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Chapter 9

Author: Author Zee
last update publish date: 2026-03-23 22:26:29

LAZARUS

The car ride was silent.

Celeste sat beside me, her small hand resting on the seat between us. I could see her watching the city lights through the window, her reflection in the glass showing a face still pale from the encounter with her ex.

Leon.

I had seen the way he grabbed her. The way his fingers pressed into her wrist hard enough to draw blood. The way he covered her mouth, trapping her against the wall like she was something to be taken, not asked.

If she hadn't told me to let hi
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  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 19

    LAZARUS The boardroom was silent. Fifteen men and women sat around the long mahogany table, their eyes fixed on me. The quarterly reports were spread across the polished surface. Projections. Acquisitions. The usual noise that filled my days before Celeste. I was barely listening. My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket. I ignored it. The meeting was important. A merger worth three hundred million. Every person in this room was counting on me to make the final decision. It buzzed again. Then again. Something cold settled in my chest. "Excuse me," I said, standing. The executives exchanged glances. I never took calls during meetings. Never. I stepped into the hallway and pressed the phone to my ear. "Report." Davis's voice was strained. Almost panicked. I had never heard him panic before. "Sir. Miss Celeste. She's gone." The world narrowed. "What do you mean, gone?" "We were at the plaza. She was shopping. A van pulled up. Five men, maybe six. They took her. Marcus is down.

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 18

    CELESTE "Fuck you!" I screamed to his face. He looked happy. The warehouse smelled of rust and decay. They had dragged me inside after the van stopped. Rough hands on my arms, my shoulders, my hair. I stumbled on the uneven concrete floor, my bound ankles making it impossible to walk. So they carried me. Like I was nothing. Like I was garbage. They threw me onto a wooden chair. The legs scraped against the floor, a sound that echoed off the high ceiling and the corrugated metal walls. I looked around. The space was enormous. Abandoned. Broken windows lined the upper walls, letting in slivers of moonlight that cut across the darkness like knives. Old machinery loomed in the corners, rusted and forgotten. The air was cold and damp and smelled of mold. And in front of me, leaning against a metal table with his arms crossed, stood Leon. He was smiling. Not the sad, broken smile from the café. Not the desperate, crying expression I had seen when he confessed about Sarah

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 17

    CELESTE The afternoon sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the pavement. I stepped out of the boutique with three shopping bags hanging from my arms. The silk scarves inside were for my mother. The leather journal was for Lily, who had started writing again. The small velvet box contained a pair of sapphire earrings I had bought for myself, because Lazarus had looked at me that morning and said, "Buy something that makes you happy. Not for me. For you." So I had. The security guards, Marcus and Davis, followed at a respectful distance. They had been trailing me all week. Ever since the gala. Ever since Leon showed up at the mansion gates, drunk and shouting, demanding to see me. Lazarus had handled it. He always handled everything. But he had also doubled the security detail and told me never to leave the mansion alone. I didn't argue. After what happened at the gala, after Leon's hands on my wrist, I didn't want to be alone. But today, walking through the

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 16

    CELESTEThe next morning, Anne was back.I was in the garden again, because I refused to hide in my room like a frightened animal. I was pruning roses—badly, with clumsy hands and a pair of garden shears that were probably worth more than my old car."You're still here," Anne said.I didn't turn around. "So are you."She walked around the rose bush until she was standing in front of me. Today she wore pale pink, a soft color that made her look innocent. I knew better now."I spoke to Lazarus last night," she said.I kept pruning. "Good for you.""He told me to leave. He said there was nothing between us anymore."I looked up then. "Then why are you here?"Anne's composure cracked. Just a little. I saw something raw in her eyes—anger, maybe, or grief."Because I don't believe him," she said. "The Lazarus I knew would never have chosen someone like you over someone like me.""Someone like me?""You know what I mean." She gestured at me, at my simple clothes, my unmanicured hands, my hai

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 15

    LAZARUSI led her to my study, the one room in the mansion she hadn't seen yet.It was smaller than my office at Walkez Tower, more personal. Dark wood bookshelves lined the walls, filled with books I had actually read. A fireplace that crackled even in spring because I liked the sound. My father's desk, the only thing I had kept from my childhood home.Celeste looked around with wide eyes, taking it all in."This is where I make decisions that matter," I said. "Not the office. Not the boardroom. Here."I sat behind the desk and pulled out the black folder. The contract. The one I had rewritten."Sit," I said, pointing to the chair across from me.She sat.I opened the folder and slid it across the desk toward her. "Read it. The whole thing."She picked it up, her eyes moving across the pages. I watched her face as she read—the way her brow furrowed, her lips parted, her breath caught.When she finished, she looked up at me."You changed everything.""Not everything." I leaned back in

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 14

    CELESTE Lazarus returned at seven. I heard his car pull through the gates, heard the front door open and close, heard his footsteps in the foyer. Then his voice, low and questioning, and Harlan's murmured response. A moment later, his footsteps approached my door. He knocked. Not entered. Knocked. "Little Doe? Are you in there?" I sat on the bed, still in the same clothes from this morning, my phone untouched on the nightstand. I hadn't eaten lunch or dinner. I hadn't left this room. "Come in," I said. The door opened. Lazarus stood in the doorway, still in his business suit, his tie loosened, his hair slightly disheveled. His eyes found me immediately, and I watched concern flicker across his face. "You didn't answer my message." "I was busy." He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "Harlan said you spent the day in your room. He said you looked upset." "Did Harlan also tell you why?" Lazarus's jaw tightened. "He mentioned there was a visitor. A woman

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 2

    LAZARRUS I sat in my black leather chair behind the large ebony wood desk. I stared at my phone screen, which still showed the message I had just sent. "Come to my office, Little Doe." I read the sentence again. Then I opened the employee profile linked to that phone number. Her name was Celest

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 1

    CELESTE“Tomorrow morning, bring me one sex doll with a perfectly round butt!”I stared at my phone screen with wide eyes. I could hardly believe what I just read.A short message from a number saved as L.W.V.That was my boss’s number.What a weird boss!Where am I supposed to buy sex doll with a

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Change 5

    CELESTEProperty? I was shocked, my breath stopped. Property was like an object. Like something he owned completely. I opened my mouth to ask, but before the words came out, my phone vibrated hard in my bag. I glanced at the screen. The debt collector again. The same number that threatened to sei

  • Officially Yours, Sir!   Chapter 4

    CELESTE Well, I had no other choice, so I went back to him. I stood in front of the door to Lazarrus’s private office on the top floor of Walkez Tower. The clock showed seven in the evening. The office building was almost empty, and the corridor lights were only half on. I took a deep breath, the

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