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He didn’t move.
Obviously. Because he was delusional or utterly without empathy, or both.
‘You have ten seconds to get out of this house.’ She picked up her phone. ‘And then I’m calling the police.’
Gabriel stared at the woman he loved, his heart beating like a drum in his chest. Walking up to the house, he’d felt more like himself, and hopeful. Now, though, he could feel his hope draining away.
Dove was furious. Beneath her obvious confusion and shock at having him turn up at her mother’s home he could see her frustration in the clean, curving lines of her face and the storm clouds of her eyes, and he couldn’t blame her. But nor could he do what she had told him to do.
‘I will leave. But first you need to listen to what I have to say.’
She was staring at him as if he was mad. And maybe he was. His team certainly thought so. In his mind he replayed the meeting two days ago, when Bill Brady had asked him about the Fairlight acquisition. For so long it had been his goal, but sitting there in the boardroom it had suddenly seemed distant and irrelevant to him, almost as if it was happening to someone else. He had felt the way he had back in that hotel with Charles Lambton, when he had felt like a stranger to himself.
Only that hadn’t been supposed to happen. He had wanted to buy out Fairlight Holdings so he could erase Fenella’s family business, as she had erased him, but suddenly he had felt as if he was erasing himself.
To the complete astonishment of the men and women sitting round the table, he had got to his feet and cut short the meeting, striding out of the office without so much as one word of explanation.
‘Or else what?’ Dove’s grey eyes narrowed on his face. ‘What are you going to do? Threaten me? Threaten my family.’
‘No, but I won’t leave until you’ve heard me out. And you know me well enough to believe me when I say that.’
Dove glared at him. She should call the police, but the last thing Alistair needed was to come home to yet more flashing blue lights.
‘Fine. You have five minutes—starting now.’ She lifted her chin. ‘But I don’t know why you’re bothering. I’m not going to be working on the acquisition anymore.’
‘No, you’re not,’ he said quietly. ‘Because there isn’t going to be one.’
She stared at him in confusion, her heart tight inside her chest, feeling worried despite herself. She knew how badly Gabriel had wanted the acquisition to happen.
‘What happened? Was it the name-change? Did they pull out?’
There was silence.
‘No, I did. I went to see Fenella, like you suggested.’
He had?Her head was spinning like a Waltzer. Why had he done that? More importantly, what had Fenella said?
‘How was it?’ she asked, choosing her words with care.
He tilted his head back and, seeing the strain around his eyes, she had to stop herself from reaching out and taking his hand. It wasn’t hers to take, she reminded herself. And yet it hurt to leave him standing there alone.
‘She was upset. Then angry. And then upset again.’ He let out a breath. ‘It didn’t change anything between us.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She meant it. Even though he had hurt her, she didn’t want him to be hurt.
He shook his head. ‘Don’t be. It wasn’t easy, or enjoyable, but I’m glad I did it. It changed how I feel about her. Filled in a few fairly crucial gaps.’
There was a silence, and then he said quietly, ‘It made me realise that my birth mother and father might have given me my genes, but my adoptive parents and my family gave me my identity. And I would never have worked that out without you.’
His blue eyes rested on her face, not blazing with anger or hurt any more, but light and calm.
‘I wanted to thank you for making me see things differently.’
‘You came all the way from New York to thank me?’
She stared at him in bewilderment, her earlier anger fading and morphing into something more dangerous.
Why did he have to go and do that?
