Page 146 of The Truth of Us

I stand there frozen in place. Did Harper ask me to live with her? No? Wait… did she?

The flight is quick and painless, but as soon as I turn my phone on once we are in my car, the alerts and notifications for meetings and calls are overwhelming.

I turn to Harper, asking, “Do you mind if we go to Northwell first, I have to get a handle on this… apparently my turn in the hot seat is over and now it’s Julian’s turn to be an absolute idiot.”

Harper makes a face when I mention Julian, but she nods to my request, and I instruct my driver to head straight to my office.

She leans in to me as I am scrolling through my messages, saying, “If you won’t be using your office anyway, maybe I can just work from there today. That way I can catch up before the vultures know I am back at full capacity.”

“Whatever you need,” I answer.

When we step out of the car at Northwell, after I instruct my driver to bring our things to Harper’s townhouse, she slips her hand in mine, like it's the most natural thing in the world, and all the fear I felt about returning here with her melts away.

The day is a dizzying blur of meetings, anxious board members, and a rampaging Rowan, whom I tried my very best to ignore. Caleb assured me he and Rowan had Julian’s shit handled and I should focus on where I was needed most right now. So I did, and I thought I had finally made it through a painfully long day when I saw my assistant power-walking to the executive boardroom with a look of panic on her face. Then I looked behind her and saw a man I recognized entering my office where Harper was working.

I was out of my chair and moving towards them before she made it to the door, she turned and walked beside me on the way back to my office, her voice tight when she said, “He just walked in and Ms Montgomery seemed to know who he was so I was going to let it go, but then I heard her raise her voice so I came to get you right away.”

I should have known he would seek her out as soon as he learned she was in Chicago.

“Call security,” I said, as I moved my way to my office, just in time to hear her grandfather say, “Harper, listen to me. I know you are upset, but you have a duty to me and this family. If you step in to take over my companies…”

I am about to drop the Montgomery Patriarch when I hear Harper laugh. It’s more of a cackle, really. It’s fucking terrifying, and also kind of hot.

I am close enough that I can see her stand, both hands pressed to my desk, which has me thinking of other things we have done and I would like to do again on that desk… fuck focus Elliot.

She looks fired up when she locks eyes with her grandfather, and says, “You are delusional if you think I owe anything to you. All you have ever done is take. You are a greedy, vengeful, old man who is cornered and scared. As for your companies, I would rather light the match and watch them burn.”

He is spluttering, an actual blubbering mess. Never did he expect her to stand up to him like that. She isn’t the young girl he remembers, and it is so sexy.

He gasps, saying, “Like it or not, you are my legacy…”

She isn’t done, she stands to her full height, her arms crossed over her chest, when she says, “Your legacy should have been your family, your son, who was lucky enough to find real love in this world, or your grandchildren. You spent your whole life protecting your legacy, your money.

You never realized… We were what you should have been protecting. But you killed any chance of that ever coming true, so now you need to live with the consequences of your actions for once.”

He is almost vibrating with rage when I make my way to Harper. It isn’t because I think she needs me, or that I need to step in for her, but I have seen what men like him are capable of doing when they are cornered and have nothing left to lose.

Harper laces her fingers with mine, a show of unity, and his eyes drop to our hands before his face morphs into a snarl, when he says, “You are weak and blind, just like your father…”

I open my mouth to stop this painful tirade when Harper slams her free hand on my desk, and then pointing to the door, her voice full of years of pain and anger, “Get the fuck out! I don’t want to ever see you again.”

He shouts, but security arrives dragging him out of my office, Rowan following behind him to ‘make sure he gets escorted out of the building appropriately’.

I turn to Harper, asking, “Are you okay?”

She looks up at me, but I don’t see the pain I expected in her eyes. I see something else that makes me want to adjust myself, but somehow feel that would be highly inappropriate. We stay standing like that for what felt like forever, and then Harper surprised me by saying, “Elliot, I need you to take me to your place, I need you to fuck me in that elevator and then take me home.”

Holy shit.

I want to grab her and run out the door, but I also feel like maybe this is some kind of stress response and I should maybe say no… I open my mouth to suggest maybe we don’t do that right after her confrontation with her grandfather but the look she gives me shuts me up, so instead I say, “Okay, but we talk about this later.”

She squints her eyes at me, having one of those internal debates, then says, “After dinner.”

I laughed because after everything that had just happened, I did not think Harper would be negotiating sex and dinner with me right now.

Without answering, I scoop her up in my arms and she squeals. I grab her purse, making my way out of my office while Harper giggled and hides her face from my staff.

“You are crazy.”