After a Year of Silence novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Forty Phones
Quentin takes Harper's hand and announces her as his wife in front of his staff; she shoves him and walks out, and HR makes her report to him.
Quentin Brightwell stepped off the elevator onto the thirty-fourth floor at nine on Monday morning, and forty people stood up and clapped.
I stayed in my chair at the back of the room with my laptop open.
He had been gone a year.
He had not answered one of my calls in that time, and after a while I had stopped making them.
Gwen leaned down next to my chair and set a coffee by my keyboard.
"Oat milk, extra hot," she said. "You skipped breakfast again."
"Thank you," I said.
"I'm the only person either of you has talked to all year, Harper. I've passed every message back and forth between you two."
She squeezed my shoulder.
"So whatever he does up there, I'm right here."
Gwen had been my best friend since the week we both started at Brightwell Freight.
She was also Quentin's chief of staff, and she was the only person in the building who knew he was my husband.
Nobody else knew, because I had kept it that way for three years.
I wore my wedding ring on a chain under my blouse.
Up front, Quentin thanked the London team and made a joke about the rain.
The room laughed.
He looked tired and thinner than I remembered, and his ring was on his left hand.
He had worn it the whole year.
I looked down at my laptop.
Then I heard his voice stop, and the room went quiet.
I looked up.
He was walking down the center aisle, straight toward the back, and every head turned to follow him.
He stopped at my chair.
"Harper," he said.
I stood up because I did not know what else to do.
He took my hand.
He took it in both of his, in front of forty of my coworkers, and he turned to face them.
"I should have said this three years ago," he said. "This is my wife, Harper Linwood."
Somebody in the second row gasped.
A woman from accounting whispered, "Wait, she's married to him?"
I pulled my hand back.
He did not let go.
"Quentin," I said, quietly. "Let go."
"Come up front with me," he said.
He slid his arm around my waist and started to steer me toward the aisle.
I put both hands on his chest and shoved him.
He was not ready for it.
He stumbled back into a chair, and the chair went over with a crash that echoed across the floor.
Phones came up all around the room.
I could see at least six of them aimed at my face.
My cheeks burned.
For three years, nobody here had known whose wife I was.
Now they knew, and they had watched me knock him down.
Gwen was beside us in a few steps, with her hands up and her voice bright and steady.
"Okay, everyone, he flew all night and he hasn't slept in two days," she said. "Give them a minute, please. Back to your desks."
Nobody moved.
She turned to me and spoke softly, so the room could not hear.
"Harper, give him a chance. He came all this way."
"He did not ask me," I said.
"I know, honey. I know."
She put her arm around me.
Quentin picked himself up and straightened his jacket.
His face had gone very still.
He stepped close enough that only I could hear him.
"I did what you asked, Harper," he said. "I stayed away. A whole year. Now I'm here."
I stared at him.
"I never asked you for anything," I said.
"You sent word."
"I sent you nothing, Quentin. You never answered me once."
His jaw tightened.
Behind him, forty people waited to hear what he would say next.
He opened his mouth.
I did not wait for the rest.
I closed my laptop, put it under my arm, and walked up the aisle.
Nobody stopped me.
I did not look at him, and I did not look at Gwen.
So I walked out.
At the elevators I jabbed the button twice.
Behind me I heard Gwen's heels on the carpet.
The doors opened and she stepped in beside me, and for a moment she just held me.
"You were right to push him," she whispered. "He should have asked you first."
I nodded against her shoulder.
My phone buzzed in my hand.
It was an email from Human Resources, sent to me and copied to Quentin.
The subject line read: Reporting Line Change, Effective Today.
I read it twice in the elevator.
Per the company's conflict-of-interest policy, now that the CEO's marriage to Ms. Linwood was public, she would no longer report to the head of operations.
As of this morning, Harper Linwood reported directly to Quentin Brightwell.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend