Remarried After I Secretly Divorced the CEO novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Engaged

Six months later Ellery takes the Harbor Tower stage and announces her engagement to Max Thorpe, and Kieran walks through the crowd holding a decree with his own signature.

Six months later, I stood on a stage on the Seattle waterfront with a microphone and three hundred strangers watching me.

Behind me hung a rendering of Harbor Tower, forty-two floors of glass lit gold by the afternoon.

At the bottom of the rendering, in small clean letters, it said, "Lead Architect: Ellery Bishop."

It was the first time my name had ever been printed on a building.

I read it twice before I trusted it.

Max Thorpe stood beside me in a navy suit that did not fit his shoulders, grinning.

"Say something," he murmured. "They're getting restless."

I stepped up to the microphone.

"Thank you all for coming," I said. "I've drawn a lot of buildings, and this is the first one that has my name on it."

A few people laughed.

"So I thought I'd give you one more thing to put on the record."

I turned and held out my left hand.

The diamond on it was enormous and cold and not mine.

"Max Thorpe and I are engaged," I said.

The crowd made the sound crowds make, a rush of breath and then applause.

Phones came up in a ring.

Max took my hand, lifted it, and kissed the knuckles with a showman's flourish.

"Smile, fiancee," he said into my hair.

I smiled.

Then I saw the man at the back of the crowd, and my smile stayed where it was by itself.

Kieran was walking through the guests.

He wore a charcoal suit, no tie, and he looked as if he had not slept all week.

People moved out of his way without knowing why.

He was holding a sheet of paper in one fist.

Security stepped toward him, and one look from him sent them back.

He did not stop until he reached the foot of the stage.

The applause thinned out, and then it died.

"Ellery," he said.

It was not loud, but the microphone was still on and it carried.

I had not heard him say my name in six months.

I had not heard him say it in public ever.

"Mr. Saxon," I said. "This is a private event."

"I was at the bank this morning."

Somebody in the front row lifted a phone higher.

"A loan officer put a form in front of me," Kieran said. "She asked me to confirm my marital status."

I said nothing.

"I said married. She turned the screen."

He unfolded the paper and held it up.

It was a decree, stamped by the King County court, and I knew every line of it.

At the bottom, in a dark blue pen, was a signature I had watched him make at seven in the morning.

"It says divorced," he said. "It says my own signature is on it."

A low murmur went through the guests.

I walked down the steps, because I was not going to have this conversation from a stage.

Max came with me, one hand at my back.

I stopped an arm's length from Kieran.

Up close, he looked older, and there was a muscle jumping in his jaw.

"You signed it," I said.

"I would remember signing it."

"You signed it in our kitchen. The morning after the anniversary you skipped."

He stared at me.

"You were on the phone," I said. "You had forty contracts to get through. I put it in the middle of the stack."

"You put your divorce," he said slowly, "in the middle of a stack."

"You didn't read it."

For half a second something crossed his face.

I did not understand it then.

It was gone before I could name it, and what came after was only anger.

"You couldn't have said a word? Six months. Not one call."

"You never answered my calls for three years, Kieran. I thought you'd be used to it."

Someone in the crowd breathed in sharply.

Kieran's eyes dropped to my hand, to the diamond.

"And this?"

"This is Max."

"Max," he repeated.

He looked over my shoulder at the man I was marrying, and the look was one I had only ever seen him use on a contract he meant to break.

Max smiled at him pleasantly.

"Kieran. It's been a while. Congratulations on your freedom."

Kieran did not answer him.

He looked back at me, and for the first time in three years he looked as if he did not know what to do with his hands.

"Is this a joke?"

"It's a decree," I said. "Frame it."

I turned and walked away across the plaza, and the crowd opened for me.

Max caught up with long strides and took my elbow.

"Well," he said under his breath, "that went well."

"He saw everything."

"He saw you walk off and leave him holding the paper."

I glanced back.

Kieran had not moved.

He stood alone at the foot of the stage with the decree hanging from his hand, watching me go.

"Ellery," Max said softly. "He's about to bid."

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