Page 48 of Obsessed by My Ex's Mafia Uncle

Chapter Eight

Christine

“Ma’am.”

I barely look up at first.

I’m still gathering my things, sliding papers back into my folder, mentally running through what just happened with Celine, what still needs to be adjusted, and what I need to fix before the end of the day.

My head is full. Busy.

“Ma’am.”

This time, it pierces through.

I look up.

One of the staff members stands beside me. He doesn't look like the waiters or the coordinators. He's different. His posture gives him away before anything else does that he's part of the security in the place.

“Yes?” I ask, already frowning slightly.

“The boss would like to see you.”

“The boss?” I repeat, slower.

“Yes, ma’am.”

My first instinct is to refuse. I don’t know who that is. I don’t know why I’m being called. And I don’t like things that don’t come with context.

“I’m in the middle of…”

“It won’t take long,” he cuts in, polite, but not asking.

There’s a small moment where I consider pushing back.

But Celine is distracted again, her attention already drifting elsewhere, her fiancé finally here, pulling her into something that no longer includes me.

This meeting is done.

And I’m grateful for it. Because it gives me space. It gives me a second to breathe.

A second to feel what I wasn’t ready to feel when I first looked up and saw him.

I look at him now, really look, and all I feel is a kind of repulsion. Like something I once held too close has gone stale in my hands.

I see him laughing, leaning into Celine, and for the first time, it doesn’t matter.

Not in the way it used to.

There’s no urge to question him. No need to confront, to demand, to understand. Whatever he did, whoever he was to me, whatever we had… It's not mine anymore.

He’s not mine anymore.

And more importantly, I’m not his.

I nod once.

“Fine.” I pick up my bag, slide my folder under my arm, and step away from the table.