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“She doesn’t belong in our family,” she persisted.
“She’s not in this family, and after today, I can’t imagine she’d ever lower herself to join it.”
“You insult us,” she said.
“You’re the most delusional woman I have ever known,” I turned to her. “My father may have chosen to marry you, but I am only attached to you through genetics. That is all. Once I am assured that you’re on the next flight out of the country, you will forever be only a memory. We are done.”
“And if the rest of the family? If they determine you are wrong to cut me out of your life? Nonna? Becca?”
I stopped just before exiting the room and looked at her.
“The problem with you,” I started, “is that you’re careless with the people you piss off.”
“Natalia will do nothing to me, I assure you.”
I grinned with the menacing spirit I currently felt, “Oh, that’s not the person I’m referring to. You see, my job in life, which has made me an extremely successful man, is to sniff out the foul people within companies and to determine if companies are worthless or if there is profitable gain potential. I do this purely based on instinct and am one-hundred percent successful with my methods. Which brings me to you.”
“And?”
“And, when I’m done with you, every dark secret will be uncovered, and you will be begging to have anything to do with the Monroe family. You are an evil woman, and I have sensed it since I was a boy. You deceived my father and everyone else, including my grandmother. I will ruin you, Heidi Whitcomb; I promise you that.”
Her eyes told me everything; I was correct to assume this woman had betrayed more people than only my father in this family. For years, I’d looked the other way and ignored the issues, not wanting to put my family through the grief of following my intuition about my mother, but I didn’t give a fuck anymore. I would burn this shit to the ground, leaving no stone unturned in this case.
This had gone on far too long, and turning my head in the other direction, allowing this fucked-up status quo was wrong.
My father was responsible for the mess he left behind with this woman; now, it was my job to clean it up. Someone had to. And while I bragged about the fact that I could sniff this shit out and protect Mitchell and Associates from people trying to hurt the company, I should be ashamed that I boasted about that and yet couldn’t say the same for myself with my own family. It was unacceptable, and because I’d let it go this far, it eventually hurt me where I never imagined I could be wounded.
I would not stop until I fixed this shit, no matter how long it took.
A week had passed since the disastrous bomb blew up on Jake’s yacht, and I was still laser-focused on burying Heidi. I didn’t have much to fucking work with, though, given that the woman wasn’t stupid.
She’d successfully turned my brother and me against each other finally, and there would be no changing the final severing of my relationship with Steve. What Steve admitted to doing, giving Heidi all my security access with only the excuse that Natalia would ruin my life, proved to me that Heidi had brainwashed my brother more than I realized.
“You going to hide in here all week or surface for air and return to life as you once knew it?” I heard Jake say.
I glanced up from my desk, setting down the final report I’d been reading from the investigator I’d hired in the UK to dig up everything he could on Heidi. I was sick with defeat, seeing that the woman had her nose clean, and I couldn’t legally end her like I’d wanted to.
“Life as I once knew it? Which one?” I said while Alex and Jim filtered into my office as well. The three of them stood before me like they had staged an intervention. “The one where I was aiming to live happily ever after, or the one where I die single and miserable?”
“For fuck’s sake,” Jake said, casually sitting on the corner of my desk. “I didn’t realize you’d turned into a bitch in hiding.”
“We should have never let this shit go this far,” Alex said as he chuckled and sat in the desk chair in front of me. “And don’t look at me like I’m some asshole who wants you to eat me alive just because I sat in your chair.”
I grinned at him, “Then don’t look so appetizing for starved nerves. I’d give anything to take out my frustration on someone.”
Jake laughed, “Okay, Hannibal. Give Clarice over there a pass, okay? We come in peace.”
“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” Jim said, folding his arms and standing at the end of my desk. “You’ve yet to apologize to your beloved for going behind her back and putting a PI on her case, correct?” Jim was the only man I would allow to get away with this shit in my current mood. “Let’s start with that before we help you out of this state of depression you’ve found yourself in.”
“I don’t need help with anything,” I insisted. “Seriously, if you can’t find a way to bury my mother and put her ass behind bars for what she did on the yacht, there’s not much you can do—”
“Spare me the dramatics,” Jake said. These guys wouldn’t let up until I pulled my shit together. “Own your part in this, man. Your mother didn’t make you sneak behind Nat’s back and pull some fucking entitled rich boy move. That shit is on you.”
“Fuck that,” I said. I firmly believed this would not be happening if it weren’t for Heidi. “I planned on telling Nat about the PI, trust me. I had no intention of researching her family with—”
“I’m going to stop you right here,” Alex said while Jim poured a glass of bourbon for himself and returned to sit next to Alex across from my desk. “Allow me to educate you on something, my friend. Rule number one in all relationships—soulmate or not—never, and I mean never, do a little digging,” he said the word with air quotes. He leaned forward and looked at me like I was a fucking idiot, “Does that even register with you? If at any point you feel the need to hire an investigator, don’t date the chick.”
“It wasn’t that, dammit!” I said, standing up, turning, and looking out of my top-story window while I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. “I was looking into her family to help her brother get some closure and help with his drug addiction. Something is fucked up about their father, and I was merely trying to figure out where it all broke down.”
