Page 110 of Impossible Love

“Shit, man,” Special K says. “I feel kinda bad now. We were all pretty quick to think the worst of her.”

My throat tightens. I’m such an ass. Such a dick.

“Your girlfriend is our hero,” Finn says.

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

Finn laughs. “And whose fault’s that, bro?”

All mine. It’s all my fault.

Chapter 58

Victoria

“Today’s the perfect day for me to take you to lunch.” Millicent and I exit the federal office building in downtown San Diego and reach the sidewalk. “Any preferences?”

She looks over at me and grins. “I’ll have to check with my boss first.”

“That’s still me—for the moment, anyway.”

“Let’s do Thai, then. There’s a great place just five blocks away.”

“Perfect.” We cross Broadway and head west, then north on Kettner. It’s a typical bustling city workday, and the sidewalks are filled with people in summer-weight suits—many of them lawyers, is my guess. With how much time I’ve been spending with lawyers lately, I’ve become pretty good at spotting them in the wild.

I take a deep breath of this perfect Southern California day, sunny and in the mid-70s. I focus on bringing my heart rate and blood pressure down and try to remain grateful. That meeting with the Department of Justice fraud unit was no fun. My father’s legal team was there, shooting daggers at me with their eyes and trying to cut me down at every turn. I held my own just fine.

Ironically, their client would’ve been proud of the way I stood up for myself. My father just never thought I’d stand up to him.

“You okay, Victoria?”

“I’m good. Really.” Millicent has been my rock this last month, even when it became clear that Renaissance Empowered would soon be taking her off the payroll. She’s one of about two hundred people already out of a job or about to be. That’s one of the things I wanted to discuss at lunch—what her plans are moving forward.

We get a nice little table near the front and receive our menus. “I feel like celebrating, how about you?”

Millicent giggles. “Are we celebrating because that hellish meeting is finally over with?”

“You got that right.” I order a moderately priced bottle of California rosé, and we order our lunches. Once the waiter pours each of us a glass, I raise mine for a toast.

“To not knowing what’s next,” I say.

“That’s the truth.”

“And to loyal friends.”

Millicent smiles. “To loyal friends and the best boss I’ll ever have.”

We clink our glasses.

We both enjoy some relaxed and friendly catching up. These past weeks have been packed with an immense amount of work, all of it stressful. We’ve been helping to prepare and organize the documentation needed for the takedown of Renaissance Embezzlement, as we now like to call it.

And if that weren’t enough, Millicent has stood by me during some very ugly outbursts. There isn’t enough double-fudge brownie ice cream on the planet to soften the blow of what I’m going through. But she’s been at my side to listen and talk me through it. I’ll never be able to repay her.

My phone rings. I don’t pick up, but if an actual human leaves a voicemail, and if it’s a human I actually want to talk to, I’ll get back to them. Not many people know how to reach me these days. That’s the way I want it.

“Has the new number helped?”

“Absolutely.” I nibble at my curry and take another sip of wine. My father has completely lost his mind, and I had no choice but to change my number. His calls were nonstop, all day and all night. Screaming. Name-calling. Threats.

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