown the sounds that sounded like the tune of my misfortune, but I heard them loudly, even with my palms clamping my ears.

Their moans seemed to only grow louder by the minute, making me wish I could just disappear.

This wasn’t their first time, yet every pain hurt like the first. I had witnessed this scene so many times that I should have been numb to it by now, yet I felt like they were tearing me apart from the inside out.

I had many reasons to question my reason for remaining Paul Thomas's secretary despite the many reasons I had to leave and kick his job to the curb.

One of those reasons was fact that it was a mandatory part of my job description, in Paul's words, that I follow him to every of his escapades with his mistress and sit by their room, torturing me in ways unimaginable.

I always stayed, swallowing my pride and hiding my tears all because he was my boss—and the boss of my heart.

That was the major reason I stayed. The heart just wants what it wants, they say. I had no choice but to endure it. At least I got to see him every day, even if it meant seeing him in this painful way.

Their chuckles floated into my ears again, and a stray tear to find their way down my cheeks. I swiped it away with a sniffle.

In contrast to what it signified, I couldn't be more grateful when my phone vibrated with a reminder. Three o’clock.

My eyes flicked to the clock on my phone, a reminder of my duties. No matter how much it hurt, I had a job to do, and it was much better than bearing with the escapades of my boss.

With a shaky breath, I smoothed my skirt and prepared to step back into the room where I didn’t belong.

My knuckles rapped on the door for about five times before I heard a low grunt, "Yes?"

"May I come in?" I asked, my voice trembling as I spoke.

There was a soft moan on the other side of the door before he responded instead in the affirmative.

I pushed the door open to the sight of my boss laying on the queen-size bed bare-chested with a familiar face—Tracy Beverly—resting on his chest. Their torso were hidden beneath the blanket, but I could tell that they were both in their birthday suit.

Clearing my throat, I addressed him in a firm and formal tone, "Your next meeting is in the next ten minutes."

His deep hazel eyes stared into my emerald orbs as he studied me, but I masked my pain beneath my professional expression, betraying no emotion whatsoever.

I could feel Tracy's eyes on me, but I kept my gaze locked with Paul's with my lips pressed into a thin line, and my eyes as bright as they could be.

"Is that so?" He questioned, his voice sharp and cold as he spoke.

Propping an arm beside him to raise himself slowly from the bed, he caressed Tracy's red hair while she snuggled deeper into his arms, whining like a spoilt child. My palms itched to yank her off him.

"The Queensmen are here to review their plans with you. You did ask them to return today."

With a sigh, he stared down at Tracy, caressing her small face in his palms, and whispered not-so-lowly, "I'm sorry, babe. Work calls."

The gentleness of his voice as he spoke to her broke my heart. All I ever got was his cold and harsh voice barking out orders at me without consideration of my state—my feelings

She pouted. "You always have to work, and this.. " she trailed off, staring in my direction with a glare in disdain with her slender finger pointed at me accusingly. "This thing tags along with us all the time. Can't we just go on a vacation to Bora Bora or something?"

I stared at her with cold eyes, masking the effect her words did to me.

"Darling, we will eventually," he obliged her, but she just pouted, crossing her arms and looking away from him.

"That's what you always say."

He sighed and placed a feathery kiss on her shoulder, causing a knot to form in my stomach.

"I promise to make it up to you," he suggested in conclusion with a tone of finalty, but she was not done.

Her cold eyes—beady—stared pointedly at me as she asked him, "What about this lady? Does she always have to come with us? She literally has zero knowledge about personal space or a timeout."

I glared right back at her without another word. If only she knew her lover was the one who kept pulling me along with him to every of their escapades!

I wondered if it was to punish me for some crime that I knew nothing about.

A part of me was curious to hear his response, and my breath got stuck in my throat as I waited.

I felt his icy stare on me. "Does she matter? I consider her invisible when I'm with you, babe. She's nothing to me but my employee. You have nothing to worry about."

I struggled to keep my face straight even though my heart was plunged into another depth of sorrow. It shattered even more when she opened her mouth to argue, but he covered her lips with his.

At that point, I just had to look away. I had had enough.

I suppressed the tears that stung the back of my eyes and, without another word, turned away and rushed out of the room to wait for him outside again.

Once I got out of the suffocating room, my tears broke out like a dam on their own accord, and I clutched my chest, feeling the searing pain tearing through it.

"Nothing but an employee?" I whispered to myself in disbelief.

Why, then, did he make me have to come with him on every of his foolish escapades?

Why did he make me do things that were beyond my sane job description?

From my position right outside their door, as I waited for him to dress up, I could hear Tracy trying to persuade him to let her dress him, but he kept refusing.

I rolled my eyes at their stupid antics, but I waited, taping my foot on the ground to keep him on his toes.

As I wiped, my tears dry with the handkerchief, which had become a companion of mine, I was shaken out of my thoughts by Paul's cold—harsh—growl. "Anne! Come here!!"

'What now?' I wondered as I scurried into the room to meet Tracy glaring at me.

I searched around the room for Paul, and I met him in front of the mirror with his shirt hanging loosely on his body and his tie in his hands.

"You called me," I mumbled to him, my brows furrowed slightly as I stared at him.

He stretched the tie in my direction. "Here. Button my shirt and fix my tie."

My eyes widened slightly, but I quickly composed myself and obediently stepped towards him, my heart racing at a million miles per second.

Our gaze remained locked until I got to him and slowly took the tie from his hands...