Aurora

Chapter 1

"You sure you don't want to join us?"

Emma asked from where she stood by the door of my cabin, her head poked in, one hand braced on the door handle keeping it open, looking at me with a hopeful expression. I shook my head internally. She wanted me to join when it came to enjoying drinks after work with our colleagues. I, on the other hand, wanted to escape with every ounce of sanity flooding inside me. Keeping up on office gossip with our senior colleagues was the last thing I wanted. Which is exactly what it was. Attention was good until it was not on me.

I mustered up a small smile, "I'm so sorry sweetie. Ian is all by himself at home. I wouldn't want to leave him alone while I go out and enjoy. It wouldn't be any fair to him." My face fell.This is what I did a lot. Use my sibling as an excuse. Not that he would mind. Ian likes to spend time with me as much as I do.

Emma nodded in understanding, tears pooling in her huge dark gray eyes. "I understand. How about Saturday at 6 pm at your place? It's been a long since I spent any time with junior Le-Blanc. I bet he misses me."

I wanted to say yes he does, only because of the miraculous cheesecake she made on his birthday but restrained myself. Emma was the only genuine friend I had in this entire building. Who would check on me on the days I specifically didn't feel well. She cared deeply for both me and Ian. It has always been a sensitive subject for me to acknowledge people when they had that sad look in their eyes when they hear about my family. Well, a family of two is also a family, right?

So I smiled wide, and nodded, "hell yeah."

She smiled back at me, the skin around her eyes crinkling. "See you tomorrow, babe."

I waved at her and shut down my workplace laptop. Done for the day. Yay.I was just about to grab my purse, ready to leave when my phone vibrated with a notification. I tapped on my phone and checked what the email was about.

Dear Miss Le-Blanc,

I am afraid I've not received a detailed report on our upcoming Texas project. The deadline was supposed to be today at 5 pm, if, perhaps, I'm not wrong. Please send it to me right away if you already have prepared, and if not, meet me in my office in ten minutes.

Chris Hawthorne,CEO of Hawthorne Construction and Holdings

My heart dropped in my stomach. Shit. Not this. My boss was not like his father, friendly, soft, and everything nice. He was the opposite of it. He had a permanent scowl on his face, redefining his beautiful features. asshole but beautiful. But who cares? He's not even polite to the staff. He's horrible to them.

And that is why I rushed to my workplace laptop and turned it on. I'm most certain I've made the Texas report and sent it to him this afternoon only. Beads of perspiration coat my forehead when I see that not only the report I made is missing, but also the report I sent to Mr. Chris before from our email conversations, which were full of me sending reports and him sending a thumbs up.

A thumbs up? Really?

This is not possible in any way. I remember sending it to him and taking a small washroom break after. I check a spare folder that I'd created for a copy of all my project reports. I tried to steady my nerves as I sit back on my seat, my fingers shivering. I spent ten days preparing a detailed report because Mr. Chris does not accept any mistakes in any report. My hand flew to my face as I deliberately tried to scan the whole device for any sign of my recent report but found none.

None.

I'm so dead.

What will I do? Stand back and cry when all he does in less than 5 minutes is yell at me?

No.

I can't make that happen, because I did made a report and it happened to vanish god knows when. Yea, it sounded ridiculous in my head.
A ball of uneasiness curled in the pits of my stomach as I stood up and left to meet my boss. I had to face him, tell him all I knew, and make sure he believes me because there was no other way.

I made my way to the elevator and slid inside as it opened with a ping. Pushing the button to the highest floor of the building, I took a deep breath. He can't shout at me, not at this. I've been working here for five years and this has never happened before. He needed to trust me because that was all I could afford to give. not the report.

The elevator door opened and I slid out, my hands clammy as I tried too hard to calm my shivering nerves.

"Oh hi Aurora, he's expecting you.", said Charlotte, the boss's assistant, as soon as I entered her periphery. Charlotte was beautiful and even more disarming when she smiled, which is why I couldn't help but smile back at her too.

"Hello. Yea, right.", I tried to cover the shrill in my voice as I made my way to his office. I've been here a lot many times before, considering the discussion of every report that had to be done before taking any action into motion.

I knocked on the door, praying to god that he dismisses me for the day because some urgent work fell on him, but all my hopes crashed once I heard his cold, emotionless voice.

"Come in."

Okay, if this way going to happen, I need to be brave and not cover like a ten-year-old. I took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders as I turned the door nob and entered the most luxurious office in the entire building.

My eyes collided with the gray wallpaper behind the wooden table first. Despite the white walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, glass table, and plush white cushioned seats, the gray wall appealed the most to me, for some reason. And as I made a mental point not to stare at it too eagerly, I lowered my gaze to the king who prowled in his seat. As soon as my eyes connected with cold, icy blue ones, my heartbeat kicked a notch. Yeah, it did that a lot since there were a handful of times I made eye contact with him.

"Come on Le-Blanc, I don't have all day.", he said, his eyes raking every pore of my body.
Good evening to you, asshole.

Let's get this over with.