His Dangerous Love On Ice Chapter 174: Olive's Pov

She looked around the office like she was checking to make sure we were alone, then bit her lip nervously before finally meeting my eyes.

"I don't know—I just don't know if I did a great job," she said in a rush, the words tumbling out so fast I could barely process them. "Compared to yours, I mean. And I don't really know Antonio closely, so I don't know if this works perfectly for him or if I'm completely off base. I'm scared of what you'll think."

She said it so quickly that I had to take a second to untangle all the words and figure out what she was actually asking me.

I stared at her for a long moment, and she strongly reminded me of someone I used to know very well.

Me.

This was who I used to be—uncertain, constantly seeking validation, terrified of making mistakes that would prove I didn't deserve to be where I was.

Not now, though. Not after everything I'd been through.

And I'd given her this job maybe because I didn't want to deal with another Mercer sibling directly, or maybe because I was secretly shipping her and Antonio after seeing how she'd frozen up anytime his name was mentioned, but the former reasoning definitely pushed out the latter.

"I think you should learn to trust in yourself and your job," I said, giving her a small smile that I hoped looked more confident than I felt. "Your work is good, Jessica. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't."

Her eyes twinkled at my words and she nodded slowly, releasing her death grip on the folder and allowing me to finally take it from her trembling hands.

"Would you tell me what you think of the documents?" she asked, interrupting me just as I was about to open them. "Like, your honest opinion?"

I stared at her for a little longer than was probably normal, and fuck, I was definitely acting like Grayson, acting all confident and put-together even though I was breaking apart internally, bleeding out from wounds nobody could see.

"What do you think?" I asked instead of answering directly.

"Um..." She paused, clearly trying to find the right words. "I know I did an excellent job. At least, I think I did. But I've been taught my entire working life that I should never accept my work is good unless someone in authority says so. And this..."

She stopped, staring at the file in my hands like it might explode.

"This is a fucking Mercer. Their standards are impossibly high. Antonio Mercer, I've heard, is so hard to please, and it's nearly impossible to find out what they actually like unless they explicitly tell you. So I really don't know if my work is good enough if he doesn't like it."

Her confession shocked even me, though maybe it shouldn't have.

So it was a family thing…keeping secrets down to the tiniest details, making everyone around them feel like they had to earn approval for breathing.

I almost huffed.

My mind zoned back for a second to the previous night and my phone call with Zane, but I snapped those thoughts away before they could take root.

I wasn't going to think about him right now. Wasn't going to let him occupy space in my head when I had work to do.

"Hmm, okay," I said finally. "Luckily the ball is in our court now. He'll either like the strategy or he'll tell us what he prefers instead. Either way, we'll know where we stand."

Her eyes widened like I'd just given her some profound piece of wisdom instead of stating the obvious, and she nodded enthusiastically before thanking me and walking off from my office, leaving me alone again in this cold, sterile space.

I stared down at the cup on my desk that contained what used to be hot coffee about three hours ago.

I took a sip without thinking and immediately a groan lifted from my lips at how cold and bitter it had become, like drinking liquid disappointment.

Just then my phone rang and my heart skipped when I stared at the screen—it was Richard Davis, the attorney Zane had gotten for me for the Judy Byron investigation.