Page 65 of Mr. Almost

Her eyes narrow.

“As for you showing up where you are no longer welcome, this stops now. I don’t know how you got in, but it won’t happen again. I will not let you come into my business and harass not only me and Olivia, but also my employees. You will be escorted out, and a trespassing notice applied. If you come here again, I will have Boston PD arrest you.”

“That woman is clouding your judgment,” she hisses. “You are throwing it all away for some piece of trash.”

I grit my teeth. I can’t believe she is talking about Olivia that way. I refuse to respond the way she wants. I’m angry, but she will never know it.

I shake my head. “No, she opened my eyes and showed me what life could be like without you constantly trying to play puppet master. She gave me a beautiful daughter, whom I love so very much. I’m sorry you will never get to know her, though. From this moment on, you are cut off. You are not part of my family anymore. You need to leave.”

“I won’t stand for it.” She crosses her arms, looking like she is going to plant herself there until I change my mind.

My mother isn’t used to not getting her way. I’m not surprised she’s so upset by this. I meant what I said, though. I love my mother, but I refuse to let her toxicity ruin my life any longer. I now know that she has only ever looked to control me. She doesn’t have my best interests at heart. Only her own.

“Frankly, I don’t care how you feel because you’re not welcome in our lives, and that includes our daughter’s,” I say, purposely not saying Arianna’s name out loud.

Even though she could easily find out her name, she isn’t getting it from me. I never want either of these people to have a reason to even look at my daughter. They haven’t earned the right.

“Now I want you to leave, and as soon as you do, know that I willbe contacting my lawyer to draw up legal papers stating you are banned from my companies, and if you don’t comply, I will have a restraining order drawn.”

“Why I never,” she says, completely appalled.

I look at Victoria. “You and I will never happen. If we run into each other at an event, please stay on the other side of the room. I said everything I had to say to you back then. Nothing has, nor will it ever change with us. I do wish you the best, but we aren’t meant to be. Respect that.”

“Fine,” she says coldly. “You were a lousy lay anyway.”

I smile snidely. “My apologies for not wanting to fuck a corpse.”

Max chokes back a laugh, covering it with a cough.

I look over at him. “Will you please escort these women off the premises and send the head of security up? I want to know how they were able to get in when they weren’t supposed to.”

“With pleasure,” he says before ushering them out of the door.

As soon as the door clicks shut, I brace my hands on my desk and drop my head to my chest.

The fucking audacity of people.

I laugh. Out of all the women she could have brought with her, she just had to choose the one who I caught fucking the pool boy when we were together. I found out later that she only fucked him because he promised her some ring from his family. Something priceless. She couldn’t resist. Victoria is quite literally the definition of a sugar baby. She has no life purpose but to spend money and be waited on. It’s disgusting.

My door swings open, making my head snap up. I relax slightly when I see it’s Olivia.

“Are you okay?” I ask as she slams the door shut.

“No, I’m not okay! I have some things I want to say,” she hisses as she marches across the room and stands right in front of the desk. “Th-that woman is out of control.”

“She is,” I agree easily.

“I will not share you or Ari,” she says, poking my chest between every word. “You two are mine.”

I freeze at her words. Mine. I have wanted to hear her claim me for so long that I’m almost not sure I heard her right. She can’t be talking about me. She must be talking about Ari.

“I agree,” I say, my heart racing for an entirely different reason now.

I move to the other side of the desk, leaning against it in front of her.

“I refuse to split holidays with you.” She crosses her arms.

“Livvy,” I try to cut her off, but she doesn’t hear me.

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