Page 18 of Billionaire’s Heartbreak

I stared at her, my mind foggy with exhaustion. “What’s wrong with working with June?” I asked, studying her carefully.

“You were in love with her. Remember?”

My chest tightened.

“That was a long time ago,” I said, though I knew my deliberate attempt to sound nonchalant had failed.

“Maybe. But that doesn’t automatically mean the feelings disappeared.”

“I’ve seen other women since,” I argued, as if that proved anything. “Countless women, if I’m being honest.”

Faces that blurred together. The tabloids had loved it. Some people excused it—boys will be boys. Others were disgusted. But in circles like mine, men with money were expected to have women. If I didn’t, people would whisper that I was gay or too poor to keep company.

“Yet not one of them ever really held your attention,” Lucy said quietly, her words precise and unflinching.

I had no answer for that.

“So?” I said at last, more defensive than I meant to be.

“Things are different now,” she said.

“Can you not speak in riddles?” I rubbed my face. I was too tired to untangle half-spoken meanings.

She sat on the coffee table and set the bottle down, rubbing her thumb absently over the cap. She avoided my eyes for a moment before finally looking at me.

“You need to think about a few things.” Her voice was gentle, but there was no hesitation in her words. “Can you resist June? If you can, great. But if you can’t…” She paused, watching my face carefully. “You’d be crossing a line. Especially if you and Dannie really are brothers. That’s more than breaking some bro-code. That’s family.”

“I don’t think anything will happen between us,” I said, and walking toward her. I stopped in front of her and took her hands in mine, giving them a gentle squeeze. “That was a long time ago. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” she said, surprising me. Her brows drew together as she glanced toward the door, as if Dannie might somehow be standing on the other side. “Honestly, I think you two belong together. I just don’t understand Dannie.” She looked back at me, her expression troubled. “How can he trust June with you? What is he thinking?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

“If he didn’t want you and June close, why put you in this position?”

“I don’t think he’s planning for me to fall into his wife’s arms,” I said dryly.

She let out a soft laugh. “Of course not. But he might be trying to make sure someone he trusts is near her. After he’s gone.”

“Don’t,” I muttered. “He told me to stay away from her.”

“I was just saying—you never really know what goes through the mind of a dying man.” Lucy glanced toward the bedroom, then reached for the bottle as she pushed herself to her feet, already turning toward the door. “I should go back. Huan Huan’s going to wake soon and scream for that milk.”

Right on cue, a small whimper drifted from the bedroom, rising into a cry. Lucy hurried back inside, closing the door gently behind her, leaving me alone with the weight of everything she’d said.

I barely slept. Every time I drifted off, my mind snapped awake again—until my phone buzzed.

6:00 a.m. sharp.

I knew the exact time because my gym alarm had gone off a minute earlier, the same one I kept on every weekday. A pointless reminder now. There was no training today.

A car picked me up from the hotel entrance at eight. The driver dropped me in front of an office building—glass, steel, polished enough to reflect a life that looked clean on the surface.

June was waiting in the lobby.

She wore black, head to toe. It should have looked severe, but on her it was devastating. The color sharpened her features, made her skin glow. She was even more beautiful now.

“Morning,” I said. “Where are we?”