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I scoff, the taste of bile coating the back of my throat again. He looks so pathetically desperate, like I’m a wild horse he can tame with some soothing words and calming gestures. It won’t work. I want to stomp him to death with my hooves.
“Just… fuck off, why don’t you?” I spit, turning on my heel to march back to the bedroom to grab my bag and pants. This is so humiliating. I’m never trusting a man like this again.
I am so stupid.
My entire body shakes as I rush to drag my pants on while hunting for my bag and suit jacket at the same time. Why doesn’t he own a coatrack like a normal person? It’s not like he doesn’t have the money. It’s not like he doesn’t have agood job.
And there was me, thinking it could have been mine.
My jacket had ended up on an armchair by the window, and as I go to grab it, Aiden appears in the doorway, flustered and wet-eyed. Looking at him like this, now, with untidy hair and a loose T-shirt as he begs me to stay… it’s pathetic. Even if he really didn’t mean for this to happen, even if his father really was testing him, he still lied. He still knew exactly what he was and what he was going to get.
And if he thinks he’s still going to getme, he’s wrong.
“Please, Candice. Listen to me.”
“I’m never listening to you again!” I snap, pulling on my jacket, punching my fists through the sleeves. “I’m never even going to touch a piece of Fletcher Tech again.”
If I let myself, I’d notice how genuinely distraught he looks, at the tearful look he’s giving me, the wobble in his lips as he tries to figure out what to say. But my fury at his lies clouds all logic, so I storm past him, shoving him aside, ignoring the little grunt of surprise, the heartbreak in his eyes.
He’s so used to getting everything he wants. Good for him. He sure as hell isn’t gettingme.
I tug on my shoes, and he tries one more time to talk me down. “What about the meeting?”
“What about it?”
“What do you mean,what about it?” He blinks at me like I’ve said something completely insane.
I draw myself up as tall and imposing as I can be, turn on my heel, stride deliberately up to him and stare right into his eyes. “Why on earth would I still want to come to an event that’s going to be a farce? Why the hell would I want to go to a meeting where the outcome was always set? I’m not going to make a fool of myself for you and your father for another second of my life. I worked so hard for this, you know?”
“I know,” he says softly, his hand twitching like he’s about to take mine.
If he had been braver, there’s a chance I would have cracked.
But he isn’t. “I’m going to succeed and I’m going to do it on my own. I don’t need you, I don’t need your father, and I don’t need Fletcher Tech. Goodbye, Aiden.”
I don’t hesitate or look back at him. I march away and slam the door behind me. This is the right thing to do, I know. It hurts for so many reasons, but my career comes first. It always has. And there’s nothing left of that here.
But the face I imagine Aiden gives me as I go haunts me, and will for years to come.
CHAPTER11
AIDEN
EIGHT YEARS LATER
The knock on the door is the only thing that stops my spiraling thoughts from going to a seriously dark place.
I look up to see Beth peering through the crack, and I gesture for her to come in. She’s the greatest PA a guy could ever ask for. I wouldn’t be half as organized as I am without her. She’s the most well-presented and well-ordered person I’ve ever met. I’d hate to know how long it takes her to get ready in the morning — she never has a hair out of place and her shirts and skirts match impeccably.
I ought to give her a raise. The issue is, I’m not sure I have it to give.
“Everything okay?”
She purses her lips like she’s trying to figure out how to word what she wants to say. “You know what time it is, don’t you?”
I glance down at the clock on my desk. “It’s one forty-six. Why?”
Almost nervously, she sighs. “Please tell me you haven’t forgotten about the two p.m. meeting? You know, the one in ten minutes? The one where Nicholas is going to slash this company to shreds?”
