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Logging out of my office computer, I spin my chair and look out the windows behind my desk. The twilight skyline of Seattle dances and twinkles, telling me it’s time to get home. Today had been a long one, full of meetings and bullshit I’d rather not be doing. Because lately home is where I want to be.
Walking out of my office, I make a beeline for the elevators, passing Conner’s old office. Sparing a moment, I stop and rest my hand on the door, touching his nameplate solemnly. Just as I do each time, I leave work.
No one will ever use this office again. Until I’ve moved onto a new building, and the offices are repurposed by someone else. Because if I take his name down and fill this room, he’ll be gone. I simply can’t do it. I need some piece of him alive with me. So, I keep him nearest at work. The one place we usually agreed on things. The place we spent the most time together. Even when Father was grooming us both to become more. To become perfect in his image.
“Goodnight, old friend.”
We’ve had many a dinner, Carina, Gage, and me. Ones where we rehashed everything. Pieced together what role Conner played in everything. And don’t get me wrong, he played a big one. He was the hand shuffling the deck. He was the one who offered Carina water when he found her on the floor of the bathroom. Water laced with the same drugs that had been pumping in my own veins. He was the one who’d gotten a car from my father, put her and Wes into it, not knowing he was her rapist, and sent them to my father, where both were to bedealtwith.
Carina had escaped. That was the part she didn’t recall until almost a year to the day after Wes’ death in that dingy warehouse. She jumped from the moving vehicle, and it was where she’d gained the majority of the injuries on her hospital report. Where Wes had gone on and made a sweet deal with Daddy Dearest. He’d gotten paid handsomely, up until the day my father took his last breath. And then I took over the company and cut him off, unknowingly. I recall absently Conner questioning me about cancelling the account, but I gave him a stern, no bullshit answer.
“I’m not going to stay in bed with any of the shady people he did. I’m doing this thing right, Conner. The end.”
Without access to the accounts that paid Wes, or the information I’d already shredded about the account it was being wired to, I’d left Conner in a tricky situation. He likely knew Wes would come. Knew a shitstorm was brewing, but how could he tell me?
We’d gotten as close as brothers over the years, and I’m certain he didn’t want to rock the boat. Didn’t want to ruin anything between us. But I’ve had help. Dr. White and I have done extensive work to get my memories back, and even some of Carina’s. And it’s helped us both deal with a shit-ton of past trauma.
I had Westpoint House torn down. Carina and I watched it go in pieces. It rained the entire day while crews worked to remove chunks bit-by-bit. And I thought it was fitting. Like it was washing us clean of the smudges on our past. We left from there new people, fully in control and trying to become something different.
I finally let my hand drop from the door, and I move to the elevator, bumping into Suzanne when I round the corner too quickly.
“Shit! You scared me!” she shrieks.
I place my hand over my heart, breathing heavily as a chuckle leaves me. “Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was still here.”
“You know I am. Carina overloaded me with work. Took my campaign and threw it back at me, citing too many errors and that I didn’t give it enough sensitivity. She thinks the mainstream media will eat it alive.”
I smirk.Sounds like Carina.“Well, you’d better get to it, then.”
Carina had come back to work the day she said she would and hasn’t left. She’s an intricate part of Stanner Enterprises now, and I can’t see the company without her. She drives us all to do better and keeps on our ass until we do.
The elevator dings, and I bid Suzanne good night as I move onto it and hit B to get to the underground garage.
The drive home is serene. Snow has begun to fall as Christmas approaches, and it makes the world magical. And when I finally pull up to my house, I take it in. No longer do I live like a bachelor lording over those beneath me. I have a home that is warm and inviting. Something I love to just sit back and look at. One I have friends and family come to in the summer for backyard gatherings. One I never saw for myself looking forward. And this journey Carina took me on is wholeheartedly the reason for all of it, and I can never thank her enough.
I slam the car door, tightening my jacket as I crunch up the thin layer of snow on the walk to the door. Using my key to get in, I move inside. The scent of something baking with a hint of cinnamon wafts up my nose, and I close my eyes and let it wrap around me.
“I’m home!”
No answer comes, so I shuck out of my jacket and hang it, kicking my shoes off so I don’t get my ass kicked for tracking wet footprints across the floors.
“Camilla?” I call out.
When I get to the archway that leads into the kitchen, I see the reason she can’t hear me. Her AirPods are firmly in her ears, body moving back and forth as she listens to music while she bakes. There are muffins cooling on every surface and flour on her backside, where she’s likely been wiping her hands for the last few hours.
I smirk, leaning against the fridge to take in the show.
She sings off-key, and I laugh, covering my mouth even though she can’t hear me. She turns, eyes me, and screams, throwing the spoon she’d been using to sing into behind her. It hits a cupboard and then drops to the counter, bouncing and making its final landing on the floor.
She removes her Air Pods, tucking them into the pocket of her apron that’s spread across her curvy body perfectly.
“When did you get home?” she asks breathlessly, her eyes accusing.
I smile, pushing off the fridge and coming in front of her. My hands find her hips, pulling her into me as I drop my face into her hair. “Only just.”
“You scared me,” she says lowly into my chest.
“I didn’t mean to, my love. I just wanted to watch you. What is going on in here, anyway? Do you need all these muffins? And should you be on your feet? The doctor said…”
