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Damon had imagined himself doing it—picking up the phone to make the call or send the email that would end it all—but, as much as a piece of him yearned to do exactly that, he knew he wouldn’t.Couldn’t.Because if he didn’t finish this Randolph would get away with it. Again. He would never be made to pay for his sins. And Damon couldn’t stomach that injustice. He deserved that victory—for himself and his father.
Carrie meant so much to him, but she wasn’t more important than his revenge.
And it wasn’t as though love came with any guarantees. Throwing away all that he’d worked for to be with Carrie didn’t ensure them a future together. He could lose her, just like he’d lost his mother, and he certainly didn’t have much faith in his capacity to love her the way she deserved to be loved. Look at how easy he’d found it to close himself off from his family and remain that way.
Carrie believed he could be redeemed, but he would only disappoint her in the long run, and if he lost both Carrieandhis shot at revenge he’d have nothing. It would have all been for nothing.
Finishing a length, Damon came to rest at the side of the pool, his chest aching with exertion and the weight of his decision. He was at a crossroads. He could have Carrie and their baby and the promise of a bright future or he could have his revenge. There was no way he could have both. And if he made the wrong choice, he ran the risk of ending up with nothing at all.
The email arrived in Damon’s inbox at ten the following morning.
He’d won the Caldwell contract. All he needed to do was sign it and Sterling Randolph would be ruined. Revenge would finally be his...
But suddenly Damon knew how wrong that was.
There was no victory in vengeance. There was only more pain and loss. And he wasn’t prepared to lose Carrie just to settle a decades-old score. Because having her in his life was more important than anything else.Shewas all that he needed to be happy.
How he had ever doubted that he could love her was beyond him, because in that second he knew with blinding clarity that he could and he did. And to think of how close he’d come to destroying that—and to wreaking havoc on her father’s life—was so horrifying he was almost choking on it!
But fortunately it wasn’t too late for them. She had no idea of the monumental mistake he’d been so close to making, so he still had the chance to claim the future with her that he so desperately wanted.
And he wanted to start straight away by telling her how much he loved her and how grateful he was for her.
He was getting to his feet when his phone rang. Isobel’s name was flashing on the screen.
Knowing with absolute certainty the way forward, Damon answered immediately, speaking before she did.
‘Put a hold on that contract,’ he directed her.
‘A—a hold...?’ Isobel stammered disbelievingly. ‘But you only just—’
‘I’ll explain later. Just put the hold on it,’ he repeated urgently, hanging up.
He located Carrie, sitting out on the terrace with the sun streaming over her, looking so beautiful his heart skipped a beat. She was staring at the phone in her hand. As he approached, his feelings ready to burst out of him, she lifted her head—and what he saw had his ecstatic heart slowing. Her face had lost all its colour and her eyes were clouded with a suspicion and anger that only sharpened as she looked at him.
With a sick feeling drilling down from his chest to his stomach Damon knew that hewastoo late. Somehow she knew everything.
He’d finally realised he loved her. Only now he was going to lose her. And there was no one to blame but himself.
Carrie stared up at Damon, the information that had just been communicated to her by her brother Xander spinning in her mind.
It wasn’t possible, she thought frantically. Itcouldn’tbe possible.
But the dots were joining up to form a horrifying picture in her mind, and in her chest her heart was thundering with a dread that was quickly boring into every bone in her body.
‘Carrie...’ Damon started, his expression constricting.
‘My brother just called me,’ she said, managing to speak through the leaden weight on her chest. ‘My father’s in hospital. They think he’s had a heart attack. Because you won the Caldwell contract and he didn’t.’
She didn’t take her eyes off him, wanting to see every flicker and flutter of emotion. Wanting to see the truth.
‘Did you know that he was in the running for the project too?’ she asked.
Damon hesitated only slightly before nodding once.
‘And did you also know that there’s been tension over his leadership at the Randolph Corporation? That he needed to win that contract to stay in control there?’
The silence between them stretched tight as she waited for him to answer. The weight on her chest tripled as she beseeched him to say something,anything, that would make more sense than the notions running through her mind. But hot, angry tears were already brewing in her eyes, because she could feel, like the tremors of an earthquake, that the truth was about to be revealed, and that it would bring the beautiful life she had been living crashing down.
