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I licked my lips, frustration blooming anew. “You were just going to throw money at it, weren’t you?”
“Stop judging me, Ashlyn. I’m trying to do what’s best for everybody. Remember that.” He matched my stance, anger vibrating the air between us.
“You don’t even want the company, Liam. Have you told him that? You’re like an angry toddler, so obsessed with having what everyone else wants that you don’t have a fucking clue whatyoureally want.”
“Look who’s talking now,” Liam growled.
I let the tears spill. “Maybe I didn’t know what I wanted at first. But I figured it out. And unlike you, when I realized what I wanted, I went after it.”
“And what’s that, Ashlyn?”
“It was you, you idiot. I wanted you. The real you, not that stupid image your father loves. Not the CEO. The Liam who takes care of his family and who eats takeout on the floor of my apartment. That one. Except I don’t know if he exists now. Maybe I just made him up, caught up in our little charade.”
“Maybe you did.”
To my surprise, I felt a pair of delicate hands brush my arms. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Rose Tate, Liam’s assistant, standing there, glaring daggers at her boss. A silver-headed man in a suit behind her waited with an open car door.
It was an invitation. I nodded slowly to her.
His face was pale, the features tight as he stared down at me.
“At least I was brave enough to do something about it. Now I’m leaving, and you aren’t stopping me,” I laugh around the rock in my throat. “At least I know what you decided. I will have Cici reassign Peter to your account, starting right now.”
“Ashlyn, baby…” His voice was barely a whisper now.
“If you need me, send me an email. Otherwise, it was nice knowing you Mr. Macklen, and a pleasure doing business.” I whipped around and marched beside Rose to her car. I couldn’t tell you anything about it or the car ride home, since the tears blurred everything but the realization that whatever Liam Macklen and I had was over before it ever began.
And it hurt worse than I’d ever imagined.
