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“Are you ready to talk?” he asks.

“I am.”

I point to his office. I don’t want anyone walking in to overhear us.

He walks in and Charlotte walks in after him.

“Can we have this conversation just the two of us?” I ask.

“This concerns Charlotte too.”

No, it doesn’t.

Charlotte smiles smugly at me.

Whatever.

I walk in last and close the door behind me.

Ethan and I sit down in the two chairs, and Charlotte stands behind Ethan, her hands leaning on the back of his chair.

I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to, so I get straight to the point.

“I’m willing to give you the house.”

“Yes,” Charlotte whispers under her breath.

“But not for the amount you offered.”

“It’s a fair amount of how much you—”

I raise my hand up to stop him.

“First of all, it’s not fair at all and you know it. It doesn’t matter how much I spent on the house. By law I’m entitled to half its value, and you’re only offering a fraction of that.”

He opens his mouth as if to argue, but I speak first.

“And second of all, I don’t want money.”

His eyes narrow with suspicion.

“You want my half of the house, and in exchange, I want your half of the business. I want the agency.”

He lets out a “Ha.”

“I’m serious. I don’t think that you taking the house is fair to Chase, but I do agree that the sooner we separate our lives the better. We can’t both work here anymore. You want the house. I want the office.”

He shakes his head. “This agency is my livelihood. I can’t afford to just give it away.”

“You’ll find other work. Besides, Charlotte has a job. She can support you for a while.”

I raise my eyebrow at Charlotte and smile sweetly. It’s totally spiteful. I can just imagine what a woman like her thinks about dating someone who’s unemployed. But I need to get a jab in for my self-esteem.

“Blake fired me,” she says as if that’s supposed to influence my decision.

All it does is warm my chest and relieve a knot in my belly. I wonder why Blake fired her. But also, I’m glad that I can now go to the Den whenever I want without worrying about running into her.

“Amelia, be reasonable,” Ethan says. “I’ve dedicated eight years of my life to this business.”