Chapter 4 The Devil's Ultimatum

The boardroom emptied in less than thirty seconds. The senior architects practically ran for the door, desperate to escape the suffocating tension.

Malachi did not blink. His eyes burned with a cold, terrifying fury. "Miss Knight. My office. Now."

I gathered my blueprints with trembling hands and followed his broad shoulders into the penthouse suite. The heavy oak door clicked shut behind us, locking me inside the lion's den.

"You infiltrated my company," Malachi accused. His voice was a lethal whisper that commanded the massive room. "You expect me to believe a call girl who begged to stay in my bed is suddenly a junior architect on my most important project?"

"I am not a call girl, and I did not infiltrate anything!" I fired back, refusing to shrink under his towering presence. "I earned this job. I did not know you were the CEO. I applied to forty-seven firms!"

He closed the distance between us in three long strides. He stood so close I could feel the heat radiating from his chest. The familiar, intoxicating scent of cedar and expensive cologne flooded my senses, making my heart race.

"Fire me if you want, Mr. Sterling," I challenged, tilting my chin up to meet his stormy grey eyes. "But my structural designs just saved your billion-dollar foundation. I was drugged that night in the hotel, and you were collateral damage. I want to work, not trap you."

He searched my face, looking for a lie. He found none. His jaw clenched so hard a muscle feathered in his cheek.

"I will not fire you and risk a wrongful termination lawsuit from a grifter," he stated coldly. "You will work on Riverside. But if you make one mistake, or if you breathe a single word about that night to my staff, I will personally destroy your career."

The next three weeks were a brutal, exhausting battlefield. Malachi piled impossible deadlines on my desk, fully expecting me to break under the pressure. I refused. I arrived before dawn, drafted blueprints until my fingers cramped, and left at midnight.

But my body was fighting its own secret war.

One rainy Tuesday, a violent wave of nausea hit me during a site inspection. I dropped my hardhat and sprinted to the temporary trailer bathroom, falling to my knees just in time as my stomach emptied.

The heavy trailer door pushed open.

Malachi stood in the doorway. His sharp eyes took in my pale, trembling frame. The cold anger in his face fractured, replaced by a sudden, strange flicker of genuine concern.

"Are you ill?" His tone was clipped, but he took a step inside the cramped space.

"It was just bad takeout," I lied, splashing freezing water on my face. My heart hammered wildly against my ribs. I was exactly fourteen weeks pregnant. If he looked closely at the slight rounding of my stomach under my loose blazer, my entire world would explode.

"Go home, Miss Knight," he commanded softly. He reached into his pocket and handed me a pristine linen handkerchief. "Sterling Architecture does not require martyrs."

I took the cloth from him. His warm fingers brushed against mine, sending a jolt of pure, undeniable electricity straight to my core. He felt it too. He pulled his hand back quickly, his grey eyes darkening before he turned and walked out into the rain.

I did not go home. I stayed at the office and finished the Riverside structural models.

When I finally walked down to the main lobby that afternoon to grab a coffee, a sickeningly familiar voice echoed across the marble floors.

"Zara! Oh my god, look at you!"

Vanessa.

She wore a designer trench coat, her dark eyes darting around the luxurious lobby with hungry envy. "I heard a rumour you got a job here. I had to come see it for myself."

"How did you find me?" I asked, my blood running to absolute ice. She was the monster who poisoned my drink and ruined my life.

Before she could answer, the private executive elevator chimed. Malachi stepped out. He was not alone. A stunning, statuesque woman with platinum-blonde hair clung possessively to his arm. Victoria Ashford. His ex-fiancée.

Victoria's ice-blue eyes scanned me, dismissing my thrift-store suit in a fraction of a second. But Vanessa stared at Malachi like he was a diamond she wanted to steal.

"Zara," Vanessa smirked, projecting her voice loud enough for the CEO to hear. "Does your new boss know about your messy little history? Or are you tricking him, too?"