Billionaire's Cinderella

CHAPTER 10

Chapter 9

Chris glared at Stella. He wanted to strangle her. This morning, before coming to the office, he had called her. He'd wanted her to confess that she deliberately ruined Ashlyn dress. But she refused to talk to him on phone, so he had to ask her to come by his office.

He didn't want to deal with this woman in person, but he had a responsibility towards his company, his sister, and Sarah.

His office door opened and Crystal entered first, followed by Ashlyn. Sarah stepped inside rather slowly as if she was contemplating if she should go inside or run away.

Chris felt his chest tightened at such a display of uncertain emotions on her face. He wanted to smooth the hard lines from her face away. These emotions didn't suit her. She should be smiling always. Chris inhaled deeply, realizing that he was way too much invested in this girl. The girl, who wouldn't give another glance in his direction.

"What are you doing here, Stella?" Ash asked.

"Chris invited me." She shrugged. Ashlyn glared at him.

"I didn't want to, Stella. You left me no choice."

"Whatever."

"Would you care to explain why did you ruin that dress?" Chris asked bluntly.

"What? How could you accuse me of this? Do you have a proof?"

"Stop acting, Stella. We have CCTV footage of you coming out of the green room, and many models in that room saw you near the dress."

"But they don't know if I did something, right?"

Chris shook his head in disbelief. "You think you're so smart, and you can get away with this. This fashion industry is a highly competitive industry, and you know that. If any fashion house gets the wind of it, that you ruined the dress, they'll never hire you. Your career will cease to exist. So... if I were you, I would take this chance to come clean. But... Ashlyn and Sarah will decide what to do with you."

Stella looked as if she had seen a ghost. Chris was in his element, the ruthless boss in the fashion world. Chris found this change in his demeanor oddly satisfying.

He deliberately avoided looking in Sarah's direction. He knew if he looked at her, he would become soft. And right now, he wanted to be unyielding boss everyone feared.

"You can't do this..." Stella trailed when she saw how serious his face looked.

"Don't test me."

"I didn't do anything on purpose. Yes, I was mad. You replaced me, and no one had done it before. I wanted to feel that dress one last time. But I was not thinking clearly, so I yanked at the material when I heard the fabric tearing. I didn't check where it was torn from. I just left from there."

"And you didn't bother to come and tell us. What if Crystal hadn't seen you leaving the room? And what if we hadn't inspected the dress? Your mistake would have ruined someone's life. You know I want to blacklist and sue you for this." Ashlyn was livid.

"It was a mistake."

"Wow! You don't see what your mistake would have done?"

"Nothing happened." Stella hissed.

Ashlyn fisted her hands, refraining herself from punching her.

Chris dared a brief look in Sarah's direction. His chest constricted. Sarah was silent, her usual fiery spirit absent.

"Sarah, what do you suggest?" he asked.

She blinked a few times. "I don't know."

"See, she doesn't have a problem." Stella eyed her with distaste.

"You're really very dense. I do have problem with you. I just don't know what to do now." Sarah narrowed her eyes at her.

Chris's lips twitched with amusement. She was back!

"You can leave, Stella." Chris gestured her to leave.

Everyone sighed when she left. Nobody spoke for a few minutes.

"Crystal, where are the contracts I asked you o bring?" Chris asked.

Crystal blinked at him. He hadn't asked for any contracts. She opened her mouth to answer him, but closed it then.

Chris arched his brow at her, expecting her to answer.

"I'm on leave today." She then left the office.

Ashlyn rolled her eyes at him before leaving the room.

"Sarah, can I talk to you?" he asked when she was about to leave.

Hesitantly she turned towards him. "What do you want to say?"

"Well... Er... this weekend the company is throwing success party. Would you..." he paused for a coned. He wanted to ask her to with him. But... "Would you be there?"

He held her breath, waiting for her to reply. "Do I have to?"

"It's your choice."

"What if I refuse?"

"Like I said, it's your choice."

"You'll not fire me for refusing?"

"I will never fire you." He grimaced internally. He hadn't planned to be this honest with her, just yet. But it seemed his mouth and his brain were in disagreement. "I mean, you are the face of our brand. And you're obviously talented. And I value talent when I see it."

"Huh." Sarah was speechless.

Chris observed her. She looked around, deep in her thoughts. Chris wished to know her thoughts. Her eyes pulling him in. He had never felt this sort of attraction before. He wanted to know her. At this moment, he wanted to hold her face, stroke her cheeks, and gently rub her lips with his thumbs.

"I'll think about it."

Chris blinked when he heard her voice, pulling him from his fantasy. His throat was dry.

"Of course," his hoarse voice made Sarah to squint her eyes at him in suspicion, but he managed to keep his expressions neutral.

****

Sarah spent her whole day in a daze. I knew the boundaries between them blurring, but she didn't want to be unprofessional. They were neighbors for Christ's sake. And her neighbor had told her that he'd be borrowing things from her. That means they were gong to see each other out of office hours.

She even cursed Aviraj for sending her resume to Chris. And she cursed herself more for accepting it.

Sarah straightened. She hadn't realized it before. Chris wasn't her neighbor. He was Aviraj's neighbor since that penthouse department belonged to him.

Did he send my resume to Chris on purpose?

Did he even send it? Or he just asked Chris to hire me as favor?

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She had developed tendency to over think everything. She was like this ever since...

She shook her head. She didn't want to think about that time. It never made her life easy. She had escaped that fate, so she shouldn't thinks about this.

But Aviraj had a lot of explaining to do, and she was determined to get the truth out of her cousin.