Page 98 of Hello Billionaire

Gage made to follow me, but Shantel said, “Three people at a time, Gage.”

We met eyes across the conference room before I left and stepped into the hallway. Two seconds from crying, I went to Mia’s desk and said, “Where’s somewhere private I can go that’s not the bathroom?”

Worry in her eyes, she said, “Gage’s office. Come with me.”

We walked from her reception desk through the glass door of Gage’s office. As soon as it shut, the room fell silent save for my heavy breaths.

Mia stayed silent as I walked to the wall of windows overlooking the city. When I glanced down, my stomach turned. We were so high off the ground, and I already felt like I was falling.

When I turned back to Mia, she was watching me with concerned brown eyes.

“Tallie said Romero’s approval rating dropped fourteen points today alone. Because of me.”

Mia nodded. “Voters can be fickle, but it doesn’t look great. He’s already left me a voice mail saying Gage needs to take a meeting in an hour or it could mean bad things for the project.”

I placed my hand over my pounding heart, hoping I could stop the ache. “Is our relationship bad for Gage?”

Mia tilted her head. “There’s a difference between bad for business and bad for Gage.”

Her words didn’t comfort me at all. “Is there? Because outside of his siblings, it seems like this company is his life.”

“He’s spent a lot of his life building it,” she said.

I paced over the floor, the meeting playing over in my mind. “Tallie wants us to tell the press that our relationship comes second to his business.”

Mia nodded, seemingly unsurprised.

“How can I say that?” I said, looking back out over the city from Gage’s throne. “What if my kids hear me say that and take it to mean we’re less important than a job? I don’t want another repeat of what happened with Caleb, us four always coming second to work.”

Her heels clacked against the floor as she stopped me and put her arm around my shoulders. “I know you do everything with your whole heart, Far, and I love you for it.”

Tears stung my eyes. “But?”

“But see it from the outside world’s perspective. To you and Gage, this has been building for weeks. Months. But for the rest of us, it’s all new. It would be silly to think he’d put his newgirlfriend,not even a wife, ahead of a business that people count on for jobs, their retirement accounts. Their children’s college saving funds... Everything.”

I nervously chewed my bottom lip. “I hate it when you make sense,” I said, still overwhelmed with all the worry and doubt clouding my vision. This morning, everything had seemed so perfect. But now, outside the walls of his home? I hadn’t expected it to feel like this.

Mia said, “You really like him, don’t you?”

I nodded, afraid of how much I liked him. How much I loved him.

“The kids don’t watch the news, right? I mean, Levi could come across something on social media, but you can explain the situation to him.”

I dropped into Gage’s desk chair, feeling defeated. “I wasn’t going to tell the kids until I was ready for them to meet Gage as my boyfriend.”

“And how far out is that?” Mia asked. “Because you have a photo shoot with all of them Sunday after next.”

I covered my face with my hands. God, this was such a mess. Would that even be soon enough for Gage to talk to his parents? Would I be going back on my word?

A knock sounded on the office door, and we looked up to see Gage standing on the other side of the glass.

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Gage

Farrah and Mia snapped their gazes toward me, and I saw completely different emotions on their faces. Mia looked sympathetic. But Farrah? She seemed torn.

Mia walked to the door and opened it. She was about to walk out, but I said, “Wait, can you stay in here, for appearances?”

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