No Second Chances Ex-husband (Lauren and Ethan) novel Chapter 93

CHAPTER 093

LAUREN’S POV

Some girls truly don’t have any manners. Not only had she ruined my phone, but she had also practically ruined my morning before it even really started. I let out a long, frustrated sigh, wishing I could delete the whole incident from my mind, though I knew it would be nearly impossible. My fingers still tingled slightly from the sharp smack she had given me, and my thoughts kept circling back to her shoulder bump, deliberate or not. If only I had noticed her name tag, I might have avoided all of this entirely.

I tried to push it aside as I straightened my shoulders and walked toward the office, reminding myself that my focus needed to be on the meeting ahead.

When I entered the office, the manager was just taking her seat, placing her phone carefully on the table. She had clearly been on a call, judging by the slight pink in her cheeks and the faint lingering sound of her words as she hung up. As soon as she looked up at me, a smile appeared on her face. A small, almost tentative smile, one she had never given me in the little time I’d known her.

I couldn’t help but notice the change in her appearance. She didn’t look the same as she did five years ago. I knew time left its mark on everyone, but this seemed accelerated. Dark circles under her eyes were pronounced, the kind that screamed of sleepless nights and endless stress. The faint lines around her mouth and the stretch marks on her face made her appear older than she really was, like life had fast-forwarded her aging process. My mind couldn’t help but wonder how much pressure she had been under these past years. Maybe the headquarters job wasn’t as glamorous as it seemed.

I took my seat, trying to settle into a calm posture despite the lingering irritation from the earlier encounter. She began to speak, her voice carrying a note of forced warmth that didn’t quite match the tension in the room.

“Ms. Darrow, you look just as lovely as you did five years ago,” she said, her eyes flicking briefly toward me before returning to her papers.

I raised my eyebrows slightly, a thin smirk playing on my lips. Oh, now she thinks I look lovely. Five years ago, she had barely tolerated my presence, and I was fairly certain she had done everything possible to push me out and send me to Italy. And now, when they were the ones who needed me, she had the audacity to offer me a compliment.

“Thank you very much, manager. At least one of us kept ourselves intact,” I replied smoothly, my tone calm but edged with a subtle sting, carefully crafted to provoke just the right reaction. I could see it immediately, the small smile she had tried to maintain faltered and faded. There was a flicker of irritation in her eyes now, the sort that silently acknowledged the jab I had just delivered.

I leaned back slightly in my chair, letting the silence stretch between us, allowing her to adjust to the fact that I wasn’t the same person who had come under her scrutiny all those years ago. Inwardly, I reminded myself to stay composed; I wasn’t here to argue, I was here to assert myself, and moments like this were just a small test of how far she would push before she realized I had no intention of bending.

She cleared her throat softly, straightening the papers on her desk even though they were perfectly aligned. Classic nervous tick. “Ms. Darrow,” she began, her tone more careful now, “I understand the past hasn’t always been… smooth between us. But circumstances have changed. The company has changed.”

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I tilted my head slightly, letting my eyes linger on her dark circles. She looked drained, desperate, like someone clinging to the edge of a cliff with no rope. The kind of desperation that made people crawl back to the very hands they once tried to push away.

“Go on,” I said smoothly, my voice steady, calm, commanding. I didn’t need to raise it, authority wasn’t about volume, it was about control.

Her fingers tapped against her desk before she clasped them together, forcing stillness. “Ms. Darrow. Your skill in business development is unmatched we’ve seen that for the past 5 years and we’ve seen your results at the Italy branch. The headquarters has been… struggling. We’ve lost some major clients over the past year, and the competition is taking advantage of our weakness. We need someone who can bring in new partnerships, rebuild confidence, and…”

“And you think that someone is me,” I finished for her, arching a brow.

She hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. You’ve always had a gift for attracting investors and securing deals. We need that gift now more than ever.”

I let out a small laugh, not the cheerful kind but the kind that carried a sharp edge. “Interesting. You knew you needed me, and when you people make the arrangements to get me transferred back here you don’t even give me two days to get ready, do you know the inconvenience you caused me and my daughter’s life back in Italy?”

Her lips tightened, and she dropped her gaze for a moment. “I admit… mistakes were made. But this isn’t about the past, Mrs. Darrow. This is about the future of the company. Without you, we may not be able to sustain the headquarters at all.”

There it was. The confession. The crack in her armor. I leaned forward, resting my elbow on the armrest and my chin on my knuckles, studying her like one might study a defeated opponent. “Mr Hale, is he in the country while all this is happening?”

I don’t really know why my mind went there but I mean I still had to ask given that his the chairman, I needed to know if he was taking action in all this or not.

She gave a stiff nod. “He’s up on the first floor at his office as we speak.”

So she decided to involve the CEO in this but when she was making my transfer she felt it was too little for the

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