Page 169 of The Contract

My hands curl into fists as I stare at the screen, my pulse thundering so hard I can hear it in my ears.

Everything between us—all of it. The push and pull, the fights, the stolen moments, the way she trembled for me, the way she fucking melted for me?—

None of it was fucking real.

A harsh, ragged breath rips from my lungs, and my chest feels like it’s cracking open.

Adrian.

She was his.

She still is.

Every moment they interacted at the Calloway’s Hamptons retreat rushes through me.

When she looked flustered just before the yacht. Fuck—he was goddamn staring at her on the fucking boat.

Practically waving a sign in front of my face that says: I FUCKED HER FIRST.

His cock-sucking hands on her as they danced. I knew it looked too familiar.

Because it was. Because he probably knows every inch of her like I do.

But what is their fucking angle? What do they get out of this?

Adrian was clearly trying to sabotage the merger. Is there another buyer waiting to come in after? Take the sale at a cheaper rate when Calloway is fucking desperate, and Adrian gets a fucking kickback?

And what does Elena get out of it?

My ten million fucking dollars, for one.

Our contract never said my merger needed to succeed. Only that she needed to spend the two weeks pretending to love me. To be my fucking pretend partner in life. And if she sold herself perfectly, she’d be a rich woman.

They’re playing us at both ends. Calloway and me.

I can’t fucking look at that screen another second.

The chair flies away from me when I kick it back, walking over to the windows that overlook the city. It’s dead silent out there. The noise of the city is blocked by the thick glass while the storm is right here in this conference room.

In my fucking mind.

My hands rest on my hips to keep me from punching the windows.

The fucking Blackstone stands tall in the distance, and I know she’s in my fucking penthouse right this goddamn second.

All I can think of is Genevieve. Walking into my house, hearing her with him. Seeing them.

I feel the rage within me rise, my face burning as my anger becomes something palpable.

“There’s something else.” Marcus’s voice is just as grave now as it was a moment ago.

Of course there’s something else.

“You know that trace I had on Adrian’s cell?”

I close my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. I feel like I already know what he’s going to say, and I don’t know that I’ll survive it.

“He was near the Blackstone this morning.”

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