Begin Again novel Chapter 94

Before Eden could tell her to stop with her nonsense, Lucy had already moved along. "We all know you went to dinner with him two nights ago at that Portuguese place. Yesterday, you both disappeared around lunchtime and never made it back to the office, and your car was here the whole night. And surprise-surprise, today you have a brand new office, and Mr Anderson bought you the vase and painting out of his own pocket, mind you. It doesn't take a genius!"

"Shut up!" Eden finally snapped. She'd taken just about all she could of her bitchiness; she didn't need all that venom in her life. From day one, ever since Isaac and the developers sent her flowers, Lucy had been a thorn at her side, making her life at the office unbearable. But she'd endured it all with a smile.

Not anymore.

"Hear that, ladies?" Lucy turned to her crew, cackling loudly. "Only the woman sleeping with the boss will have the confidence to speak to a senior personal assistant with so much attitude."

"Stop it!" Eden warned. "Liam is my boss, nothing more."

Not exactly true. Not after last night, at least. Not when they made love, and Liam had made it very clear he wanted her in his bed on a more permanent basis.

But Lucy and her peanut gallery didn't need to know any of it, especially when they already had so much ammunition against her.

"Oh, it's Liam now, when the rest of us can only refer to him as Mr Anderson," Lucy wasn't planning to go away quietly. "I knew there had to be a reason he hired you. Everyone knows you don't have any secretarial experience, and you draw cartoons for a living. But somehow, you made it to the highest office at Anderson Logistics. Do you have any idea how many people were in line for that position you stole from us? Do you have any clue at all how much we all wanted to serve Mr Anderson?"

Eden didn't know, of course, but at that moment, furious out of her head with the other woman, hurt by the rumours swirling in the chat and pissed at herself for not keeping her distance from Liam like she'd promised herself she would, she couldn't be bothered to care.

"Get out!" She yelled. "All of you! Get the hell out of my office!"

"Hey, watch it," Lucy tried to assert her seniority.

"No. You watch yourself!" Eden shot back.

But Lucy wouldn't allow a junior like her to stand up for herself.

She inched forward and struck Eden across the face twice in quick succession, sending her reeling on her feet and her glasses sliding down her nose. "You don't speak to me in that tone! You are nothing, and I am everything!"

For a breathless second or two, stunned silence washed over the room. The shocked looks on the other assistants' faces matched Eden's.

She couldn't process the last sixty seconds, even though her nose and half her face hurt like hell, and her ears couldn't stop ringing.

She was hurt but more mortified than anything else.