A Request From The CEO "HR Department," Juniper answered the phone professionally seeing the line from the CEO's office displayed. "Juniper Kennedy?" "Yes." Her eyes widened nervously at the brusque tone of the man on the other line. "My office. Three minutes." The line went dead. She removed her headset and stared at it in disbelief. "What's wrong?" her supervisor, Maxine, head of HR, looked at her with concern as she staggered to her feet. "I don't know. That was the CEO, and he just called me to his office." "Phineas Perez? The CEO? Are you sure?" "Yes. It was his office display number on my phone." She pointed to the desk phone. "I've never even been to his office. What did you do?" "I don't know!" she threw her hands up in disbelief. 1/7 11:36 "Doesn't your mother work for his family?" "She's the live-in housekeeper for his parents." "Maybe something happened to her." "Jesus, Maxine," she flung her things on her desk and grabbed her ID pass and hung it over her neck. She walked briskly to the elevator and stepped inside. By the time she reached the top floor every fiber of her being was vibrating with panic. Maxine's words reverberating in her mind. "God, Mama don't be hurt." She was surprised to find Mr. Perez's assistant not at her desk and his door was ajar but barely. She stood at the desk not sure what to do. She turned back towards the elevator hoping the AA came back soon. "Are you going to stand out there all fucking morning or are you coming in?" She looked up to see the man who could grace the cover of GQ wearing a potato sack and still sell out every single copy, glaring at her. "You're late. I gave you three minutes. It's been six." "Is my mother okay?" 2/7 11:36 He pulled his head back, "how the fuck would I know?" He waved at her to enter the office. She walked in and was surprised to see two other men standing there. One of them held a chair out for her. Her body immediately reacted to all three men. They were the caliber of men chosen for television shows like The Bachelorette or those firemen or police drama shows her mother loved to watch. All three of them completely different and yet all three of them sexier than hell. Brown, blue, and hazel eyes all stared at her while she took a seat, and she breathed in the cologne of the man closest to her. She was blaming her reaction to them on hormones. She might be married but she wasn't blind or immune to good looking men. One of them might even make it into a role-playing session with Kyst later. She packed the thought away. "Juniper, this is my lawyer Benicio and my private investigator Adil." His words snapped her out of her daydream. Private investigator and lawyer? Did they think she'd done something wrong? "Look, I don't know what this is about." "Obviously so can you sit there and listen instead of interrupting?" 3/7 11:36 "Jesus, man, it's not her fault," Adil griped as he sat in the chair next to her. "In fact, if anything you owe her." "Owe me for what?" she looked back to the blue-eyed man behind the desk. His eyes were the color of arctic ice and equally cold. He frowned and then narrowed his gaze on her, "oh shit. Your mother. I just remembered who you are. You're the girl my father insisted we hire because your mother is their housekeeper." "I interviewed for the position after graduating college." "Sure. Yeah, this has nothing to do with your mother. It's about your husband fucking my wife." She choked on the accumulation of spit which clogged her throat at the bold accusation. Adil patted her back while Benicio rolled his eyes and went to the mini fridge to get a bottle of water. Phineas clearly didn't give a damn she was choking, and he continued speaking over her wheezing. "Six months ago, my wife came to visit me here in the office and didn't get what she wanted. She left here in tears," his expression told her he didn't care in the least about his wife's emotional state. "On her way out of here, your husband who dropped you off after lunch or something, saw her sobbing outside the building and asked her if she was okay. He took her 4/7 11:36 across the street to the café, and she poured her miserable little heart out to him. That was when they met. They exchanged numbers." "He's a nice guy." "Yeah, he's so nice he's doing me a favor by helping me get divorced." Phineas snorted with disdain. "He's so nice, for the last four weeks, every Wednesday when I need to leave Toronto to visit the offices in Ottawa, he works from home, and she goes to your apartment, and they fuck." "Allegedly," Benicio spoke up. "Allegedly fuck. We can't prove it because we can't get inside. It's a secure building and while we can get access into it, your apartment is locked up tight." "You think your wife is going into my apartment to have sex with my husband?" "No. I don't think it." She started to feel a sense of relief but then he continued. "I know it. Here's the thing. I've been married a year. I consummated our marriage, mostly because I was really fucking. drunk and did what my grandfather wanted me to do. I married his army buddies granddaughter. I mean it was either I do it or lose my seat as CEO. I did it but we signed a prenup. I can't divorce her without cause and the fact my dick finds her repulsive isn't a good one apparently." 5/7 11:36 "What?" she was abundantly confused, and it hurt her brain. "My wife has a voice which makes me want to shove my dick in a woodchipper instead of her. She did this wailing grunting thing on our wedding night which still haunts me. She also called herself a pillow princess, which is codeword for dead fish. She laid there and screamed like I was the antichrist. She then curled up next to me afterwards and told me it was the best she ever had. I scrubbed myself raw for three days after." He shook his head as if trying to dispel the memory. "I can only divorce her for one of three reasons. She steals from the company or the family. She doesn't produce an heir in five years. Which is feasible because I'm never touching her again but fuck five years seems a long time. It's only been one and I'm already contemplating a suicide murder situation. Five years with her and I'd rather spend the time in a maximum-security penitentiary for her murder but it's a last resort." He was holding up two fingers and then he added the third, "she fucks someone else. It actually defines intercourse in the prenup. She needs to be having an extra marital affair including intercourse. She can participate in all the emotional affairs she wants apparently because I'm not likely to be warm and fuzzy enough for her but unless dick meets vagina, she gets to continue receiving her monthly stipend. If I divorce her for any reason but those three, then she gets ten percent of the company shares, fifty million dollars and my villa in Spain. I really don't want the bitch to get anything." She shook her head in confusion. 6/7 11:36 "Here's the thing," he sucked his lips over his teeth. "I need the proof. I mean we all know what's going on in their little love shack, but I need proof. This is where you come in." "Where I come in?" "Yes. See, I want you, when your husband is out of your apartment tonight for ten minutes, to let my buddy Adil here in, so he can put a camera in your living room, bedroom and at your front entrance. All he needs is ten minutes." "My surveillance tells me your husband cleans the apartment Tuesday night, doesn't he? He takes out the trash around nine pm every Tuesday night." Adil spoke up. "It's new right? He's only been doing this over the last several weeks, but he's been deep cleaning on Tuesday night. He takes the trash out and he takes his phone with him. He sends her messages confirming they are on for the next day. He goes back up to you and plays devoted husband until nine-twenty-five Wednesday morning." "And doing laundry on Wednesday before you come home so he can get my wife's cloying perfume off your bedsheets.