\u201cIt looks like a tent,\u201d he said, reaching for a bottle of cologne. \u201cCan\u2019t you wear Spanx? A girdle? Something? The Board is going to be there tonight. The investors. I need you to look like a CEO\u2019s wife, Ava. Not like\u2026\u201d He paused, spraying the expensive, woody cologne around his neck. \u201cNot like a dairy cow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words landed like a physical blow. I looked down at my hands, at fingers that had held his through five years of marriage, through struggles and successes I\u2019d orchestrated from the shadows. \u201cI gave birth four months ago, Liam. To two humans. Twins. My body hasn\u2019t recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has kids, Ava.\u201d He sighed like I was being deliberately difficult. \u201cNot everyone lets themselves go like this. Look at Chloe from Marketing. She had a kid last year and she\u2019s running marathons now.\u201d\u201cChloe has a night nanny and a personal trainer,\u201d I whispered, my voice barely audible over Emma\u2019s escalating cries. \u201cI have\u2026 me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuses.\u201d He checked his watch\u2014a vintage Patek Philippe I\u2019d bought him for our fifth anniversary, back when I still believed in grand gestures. \u201cJust try to stand in the back tonight. Don\u2019t hover near me when I\u2019m talking to the press. I don\u2019t want the Mysterious Owner to see you and think I make bad decisions.\u201d He adjusted his bow tie with the precision of a man who understood that every detail mattered. \u201cAesthetics matter, Ava. Perception is reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him, really looked at him, and felt a cold clarity wash over me like ice water. The Mysterious Owner. He spoke about them\u2014about me\u2014with a mixture of fear and reverence that he\u2019d never shown the woman standing before him. He had never met the owner of Vertex Dynamics. All he knew was that they were a reclusive majority shareholder who had hand-picked him for the CEO role two years ago, plucking him from middle management and elevating him to a position he\u2019d never dreamed possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt looks like a tent,\u201d he said, reaching for a bottle of cologne. \u201cCan\u2019t you wear Spanx? A girdle? Something? The Board is going to be there… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n