I Bought the exiled king (by Natalie Winter) novel Chapter 23

Valencia

I stood like a statue at the door, staring at the face of the man in front of me.

He was wearing a navy blue suit, and the cufflinks were glinting in the setting sun rays that shone on his chiseled face.

The face I had been hopelessly longing to look at was now staring back at me.

Emotionlessly.

I stared and stared at that face, at that man who had somehow made me lose my sleep and sanity by doing nothing major but simply being there for me.

This man had scrubbed my tiles, cooked for me, massaged me, let me boss him.

This man had let me have my way with him, sent me a scandalous picture of him, one that had made me go weak in the knees.

And now, he was standing in front of me with no emotion on his face. As if he didnt know who I was, what I was doing here.

This had to be a mistake, right?

“Are you going to stand by the door all day?” He asked me, eyes void of any recognition.

His voice jolted me back to reality, back to the present.

I stepped back to see if I had not mistakenly entered the wrong room. If I was not in some delusional dream.

But the sign on the door definitely said Conference room C.

And the man in front of me was very real as well.

But why was he looking at me as if I was a complete stranger to him?

The stone cold face was hard for me to digest.

I had seen him smile at me easily, embrace me with a warm hug, whisper comforting words to me.

And now, it somehow felt that I was standing in front of the same yet a completely different person.

“lan-“I began but then the door opened and another man stepped inside the room. He was shorter than both of us but stout and sported a silver beard and a moustache.

His face reminded me of a scrawny pig and his large round eyes almost rolled back in his forehead.

He seemed surprised to see lan standing in front of him, right beside the chair that he was eyeing as if it was some throne.

“Isn’t this conference room C?”

He asked nobody in particular and scratched his temple as lan pushed his hands in his pockets but didn’t bother replying.

The man was carrying a large file that he placed on the table and had trouble getting into the seat.

After a struggle of a few minutes, he managed to sit in it but then his short hands couldn’t reach the file so he got down again and went behind the chair to push it forward.

This circus went on for ten minutes or so and my eyes kept bouncing between lan and the new guy who didn’t bother introducing himself.

Chapter 23

He finally adjusted the chair and table to his liking, and then proceeded to pull out a cloth to wipe his glasses and cleared his throat.

“You must be Valencia Graham, prime accused in the Bureau’s investigation regarding the discrepancies found in some of the files and records

He addressed me. My gaze darted to lan who stood stoically, not bothering to look at me or acknowledge that he knew me.

“Yes” I answered and the man put on his glasses and opened the file.

“I am Frank Marshall, the new director of the Bureau and out of all our offices in the country, this one has run into quite a lot of trouble over the past few years.”

Oh.

So lan was not the new director but this guy was?

But then what was Jan doing here?

And why had the man ignored him completely?

He cleared his throat as I stepped forward to plead not guilty.

“Good day to you, Sir. But I am not guilty and I-”

I began, but he cut in sharply.

“That is for me to decide after the investigation is over.”

“But sir-”

His face grew stern and he added, “Cut me in once more and I will declare you guilty of hampering the investigation proceedings among other things.”

That made me stop.

I shut my mouth and nodded, hanging my head low.

“Sorry sir”

“It is Director” Frank cleared his throat.

lan looked around for a chair and proceeded to make himself comfortable, without glancing at me.

I was not sure who I was more pissed at- the new director or lan who was giving me the cold shoulder.

I tried to figure out what he was doing here and why had he never told me about his real work.

The air in the room suddenly felt stuffy and I looked in the direction of the windows that were half open.

It was close to evening now and I had not eaten anything.

The silence in the room was only punctuated by the sound of the paper rustling as Frank Marshall grabbed the file and held it too close to his face to read through the papers.

What had lan said about his job?

I recalled him telling me vaguely that he did work at the Bureau but that he was under pressure and that he couldn’t give me much details.

It had sounded like some special operations role but at that time Thad not bothered to go into those details because my mind had been too caught up with being near him and getting a taste of him.

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12:58 Sat, 23 Aug

Chapter 23

Stupid.

I was utterly stupid.

What if he was some agent of the Bureau who was sent as a distraction to make me ignore all the mistakes in the files?

I had opened up to him about Mrs Briggs and how she was a mean bully and told him everything about my loathing for her.

What if he was her man and did all the dirty work for her to find out my faults while she distracted:

My heart began to hammer against my ribcage.

“So, Miss Valencia Graham, could you list out your duties in the Bureau for us?”

me

with the stupid protocol?

Us. Not me.

So he had acknowledged tan’s presence.

I just didn’t know what authority he had.

I gulped and answered, “I have been working at the Bureau for the past five years as an Associate. And just last week, the new office head, Mrs Briggs asked me to work directly under her as an assistant in an unofficial capacity.”

Frank Marshall turned a page.

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