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“Ava, I had no other options.” He sighs.
He looks exhausted. He sounds exhausted.
“You always have options,” I say, managing to keep my voice level. “You chose this. You fucking chose to do this. This isn’t some bargaining tool you get to use for yourself. This is my life! What the hell did you make me sign?”
“Ava.”
The way he says my name, his voice softening, is too much.
“Shut up,” I snap.
We stare at each other as my heart breaks. His blue eyes search mine like he never expected me to be so upset. Like he never thought about the magnitude of what he was doing.
He told me so many times he was an asshole, and that I’d realize it one day. I never listened.
Today is that day.
“I’ll never forgive you,” I whisper. “I hope you’re proud of the man you’ve become. Because no one else will be.” I slam the laptop lid down.
“Did you know he was going to do this?” My shoulders are heaving with uneven breaths as I lift my eyes to meet Hayden’s. He looks stricken.
He swallows thickly, then nods once. “It’s haunted him for months knowing it was a possibility.”
“Months?” Ice slides up my spine, pinning me in place.
He’s been planning this the whole time.
“He’s not a bad guy, Ava.” Hayden looks like he’s about to throw up. If he wasn’t an accomplice to this, I might feel sorry for him. “He’s saved thousands of jobs. He searched for another way. There wasn’t one. He… He’s told me about you. He cares about…”
“He only cares about himself. He had no right,” I whisper.
I walk past him toward the door. I need to get out of here. I need fresh air. I need water.
“Talk to him. I’ll get you on a flight. You can be there by tonight.”
I spin, ready to tell Hayden where to shove his suggestion. But then the pain in my chest drops lower, twisting inside my gut instead. And it’s joined by a burning heat, like acid.
Rage.
“Will you tell him I’m coming?”
Hayden’s brows lift, before relief washes over his face. “You’ll go and speak to him?”
“If you don’t tell him I’m coming.”
He nods reluctantly.
“What time’s my flight?”
Chapter 30
Ava
He walks into themarble lobby like nothing’s wrong.
Like he didn’t rip open the scar I’ve worn for the past ten years. The scar he helped to heal when he showed me the broken parts of himself in Thailand.
I trusted him. I told him things I’ve never told anyone.
