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“My father died from cancer, and my mother used lawyers and money to get me home, suing the company for child slavery. It got real fucking messy, but she won in the end and shut down their entire business.”
“I love her already,” I whisper.
The corner of his mouth lifts into a grin. “You would have gotten along well with her. This was her garden, and I have kept it maintained for her ever since she passed away a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry you suffered like that.” An ache stabs me in the chest at the tragedy in his family. “I guess… I-I know a little about how it feels to be sold off by family.” Unintentional bitterness seeps into my voice. “I really hate my stepmother for doing that to me, for trying to wedge herself between me and my dad.”
He guides me to a stone bench by my hand, and we sit together, him straddling the seat to face me.
“I want you to understand the reason I accepted the offer from your stepmother to take you under my care,” he begins, a hand on my cheek, and I blink up at him, curious. “The way she spoke of you, it just… it didn’t fit with the girl I met at the Luminary Soirée. I hated how casually she was willing to use you, igniting my own triggers. So, I took the deal for your sake to get you out of there and offer you an escape from her grasp.”
His words swirl in my mind while my chest constricts, and my eyes prick. No one has ever looked out for me the way he has, not even my dad, who tells me he loves me, yet he lets my stepmother walk all over me.
Hawk’s care overwhelms me.
“I’m sorry, Sapphire.” He reaches out, catching a tear that spills down my cheek and over my chin. “Sorry that I couldn’t take it all away, so you don’t suffer.”
Shaking my head, I sniffle and whisper, “It’s not that. I’m just starting to understand that being here is the best thing for me. She was always going to suppress me.”
Hawk draws me closer, embracing me, and in that serene midnight moment, I realize how much I’ve let myself fall for Hawk. The things he says and does show me affection and comfort, but I’m no fool and know this is a temporary arrangement. And that part guts me.
When I do return home, I’ll have to face my stepmother and find a way to break free from her. I’ll get a job and eventually move out.
And Hawk… The idea of having to leave him after only a couple of weeks together already causes a sharp pain, so what will it be like in a year’s time?
I feel his fingers intertwined with mine again, and I squeeze his hand. Burying my head into his shoulder, I hide the tears that want to fall from the heartache I’m sure will come.
CHAPTERNINE
HAWK
Ilean against the mahogany desk in my office, whisky in hand, eyeing Luke, who’s lounging comfortably on one of the leather chairs. The rain outside pelts against the window, thunder cracking in the distance with lightning across the afternoon sky.
“You going to that party downtown tonight?” Luke asks. “You and Sapphire?”
I take another sip of my drink, pausing for a moment, my thoughts on Sapphire and how I planned to take her out to dinner tonight. Just the two of us.
“Still deciding.”
Luke leans forward, his brow pinching. “You sure this ruse you got going on with her will work? Not for Drake, but for you? I’ve seen you with other women, Hawk, but buddy, not like this. You used to be… different, you know? After taking over the business, you became ruthless, savage. And now, with her, it’s like I’m seeing a ghost from our past, and I think it suits you.” He shrugs. “At first, I was against the idea of her staying here, but I changed my mind. She’ll fit in well.”
My gaze drifts to the window, memories of the past plaguing me. Since losing my mom, I took over Kline Enterprises and threw myself into work. It had been the only way to deal with losing her, with coping with what my prick of a father did to me.
For so long, I felt lost. Not feeling like me, but who I wanted others to see. But Sapphire brings something out of me, a part of me I forgot.
“She’s something else, that’s for sure,” I admit. Luke’s the only person I confided in about my fake engagement to Sapphire to win over our deal, but no one else in the mansion knows, and they constantly congratulate me, telling me she’s good for me. I smile but on the inside, I feel like an idiot for lying to them.
I hate that I’ve let myself become someone too similar to my father in this business.
“Don’t overthink it, man,” Luke adds. “You’re tense, and I know she means a lot to you.”
“And yet, I don’t want to commit to anything.” I exhale the words, a heaviness pressing down on my chest like something feels off.
“No one said you had to. You got a year with her, right? Then see where it takes you.” He takes a sip from his own glass. “Just don’t fucking screw it up by thinking too much. Get out of your damn head. I know how you get.”
Finishing my whisky, I set the glass down, ready to change the topic because the mushy stuff isn’t me. And like Luke said, I have time to sort out my shit.
“Any word on Drake?” I ask.
