Page 188 of Heartless

Then, she was gone.The conference room was only used for board meetings and the likes.

My heart sped up, and I turned to Olly.“Am I getting fired?”

His brows knit.“You should go.It sounds serious.”

“Right.”

I pushed from my desk, grabbed my notepad, and hooked my favorite pen on its spine with unsteady fingers.Then I rushed past the unmanned reception desk toward the dark, domineering room located at the end of the floor.

The door was ajar.I knocked anyway and entered.Sherry wasn’t alone.A woman of approximately the same age as her, and two middle-aged men were also there.Sherry’s expression was an odd mix of annoyance and disbelief as she waved me in.

“Sienna, come in,” my boss invited.

I pressed my notepad against my thumping chest.My pen dropped on the floor in a muted clack made louder by the heavy silence.

“Sorry,” I mumbled before picking it up and springing back up.

The woman had a sleek jet-black bob that contrasted with her pearl grey dress suit.She was seated at the end of the rectangle table.One of the men was standing a couple of feet away behind her armchair.The other, who had a slightly more relaxed demeanor—which didn’t say much since the others’ gazes were dissecting me—was the first to approach me.

I instinctively shook his proffered hand.“Sienna, I’m Jason Storley.”

My heartbeat thumped with more force.Jason Storley was the owner and CEO of the publishing house, which made him Sherry’s boss.Was there such a thing as being more than fired?Sherry, standing beside him, sported a bewildered stare that must have mirrored mine.

“Don’t be alarmed.It’s a little unconventional, but I wanted to talk to you,” he said.

His tone was casual, but his gaze had this weird intensity.And why wouldn’t I be alarmed that the big boss I’d never met knew my name?

“All right.”

Jason Storley turned to my boss.“Thank you, Sherry.”

Ignoring the thinly veiled dismissal, she retorted, “Sienna is my employee, and I’m responsible for her.”

His mouth pinched.“This is personal, Sherry.Personal to Sienna, and I won’t be in the room either.”

But Sherry was having none of it.Shifting to face me, she dipped her frowning gaze into mine.“Sienna, are you comfortable with this?”

No, I wasn’t.But I was curious, so I nodded.When she walked past me, she touched my arm in a gesture I knew was meant to be reassuring.

As she neared the door, I said, “Sherry, Kelly and I are having lunch together, can you ask her to wait for me?”

“Sure,” Sherry replied before shutting the door behind her.

My boss’s boss introduced the two people left in the room.“Sienna, this is Evelyn Bradshaw and Adam Grady.They have a proposition for you.”

After mirroring their polite nod from across the table, I turned to Jason Storley.“What kind of proposition?”

It was the woman who replied.“Sienna, your father has asked us to speak with you on his behalf.”

My throat contracted.I’d left my cell at my desk.Shoot.Shoot.

I squeezed the edge of my notepad.Clearing my throat, I watched Jason Storley.“You’re Nigel’s friend.”

His face tilted in that same ‘poor you’ expression I’d seen a million times when I’d told people about Mom’s cancer.“Sienna, your dad is very ill.Gravely ill.I know you two are estranged, which is why I invited Ms.Bradshaw and Mr.Grady here, so they could speak to you privately.”

At my freaking place of work.Seriously?

But this was an office, and we were in the middle of the day.And Kelly knew where I was.