Page 114 of Breaking His Law

Impossible, even.

My cell alerts me to a text message. Half-heartedly, I pick it up off my nightstand and read the notification. “It’s Max.” I read his name aloud, confused as to why he’s texting me.

It’s the only contact I’ve had with any of them since I was fired.

Maeve stops what she’s doing. “What does he want?”

I open the message to find out. “He wants me to call him.”

“Do it, Ari.”

45

NATHAN

“Eli tells me you haven’t been home before midnight since you and Arianna broke up.” My mother swans into my office and makes herself comfortable on the sofa opposite my desk.

“Eli needs a hobby,” I mutter.

And we didn’t break up. I fired her.

“Eli is worried about you.” She drums her fingertips against the leather fabric and stares me down. “As are Max and Cole.”

We’ve barely spoken to one another in weeks. No texts. No tennis on Saturdays.

It’s all strictly business.

I lean back in my chair and rub my tired eyes. I’m exhausted but still can’t sleep.

I miss her.

My girl.

But she’s not my girl anymore.

What the fuck was I thinking?

I didn’t want her to leave.

I didn’t want to do what I did.

I should have listened to what she had to say.

But I did it to protect my father’s reputation.

My brothers hate me for looking into her family’s case.

Hate that I planted our brains with doubt about our father, something we all knew wasn’t true but for a minute there, we questioned him, and ourselves, which we will never do again.

Scratch that—it wasn’t us that sowed the seeds of doubt, it was Arianna.

“Go to her, Nathaniel.”

“I can’t do that.” My brothers will never forgive me.

“They will forgive you,” she says as if reading my mind. “Hell, I forgive you already. And I forgive Arianna because she didn’t do anything wrong. She wasn’t going to go through with it. As soon as she discovered the truth and worked things out herself because she’s a smart girl, she halted whatever her initial intention was.”

“She made me question… everything. Dad.”

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