“Oh,” Taewon says, sighing heavily. “Well, uh… keep her away from this Instagram account. I’m sending you a screenshot. She’s basically a micro-influencer who somehow manages to get invites to exclusive parties. She has a legit picture with Cece and is claiming… well, she’s claiming a lot of bullshit.”
Christ.
“Fine, I’ll block her from Cece’s account,” I say, dragging a tired hand over my face and leaning back on my couch. “Is that why you called? To tell her to keep away from something, knowing full well she’ll want to see it even more?”
He groans. “No. I called her because her portfoliosank by $530K.”
My spine snaps up straight. “What the fuck?”
“Yeah,” he says bitterly. “Doesn’t matter that your parents are on their way to wearing jumpsuits for life—their tactic workedexactlyhow they wanted it to. The reputational hit could cause her to lose millions, Levi.”
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.
I haven’t even recovered from the shock of his statement when he continues. “Oh, and if her net worth goes under five mil, it’ll make her ineligible to fulfill the Astor clause. Which—well—she’s not far away from.”
“Fucking hell,” I say through clenched teeth and chug the remaining whiskey.
Then I immediately wince after slamming the glass on my coffee table a little too hard.
“The fuck was that—”
“Ignore it,” I cut in. “Where’s Amanda? Her PA should’ve—”
“Amanda doesn’t look after her portfolio. She’s a personal assistant, Levi. Not an executive one.”
“Then who…”
He sighs. “Noonamanages it all herself. I sometimes keep an eye on it since I’m already doing that for you. But… yeah, she does it herself.”
Why the hell am I even surprised?
Of course, she does. She was one of the most brilliant graduates at Harvard that year. The Canadian heiress’s ruthless financial risk management strategy for market volatility.
She’d apparently built a self-assessing proactive program for her final thesis.
Evenweheard about her through the whisper-gate.All the way to fucking Stanford.
“Christ,” I mumble. “I need to tell her. She’s been… out of it for a while now. The whole thing about Iris and me is…”
I exhale sharply, rubbing my temples in slow, tight circles.
“You’re not entirely at fault,” he replies unconvincingly, and I snort.
“You think so?”
“Man—”
I don’t bother listening. Instead, I shoot up from my couch and walk over to my kitchen so I can whisper-yell to my heart’s content without waking Cece up. “You don’t think I could’ve avoided the whole situation, Taewon? I… I was lying by omission. I was so fucking consumed by my past colliding with the present that I—” My throat closes up, but I force the words out, “—neglected her.”
“She understands more than you—”
“I don’t want her to understand!” My anger at my damn self boils over. “I don’t… I don’t want to put her in a position where she has to compromise or devalue herself.”
My chest caves in at the thought of what I’ve put her through just by being with me. What I’mstillputting her through.
I croak at my next words. “Why the hell should she keep understanding when I’m constantly making stupider mistakes?”
“You’re saying,” he says, clearing his throat. “You’re saying if you were honest from the start, she wouldn’t be shutting down right now?”
