Page 12 of Unfaithful

"Oh, good." I walked closer, and he stepped around his desk, pulling me into his chest before pressing a kiss to my cheek.

"What brings you here?" he asked.

"I want to talk about Elsa."

His dark blue eyes flickered—confusion, maybe. "Elsa?"

"Yeah. I'm not comfortable with her coming to you behind my back. The Jamison project isn't that important to seek advice directly from you."

"It's not?" His eyes widened slightly.

"It's just a small renovation. Why did she bother you with it? And it's not that urgent.”

Cole let me go, stepping back toward his desk before sinking into his chair. "I don't know, Sara. She probably needed advice."

I walked over and took a seat across from him, my eyes locked on him. "What kind of advice?"

"I didn't have the time, so I asked her to just email me."

My eyes narrowed. "She didn't even tell you anything about the project?"

Cole shook his head.

That wasn't like Cole. He was meticulous, pushy, and a complete control freak. He never left things to chance. He would want to know every detail. Anyone on his team would spend hours preparing and gathering information before approaching him. Elsa would need to prepare a lot, and she would usually need to get my approval before going to Cole. So, for Elsa to suddenly go to him one morning and for him not to bother asking anything was unusual.

I remembered him saying on the phone, "She wanted to go over some numbers before submitting them. She said it was urgent."

It was even more unusual for him to review preliminary numbers before they were finalized. Cole only wanted to see the final figures. No one dared to submit a draft.

I decided to test him. "What do you think about the budget we proposed?"

"I told you, I didn't have time to go through it," he said, his voice tight.

Still not giving me an answer. Which I didn't understand. Why was he acting like this?

Did Elsa complain about me? To my husband? Had I made a mistake in my plan?

I kept pressing. "But surely, she showed you something if she came all the way here," I said, then added, "Without even telling me."

Cole was studying me. "Why does it bother you so much, Sara?"

"Because," I sighed, feeling a twinge of doubt. Maybe I was being ridiculous. "It feels like she doesn't trust me. She went straight to you without consulting me. I can't work with someone like that, and I don't have the time to focus solely on developing her."

I glanced at Cole and found his gaze had softened—almost sad.

It felt like he was feeling sorry for me. Like he thought I lacked the leadership ability to develop my team.

"She was part of your team before," I continued. "She's used to the fast, structured, and efficient workflow at the parent company—I get that. But my team operates differently. We're smaller, we move at a different pace, and while we may not be as rigidly efficient, we complete our projects with precision and care."

"You're her boss, Sara. You tell her how you want it to work," he advised.

"Oh, I will tell her," I scoffed. "But I just can't find her. She's missing the entire morning."

Cole didn't respond. His gaze was still tight and locked onto me.

"Cole." I leaned forward across his desk, lowering my voice. "I'm not happy working with her. She's stubborn anduncooperative. My team has complained about her, too. I've given it three months, and nothing has changed."

Still, he said nothing.

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