“Elise,” I said quietly, the edge in my voice softening. “I shouldn’t have said what I said to Warren. It wasn’t fair. Not to him. Not to you.”
She blinked, her defenses flickering. “Is that an apology?”
I nodded once. “Yes. It is.”
Her expression faltered for the briefest moment, like she hadn’t expected that, then she looked away, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s fine. Warren’s over it. And I’ve got more important things to worry about than karaoke drama.”
“Is that all it was to you?” I asked, taking a step closer. “Drama?”
Elise hesitated. A breath caught in her throat. “What else would it be, Mr. Edge?”
The way she said my name this time, it wasn’t a weapon. It was a retreat. And I hated it. I hated that I’d pushed her so far she didn’t know where to stand anymore.
I took another step, closing the space between us. “It didn’t feel like just drama to me,” I said, voice low.
She swallowed hard, but didn’t move away. “Maybe you’re reading too much into it.”
“Maybe,” I said, although I didn’t believe it for a second. “Or maybe you’re trying to convince yourself of something that isn’t true.”
Her mouth parted like she was going to argue, but the phone on my desk buzzed, splitting the moment in two.
Elise stepped back. And just like that, the space between us felt wider than ever.
“I should get back to work,” she said quickly, her tone back to neutral.
“Elise,” I called out, one last try.
Elise paused in the doorway, her hand resting on the frame.“Yes, Mr. Edge?”
I wanted to tell her to not shut me out. “Nothing,” I said instead. “Carry on.”
She nodded once, and then she was gone. Gone, but not really. Her absence lingered in the room, in the quiet, in the heavy air that settled over my shoulders the second she left. When the door closed behind her, the silence pressed in again, heavier than before. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to soften, not freeze me out. But maybe that was the reminder I needed of why this plan had to stay the way it was.
She couldn’t know the truth.
I sat down, rubbing the back of my neck as frustration boiled inside me. Elise pulling away wasn’t just a bruise to my ego—it was a problem. A serious one.
I’d been making progress. Slow, deliberate progress. The plan was to get her to trust me. Get her to soften. Get her to like me. Then date her. Show her the version of me she could actually fall for. Keep it light, keep it fun, just enough real to feel honest, just enough charm to keep her close.
And then, when the timing was right, propose. Marry her before the deadline my father set. Lock it in without ever giving her a reason to question it. What happened after that, I’d deal with when I got there. Because the truth was, I didn’t need a perfect plan. I just needed her to say yes.
Because Elise wasn’t ruthless enough to understand. She wasn’t built for the kind of sacrifice this world demanded. Shesaw the good in people, believed in fair chances and happy endings—things that had no place in boardrooms or billion-dollar negotiations. If I told her the truth, she’d see it as betrayal. She’d walk away. And when she did, everything my father built, everything I clawed my way through to protect would crumble with her.
So I’d do what she couldn’t. I’d make the hard choice. I’d keep the truth buried.
It wasn’t about love or lies anymore. It was about survival. About keeping Edge Records alive. Even if it meant showing her only the parts of me I wanted her to see.
Because the truth was, Elise didn’t need to loveallof me. She needed to love just enough to say yes when the time came.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ELISE
DATE #1: The Actor
KELSEY DIDN’T LISTEN.
Instead of minding her own business, she set me up on not one, butthreedates. I could have fought her on it, but the truth was, it had been a while since I went on a date, and I missed it. I missed going out to dinner with a nice guy and missed the excited feeling you get when you start to think this might actually be something.
