Chapter 407

[ 1,007 words ]

Delia’s POV

I smiled without warmth. “Those scenes happened when I still thought I had something to lose. I do not have that problem anymore p>

Noah’s mouth moved slightly. Not quite a smile.

“Good. Because if you create problems for Vesper Group, I will end this contract the same day and make sure the only work you find afterward is answering phones in an office no one important ever visits. I do not care how well you know the guest list p>

The threat sat between us, clean and open.

I leaned forward a fraction. “You brought me in because you needed someone who already understands these people. You do not get that from a stranger. You get it from me. So yes, I will smile at Julian Windsor and his wife. I will seat them where you want them. I will make your father’s first public night look perfect. And when it is over, you will remember that I delivered exactly what you paid for p>

Noah watched me for a long moment. Then he stood, walked around the desk, and stopped beside my chair. He was close enough that I had to tip my head back to keep looking at him.

“You talk like someone who still believes she is negotiating,” he said quietly. “You are not. You work for me. That means when I tell you to stand at the entrance and welcome the man who publicly discarded you, you do it without complaint. When I tell you to adjust a seating chart at the last minute, you adjust it. When I decide your past is becoming a distraction, I remove the distraction. Do you understand the difference between an employee and a partner, Miss Kensington p>

My jaw tightened. “Yes p>

“Say it p>

“I am an employee. You are in charge p>

“Again p>

I forced the words out. “You are in charge p>

Noah stayed where he was, looking down at me. The silence stretched until it became uncomfortable. He wanted it to be uncomfortable.

“The seating chart is approved,” he said at last. “The guest list is approved. You have five days to lock the remaining vendors and send me the final run-of-show. If anything is late or incomplete, I will know p>

He stepped back and returned to his chair.

“You may go p>

I stood. My hands wanted to shake. I did not let them. I gathered the papers, slid them into the folder, and walked to the door.

Noah’s voice stopped me with my hand on the handle.

“One more thing p>

I turned.

He was watching me with the same assessing look he had worn since I walked in.

“The night of the gala, you will not drink. You will not disappear into corners to recover your composure. You will remain visible, professional, and pleasant for the entire evening. If I see you falter when the Windsors arrive, I will consider it a failure of the work I hired you to do. Clear p>

“Clear p>

“Good p>

I left the office with my spine straight and my face blank. The elevator doors closed, and I finally let out the breath I had been holding. My pulse was still high. My pride felt scraped raw.

Noah Vesper had made the hierarchy unmistakable. He owned the room. He owned the contract. For as long as I needed this job, he owned the version of me that would have to smile at Julian and Katia while the entire city watched.

I walked back to my office on the fourth floor, sat down at the desk, and opened the seating chart again. Main table. Center seats. Windsor, Julian, and Katia.

I left them exactly where Noah had ordered them to stay.

Then I opened a new document and began the run-of-show, every line precise, every timing locked, because the only power I had left was to make the night so clean that even Noah Vesper would have nothing left to criticize.

Five days.

I would deliver exactly what he demanded.

And I would hate every second of it.

Noah called me into his office two days before the gala, a single folder sitting closed on the black stone desk between us.

“I need you to arrange a meeting,” he said, without any of his usual preamble. “With Julian Windsor. Vesper Group would like to invest in WEG before the gala takes place. It would strengthen everything we are trying to build here, having our name tied to WEG’s before the launch rather than after p>

I nodded, writing the note down on my tablet without fully processing what he had actually asked me to do.

“I can reach out to his office today,” I said. “Set something up before the end of the week p>

“Good,” Noah said. “Make it happen p>

I left his office feeling, for the first time since signing the contract, something close to useful in a way that had nothing to do with seating charts or guest lists. This felt like real work, the kind of assignment that might actually prove to Noah I belonged in rooms larger than the ones I had spent the last several days arranging chairs inside.

I called Julian’s office that same afternoon and secured a meeting for the following morning, feeling almost proud of how quickly I had managed it, not stopping to consider why a meeting with someone I had once lived beside for two years had been so easy to arrange.

I arrived at WEG headquarters the next morning in my best suit, the folder Noah had given me tucked under one arm, rehearsing the pitch in my head the entire elevator ride up. Vesper Group would like to invest in WEG. A partnership that would benefit everyone involved, ahead of what we expect to be a significant period of growth for both companies.

Julian’s assistant showed me into his office, and he looked up from his desk with an expression I could not quite read, something between confusion and mild amusement that I chose to ignore in favor of my prepared opening.

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