The Boss's Fiance Box Set

by Amanda Horton

  “I am aware that most of you were against the decision made by Mr. Saint to give me the lease of the cottage and a succeeding lease for the land adjoining the property. You considered removing him as your Chairman back then but were prevailed upon to change your mind. I am grateful for that.

  “But because what happened yesterday it is no longer just my reputation that a journalist is trying to destroy. He has managed to paint a questionable picture about the members of the Board, Maxwell Saint, and the entire hospital.

  “I am innocent about all the negative publicity and wonder why there was an unceasing interest in my private life. After thinking about it, there is something I can do to make it stop. I am returning to the hospital the lease for the cottage and the land that Max transferred to my name. I am resigning my job as a nurse at the hospital and hope that my leaving is understood that I am cutting all ties with Mr. Maxwell Saint. There is no longer any need for any other newspaper to write about me.

  “In return, I only ask that you reconsider letting Max stay on as Chairman.”

  A pin could drop and they would all hear it.

  Killian who had been holding back her tears fled the room before they rolled down her cheeks. She did what she came to do. She hoped it was enough to spare Max from losing his position.

  But there was one last thing she needed to do before she left.

  ***

  Meanwhile back in his office on the 10th floor, Max was pacing the floor like a caged animal. Uncle Tony promised to keep him informed about the Board decision and he hadn’t heard from him in several hours. He was filled with loathing for the ancient farts who thought they could manipulate his life the way they wanted.

  But the reality was…they actually could… because of some fucking clause his dad added to the charter giving them legal authority to meddle in his life. This left him feeling angry and frustrated. The board was like the sword of Damocles swinging over his head. At any time, it could drop and that time was here.

  He stopped pacing when he heard a knock on his door.

  “Come in,” he called out expecting to see Uncle Tony.

  “Killian,” he uttered in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

  Killian entered the room and faced him.

  “I came to say goodbye,” she said softly.

  “Goodbye? Why? Where are you going?” He asked.

  “I-I have resigned from the hospital effective today. I am also returning the lease to the cottage. I just discovered it’s - it’s not something I would like to pursue after all,” she stammered.

  “What?” He roared as his face turned dark. “After everything that’s happened, you just casually decide ‘it’s not something I like to pursue after all?’”, he sneered gesturing with two fingers of each hand and drawing quotation marks in the air.

  His fury was plain to see.

  Killian nodded. She didn’t trust her voice to not betray the pain that was lodged in her heart.

  Max was breathing hard and pacing like a raging bull. Suddenly, he stopped and faced her.

  “You heard about it, haven’t you? You know that the Board is planning to remove me from my position. Suddenly everyone wants to abandon ship, including you,” he accused.

  Killian nodded her head. She let him think she was abandoning him. The pain was easier to handle. She glanced up to see his face. It was unreadable from where she stood.

  “Go then. Leave me.” He ordered with clenched jaws.

  Killian walked towards the door then left the room. Once she hit the hallway, she made a dash for the privacy of the stairwell. She knew she would never make it to the ground floor without breaking down and she didn’t want any witnesses to her torment.

  In the safe confines of the empty stairwell, Killian slid down to the cement floor and bawled her heart out. Her sobs echoed within the close confines reverberating and bouncing against the walls. She cried for everything that she lost today - her childhood dream of building a home facility for the aged in the most perfect cottage she had ever seen and she said goodbye to the man who owned her heart.

  She could always find another place to build on her dream. But she doubted if she could repair and rebuild her heart so casually after knowing someone like Maxwell Saint.

  ***

  Meanwhile back at the meeting with the Board of Directors, there was palpable tension in the room as each member assessed his chances of being elected as next Chairman. The vote to remove Max as the current head was done so fast, it made Uncle Tony’s head spin.

  “Why, you ungrateful old gizzards?” he muttered hotly.

  Who was he kidding? He never doubted it would happen any other way. When he heard what Killian intended to say to them, he became optimistic that the Board would actually change their minds and retain Max in his post.

  “I always knew each one of you fuckers has been secretly eyeing that post,” he accused.

  Uncle Tony was so disgusted he wanted to leave. But he was also curious who they would elect to replace Max. He smirked at the men bickering among themselves. Each one came prepared with a work resume of their accomplishments. The more senior and vocal among them, Joe Benning, scrambled to make alliances with any other member who cared to listen, hoping he would get that member’s vote.

  Uncle Tony sat back and wondered how all these will end.

  Just then the door to the conference room opened and revealed the presence of Mrs. Julia Saint. Her sudden appearance was enough to silence the room immediately.

  She strode imperially to the front of the room followed by the corporate lawyer.

  “Julia,” Benning greeted nervously. “I-err-we didn’t know you would be joining us today.”

  “I wasn’t until I was informed that the agenda for this meeting is to remove my son as Chairman,” Julia replied bluntly.

  “We thought that in light of the things that had been happening, it is in the best interest of the hospital that Max steps down,” Benning hedged before adding, “Max is out. We just voted on it.”

  “I see,” Julia replied earnestly.

  She motioned to the lawyer who handed her a thick folder. Julia opened the folder before addressing the Board once again.

  “I’m afraid no one here has the right to remove anyone…except me, of course. Just before my husband died, he executed a document removing all powers from any board member to designate or eliminate a Chairman from his post. Only I have the power to do that until I deem it necessary to change the terms of the document.”

  “How come we have never seen or heard about this?” Benning asked, thunderstruck.

  “Because I never saw the need to implement it. Things were working very well with the system we had in place. Until you started thinking you can actually remove my son on a whim and replace him – perhaps you’d like to serve as Chairman yourself, Mr. Benning?”

  The smile never left her face but her eyes told a different story. There was no mistake who wielded the real power. The board members had managed to fool themselves all these years thinking it was them.

  “It wasn’t just a whim, Julia, you have seen how we have been attacked and maligned because of Max’s private life,” Benning protested.

  “I understand and I thank you for your concern for the hospital,” Julia replied.

  Then she made the announcement that brought everyone to their feet.

  “Effective immediately, my son, Maxwell Saint, will vacate his post as Chairman.”

  “Who among us do you choose to take his place?” Benning asked.

  “No one,” Julia replied curtly. “Effective tomorrow, I will be the new Chairman of the Maxwell Saint Sr. Memorial Hospital.”

  There was a stunned look on everyone’s face that made then speechless.

  Then from the back of the room came a loud burst of unrestrained laughter. Uncle Tony was on his feet holding on to his belly. Wave upon wave of laughter made him choke as tears rolled down his face in wild abandon.

  Chapter FOURTEEN

/>   Maxwell Saint never thought a day would dawn when he would be missing anyone among the numerous women in his life. For him, the game of love was like a door. It would close at every goodbye only to open once more when someone new came along.

  But he missed Killian. It was such an intense tangible feeling that he could truly feel the pain in his skin.

  Going back to the day she said goodbye, Max thought his resentment was enough to numb the hurt he felt. It didn’t matter that he was going to lose his position at the Board. It didn’t seem as important as losing her.

  When Uncle Tony arrived later that day and recounted everything that happened at the Board meeting, Max knew his mom made the right decision. He didn’t feel any resentment or doubt. He knew Julia Saint would make an awesome Chairman.

  Uncle Tony was more hesitant to break the promise he made to Killian. It took a lot of prodding from his nephew before the old man shared the story how Killian sacrificed her own dreams when she returned the lease, how she gave up even her job at the hospital, all for the hope that it was enough to dissuade the board from stripping him of his post as Chairman.

  Everything became moot and academic, Uncle Tony said, when Julia arrived and announced the existence of another document, making her the most powerful woman at the Maxwell Saint Sr. Memorial Hospital.

  Max wanted to bang his head on the wall. He wanted to pull back time and take back his accusation he threw at Killian. He wanted to look for her and apologize. But Julia arrived and Max knew he had to set aside his personal concerns and focus on helping his mom make the transition. He remembered Killian’s words the night his mom had her anxiety attack. Killian said Julia felt useless and lonely ever since her husband died. She vocalized how she wanted to take part in the running of the hospital.

  Two weeks later, Max was slowly adjusting to a less hectic lifestyle. With his mom running the day to day affairs of the hospital, he had more time for himself. Ironically, it was also time spent thinking how lonely the house felt without Killian around, how he missed her terribly. He was having hallucinations of seeing her and hearing her voice everywhere.

  Julia repeatedly said she needed Max to guide her and felt better that he was there any time she needed him. She encouraged him to take a vacation somewhere, enjoy all the free time he had in his hands.

  He teasingly remarked, “I thought you just said you needed me to be around?”

  Julia rolled her eyes and replied, “Duh! Cellphones? I can always get hold of you wherever part of the world you are,” she assured him.

  Max promised to give it some thought then decided he wasn’t keen on traveling. He told his mom that night they sat together for dinner.

  “Son, whatever you decide, all I want is to see you happy. You try to hide it from me but I see the sadness in your eyes. That girl is the best thing that ever happened to you. It makes me sad to see you sad. I can give you back the position of Chairman if that will make you happy. But I think there is something else you are looking for.”

  Max looked thoughtful. “I never thought I’d ever say this but I want to accomplish something that’s mine alone. Whatever I do, the hospital will always be Dad’s hospital. And with you at the helm now, it feels right.”

  “Go and do whatever it is that will make you happy and fulfilled,” Julia encouraged.

  “It was actually Killian who showed me the potential. She wanted something simple and I wanted something more than just a cottage. I saw a huge facility that we could run together and become successful. I know she had reservations when I forced the land on her to expand on. I saw her dream but it was my version of her dream that I wanted.”

  “So, what’s stopping you from pursuing the dream?” Julia asked curiously.

  “It just doesn’t feel the same now that she’s gone,” he admitted.

  “Do you want to find her?” Julia retorted.

  “I don’t have any idea where she is,” Max admitted.

  Julia rummaged inside her purse. “If a girl doesn’t want to be found, she doesn’t send the mother of her ex postcards.”

  Max’s eyes were as round as saucers as he accepted the postcards from Julia. He couldn’t believe that after two unsuccessful weeks of searching, he couldn’t find a trace of where Killian had gone. She just disappeared completely and he had been spending all this time trying to live with the idea he would never see her again. His hand trembled in shock as he read the postcard.

  Then a feeling of uncertainty overcame him. “She may not even want to see me,” Max hesitated.

  “The fact that you are scared tells me how deep your feelings go,” Julia declared. “You have everything to gain and nothing to lose except the opportunity to discover if you two can get back together again.”

  ***

  Killian looked out into the cerulean waters of Malampaya Beach on the island of Coron, Palawan in the Philippines. The taupe-colored beach stretched out into the distance even as the waves from the shallow water lapped at her feet like the foam of a frappuccino.

  Her house for the next few days was nothing more than a shack with its thatched roof hanging low over the eaves. It was a one-bedroom affair with a two-burner stove where she could heat food and a bathroom that thankfully offered both hot and cold water.

  She loved that she could just walk from the door to the sandy beachfront without a care in the world and go skinny dipping in the darkness. Traveling to Asia had always been in her bucket list. The places she had been to were interesting and cheap.

  When she tendered her resignation almost a month ago, she didn’t know where she was going. Then she remembered one of her childhood dreams of visiting an exotic place. She booked a flight and landed in the Philippines. A smaller plane brought her to the island of Coron where a banca ferried her to her final destination, Malampaya Beach.

  Killian gazed out once again at the horizon. She loved it here but the magic was dissipating, and she would succumb to feelings of depression every now and then.

  She wondered how Max was doing. She remembered how furious he was that day in his office when he told her to leave. It pained her that he thought she was abandoning him.

  She hoped Uncle Tony would fill him in with the details of how she tried to save him. Maybe he would think less unkindly of her if he knew. The postcard she sent to Julia was more of a whim. She was feeling alone all by herself in a foreign country and needed to reach out. She doubted whether her postcard would actually reach Julia. The thought made her sadder and more depressed.

  She tried not to think about Max and the way he would smile when he teased her. His laughter when she said something that he found funny. How his eyes crinkled when he was trying to look serious and fail miserably. The clean fresh smell of his skin when he came out from the shower. His scent was something that was embedded in her memory that she often tricked herself into thinking that he was near. Like now…

  “Hello, Killian.”

  She whirled around and imagined that she heard his voice. Even her eyes were playing tricks on her as she saw him standing by the small entry to the hut. She rubbed her eyes willing the image to leave her alone. He was still standing there when her vision cleared.

  “Max?” She said his name in disbelief.

  “Yes, it's me,” he answered as he came near.

  Killian held out her hand to make sure he wasn’t some hallucination that would suddenly disappear. Her hand made contact with his chest. Then she knew he was for real.

  Her shock rendered her speechless. Her eyes scrutinized his face hungrily and saw the varied emotions that were on display. She recognized them all. He too was searching her face for clues about her feelings. What he saw gave him the assurance to come even closer and reach out for her and hold her tightly in his arms.

  There were no words necessary. Sometimes, words just got in the way.

  Their lips frenzied to find each other. To feel that bond that fed their passion for one another. And when they kissed, they both refused to let go. It was mor
e than just their lips touching. It was also their hearts coming together in a frantic kiss full of love. And when they were this close, another yearning would show its face, the need to fuse their bodies as one.

  Killian recognized the overwhelming desire that washed over her. Her arms made its way around his neck as she felt the need to come even closer until there was nothing between them, not even air.

  She felt the hardness of the bulge she missed terribly.

  Max’s lips were warm and moist; she couldn’t help the urge to open her lips as she bit him gently on the lips. His fingers groped the hem of her dress and placed his hand against her skin. One hand kneaded her waist, the other traveled up and immediately found her nipple because she wasn’t wearing a bra. With her nipple captive between his thumb and forefinger, Max initiated a sweet assault that left her completely weak in the knees.