Chapter 104

"Nothing important," William Brooks said quickly, feeling a chill run down his spine. Trying to change the subject, he added, "Mr. Hawthorne, you and Miss Sterling can chat—I'll go get the proposal and hand it off to her in a bit." What he really meant: Please stall him, I need time to dig out the older denied proposal from the archive room. Once William left, Edward stayed calm and casually gave Alice a few notes about the collaboration, then waved her off. As soon as she stepped out of the executive office, Alice looked around the open office area, eyes scanning for William. A colleague mentioned he’d gone to the file room. Alice headed that way, and before long, saw William walking toward her with a stack of documents in his arms. "Mr. Brooks." "Hey, Miss Sterling. This is the new energy vehicle proposal with the Moores. Take a look." Alice found it odd. Why would a collaboration still in progress be in the archive room? That space usually held rejected or completed files. Still, sh