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No, that’s not true.
He left me with a child—our child.
My hands are claw-like on my belly now, the nausea swelling thick and fast as the reminder rips through me. More death, more grief, more pain.
Thunder rumbles overhead, the sound vibrating through my skull, waking me up. At least I made my feelings clear, my curse falling easily from my lips on the tail-end of his. But then he turned and I was incapacitated with the rush of...of love, anger, betrayal, pain—more than anything, the pain.
A pain that he reflected back at me, blazing from him so strong I couldn’t breathe through it. His masculine beauty, only intensified by his torment.
I think of the last time I saw him. Seven years ago. The lines etched in his face, nothing to do with age back then and everything to do with his anger. At life, his family...me.
I look at him now and a movement further down the pavement draws my eye. There’s a driver waiting, the rear door of a sleek black car open. I know it’s for Cain. I know of his wealth—hell, everyone knows of his success. Not many know the price he paid for it, though. The price we all paid.
But I do.
And that’s why he doesn’t deserve my attention. I’v
e done what I came to do. I have his assurance that he will visit his mother tomorrow.
So go back inside and say goodbye to those who’ve always stuck by you...
I take a breath and smooth my shaky fingers over my face to sweep away the rain that I know is mixed with tears, then turn back.
Maybe he has a heart after all.
Shame it’s taken him seven years to find it.
Not that I care.
I will never care for him again.
CHAPTER ONE
Three months later
‘ISN’T IT TIME you went home, Alexa?’
I squint up at Janice, who’s currently frowning at me as if she’s my concerned counsellor and not my super-practical PA.
‘I’m fine. I need to reply to Matthews before I call it quits today.’
She shakes her head at me, her frown deepening. ‘Whatever you need to say, it can wait until tomorrow. It isn’t going to change things right this second.’
No, it’s not. She’s right. But our investors are on edge. They have been since the plane crash that took out the company founder and his equally impressive son. And it’s getting to me more and more. Making me feel helpless, ineffective, practically a failure. I can’t bear it much longer.
Don’t get me wrong—I know I’m worthy of this role, of being CEO. I was always Liam’s equal. We graduated from Oxford together, top of the class, and companies were vying to take us on. But our hearts were in this firm. The one his father built up from nothing and dreamed his sons would take on. Together.
No one could have foreseen what had happened.
Least of all the investors.
But no amount of reassurance from my lips will convince them, and I feel every bit the disadvantaged female when I sit with the board. All male, bar me. Their greying hair and condescension make it clear they don’t believe in me. Not that I take it personally. I get the impression they don’t think any woman should be at the helm of a Fortune 500 company.
But I’ll prove them wrong if it kills me.
Not for the first time I wonder... Would this be happening if Cain had inherited the shares? If he’d been forced to come back, to get involved? What if I’d taken him up on his departing offer of calling on him if we needed anything?
Not that he’d made that offer to me. No, it was what he told Marie on his one and only visit, the day after the funeral. At least I think there’s only been one—the one she’s spoken to me about. But then, would she have told me if there had been more? Would she have wanted to risk any more upset, any more pain...?
