??????
“You knew, huh?” My voice is low as I sit beside her on the couch. That’s where I found her when I went to her place after wrapping the day.
I’d wanted us to talk sooner. Perhaps even take the day off, decompress, and just… be us. But she’d politely declined, said she needed to be at the Wentworth office instead.
She nods, still staring at her lap.
The silence between us is sharp, brittle. I reached out, clasping her hands in mine, hoping the contact will somehow break her out of the slow collapse of her trust in me. “I’m sorry,” I say helplessly. “I… baby, I should’ve told you. I panicked. I’m so sorry.”
She finally looks at me. Her eyes shining unnaturally, not in a way I ever want to see. “Why didn’t you?” she asks quietly.
I hesitate. “At first, I was scared of how you’d react. And then, it just felt unimportant. It’s beenten years,Cece. That’s a long time.”
Her frown deepens and she pulls her hand away. And I already miss the contact.
“Do you still have feelings for her?”
I’m taken aback—my mind rejecting the question. I’m already shaking my head, but she doesn’t look at me. “Cece, I have feelings foryou. I-I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I should have.”
She blinks. Once. Twice. “Fine, I get it.” She sighs, like she’s given up the fight. I don’t like it one bit. “Listen, I already knew about her, sure—but not because you told me. And when she brought it up today, I would’ve been blindsided. I would’ve wanted to hear it fromyou, Levi. You understand that, right?”
Panic rises in my throat.
Iris brought it up? Why? Christ, this is a mess of my own damn making.
I manage to shift closer to her even as my whole frame slumps with guilt. “I should’ve told you. I didn’t, and that’s on me. But I swear, I won’t make that mistake again. I mean—it’s not like I have a long list of serious exes popping back into our lives—”
Wrong fucking thing to say.
I see it immediately, the flash of pain gleaming in her eyes. The remembrance.
Back when we had just started dating, we discussed exes. I’d mentioned that I only had casual girlfriends. That was true, to some extent. I never dated anyone longer than maybe a couple of months. That had been the last decade of my life.
But I never mentioned a serious exbeforethat.
Shit. The right time would’ve been to tell herthen. But I honestly didn’t think to bring up my first heartbreak. How I had been abandoned by a girl who chose her career over me. I felt inadequate. And that was a feeling I already had in abundance from my parents.
Her pain suddenly sobers to a deadpan look. “Thank you for telling menow,” she says, voice clipped.
“Fuck. I mean, I don’t have any skeletons left in my closet. I promise.Nothingelse that would blindside you.”
She shook her head, exhaling shakily. “Just… talk to me, Levi. The timing of this, it’s been… God! She came back three weeks ago. And for the past three weeks, you’ve felt distant. Don’t you see that?”
Her words land hard. She is right, I hadn’t seen it. The pressure from my parents had ramped up during that exact stretch and I’d been spiraling, juggling damage control.
“It had nothing—nothing—to do with her,” I tell her, urging her to believe me. “Baby, my parents were escalating their tactics and I was… I was trying to hold the line. Their interference nearly cost us the Coquitlam deal and—”
My eyes widen, the realization crashing into me. “God, I should’ve told you. I should’ve given you the details. We’re partners. And I dropped the ball. I’m sorry.”
Her expression softens just a fraction. But pain still lingering beneath it.
“This won’t happen again. I won’t shut down or pull away. I’ll share the pressure of the merger with you. Like I should’vefrom the start. I thought I was gonna be fine handling it all on my own, but…”
She nods slowly. “I think I know why they’re upping their game.” She pauses. “Sebastian’s been investigating them these past few weeks.”
Sebastian Blackthorn. I remember her telling me a few weeks ago that she was good friends with him. At first, I was stunned. She knew the owner of one of the most globally revered security firms. But she’d explained quickly that she went to Harvard with him.
Shit. My parents are probably catching on. Or scrambling to hide what we’re trying to dig up.
