Chapter 3 Face of the Firm

The Monday morning buzz at Blackwood Enterprises hit like a freight train as Ava Monroe stepped through the gleaming revolving doors at precisely 8:45 a.m., hair pulled into a sleek low ponytail, matte lipstick flawless, and eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses that shielded the exhaustion she couldn't afford to show.

Her one-night stand had disappeared before dawn, and now she was expected to waltz into the office like her world hadn't burned down over the weekend. Like she hadn't been robbed of the Paris campaign. Like she hadn't just slept with a ghost who still lingered in her bloodstream.

The elevator chimed, and she stepped inside, wedged between a junior analyst and two partners she didn't bother acknowledging. The mirrored walls reflected her composed expression at her. Controlled, Polished, and Powerful-at least on the outside.

She would fake it until she earned the right to never fake it again.

However, reaching the top floor, it was already abuzz as phones rang, heels clicked, and coffee cups clinked. But there was something different, like an edge of anticipation in the air.

"Ava," came a breathless voice behind her, and turning to have a look at the person, she realized it was Lila, who was wearing high heels and a too-bright lipstick, sliding beside her with the speed of someone who'd run up three flights of stairs. "Emergency meeting. Entire staff. Boardroom in five."

Ava frowned. "Another re-org?"

"No idea. But Monica is in already. And HR. You know what that means."

Some heads were going to roll.

With that, they turned the corner just as a ripple of murmurs broke through the corridor, which Ava caught the fragments-"CEO," "unexpected," "someone new," "family member?" She ducked into the restroom for one last breath of solitude, smoothing down her blouse like armor before following the current of suited bodies into the main conference room.

Getting in, it was packed with executive assistants, department heads, and mid-level managers. A few board members stood along the back wall. Monica Blackwood, poised and emotionless, sat at the head of the table like a queen awaiting a verdict.

However, Ava claimed a seat near the middle, unfolding her notebook with mechanical precision as her chest tightened.

Then Monica stood, clearing her throat with the quiet gravity of a woman used to commanding silence.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," she began. "As many of you know, in the wake of Daniel's passing, the question of succession has been... sensitive."

A hush fell, respectful and strained. Ava's stomach twisted as Daniel Blackwood had been the firm's previous CEO legend in tailored suits, known for both brilliance and ruthless diplomacy. His death had been sudden and shocking. He had a heart attack on a jet from Milan, the tabloids had said.

Now Monica's gaze swept the room like a searchlight.

"After careful deliberation, the board has made its decision. Effective immediately, the new Chief Executive Officer of Blackwood Enterprises will be..."

Abruptly, the door opened, and Ava's world stopped as he stepped into the room like he belonged there.

Same tousled hair, same sharp jawline, same eyes...the color of something you couldn't name but never forgot. It was the stranger. Her stranger.Her one-night stand.

The man who kissed her like the world might end, and left before the sun could rise. He stood at the front of the room now, buttoning his suit jacket with practiced ease. He looked so calm and confident, yet dangerous.

With that, Monica offered a slight nod. "This is Grayson Blackwood, Daniel's younger brother."

Grayson.

Hearing this, the name hit Ava like a slap. Of course. The Blackwood heir nobody saw coming. The one who had kept to the shadows of the empire. The one with the Ivy League degree, the military record, and the international investments.

And the one who had apparently slept with an employee days before taking the throne.

For the briefest second, his gaze flicked across the room and landed on her recognition hit him, followed by tension and heat, but he said nothing.

"I understand this may come as a surprise," Grayson said, his voice deeper in the daylight-smoother and colder. "I've spent the past few years running acquisitions overseas. But after my brother's death, I was asked to step in and carry on his legacy."

Saying all of these, he didn't stumble, pause, or even look at her again, and this made Ava unable to breathe as the thought of him being her boss, her CEO, might crumble her world because of her mistake with him. But holding her balance, she kept her eyes fixed on her notes, though the words had blurred and every pulse in her body had migrated to her throat.

Grayson continued, "I want to thank each of you for your work and dedication. Blackwood Enterprises has always stood on innovation, loyalty, and integrity. That will not change under my leadership."

There it was-that word. Integrity. Ava wanted to laugh.

Was it integrity when he didn't mention that just two nights ago, he had been tangled in her sheets? When he walked out without a word and then walked into her company?

Was it integrity when he didn't acknowledge her at all?

A hand grazed her shoulder. Lila. Whispering behind a strategically covered cough: "Holy. Shit."

Ava didn't reply.

She couldn't.

Because suddenly her one escape from that disastrous Friday had just detonated the Monday she'd tried to rebuild.

However, the meeting adjourned ten minutes later, and people shuffled out in stunned silence.

Ava moved like a machine until she felt the air shift behind her.

"Miss Monroe," came a voice she now knew too well.

She turned slowly. "Mr. Blackwood."

He looked at her, and there was something unreadable in his expression-something harder than the man she'd undressed with her eyes and hands.

"Can we talk? Privately."

She glanced around at the still-thinning crowd and gave him the same expression she'd perfected in conference rooms and investor meetings: polite, unreadable yet cold. "Not a good idea."

"I disagree," he said quietly.

"I bet you do."

"Ava," he said, his voice dropping slightly.

She raised a brow. "That's the first time you've said my name."

Then a long silence stretched between them. It was not longing or chemistry, just the crash of two realities colliding.

Grayson nodded slowly, jaw tightening. "Then I'll say the second thing that matters: I didn't know."

Ava stared at him, fury clawing its way up her throat. "Didn't know what...that you'd be CEO, or that I worked for your company?"

"Both," he said. "I swear."

And he looked like he meant it. But Ava had trusted charm before and had been burned before.

"Then I guess we're both surprised," she said, stepping past him as she walked away, with every cell in her body screaming not with embarrassment, but with something worse.

It was like an unfinished electricity.