Page 78 of Second Chance with the Enemy CEO
I step aside, letting him enter. He is still in his dress shirt, the top two buttons undone, and his tie slightly loosened.
“About what happened earlier,” he begins.
I fold my arms, leaning against the doorframe. “Yeah, what about it?”
“I just wanted to…, I don’t know. Make sure you are okay.”
“I’m okay, as you can see,” I say, moving close to the couch. “Now, if that’s all, I’ve got a movie to get back to.”
“Look,” he begins, turning to face me. “I am sorry. My mum had no right to…”
“Stop,” I cut him off, my voice colder than I intended. “Don’t. Don’t try to defend me now. You are five years too late for that, don’t you think?”
Liam frowns, his jaw tightening. “I am not defending you. I am just…”
“Trying to do what? Comfort me?” I laugh, sharp and bitter. “You? Of all people?”
His face hardens. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re a hypocrite,” I snap. “You’ve always been one, Liam.”
Liam flinches, his jaw tightening. “I didn’t come here to fight.”
“Then why are you here, Liam?” I snap. “To play the role of the good guy who swoops in to make things better?”
His eyes darken. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”
I laugh, but there is no humor in it. “Harder? Do you want to talk about hard? Try being berated and humiliated by your boyfriend’s family for years. Try having your love dismissed as some cheap fling. Hypocrite.”
“That’s not fair,” he says, his voice rising. “You have no idea…”
“No idea?” I take a step closer, my anger bubbling over. “You want to talk about fair? Fine. Tell me, Liam. Why do you hate me, then?”
His eyes flash with something unreadable. “You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re a gold digger,” he says, his words slicing through the air.
“I beg your pardon?”
“My mum told me she offered you two million dollars to leave me, and you took it.” His voice cracks slightly. “Two million dollars, Hazel. Is that what I was worth to you?”
“Really?” I let out a bitter laugh. “You believed everything she said about me without ever asking for my side.”
“Why should I? When was there proof of that? And also, for the fact that you cheated.’
I let out a hollow laugh, wiping my eyes. “Oh, Liam, you really are your mother’s son. I never took that money,” I say, my voice trembling with fury. “Your mother and your sisters threatened me. They forced it on me. I never even cashed it.”
He shakes his head. “You are lying. They told me you already cashed the check, so you have got to be lying.”
“Am I?” I turn and storm into my bedroom. My hands tremble as I open the drawer of my nightstand and pull out the old, crumpled cheque out of a wallet.
I return to the living room and throw it onto the coffee table in front of him. “There. The cheque your mother gave me that night. That cold, rainy, and lonely night. The night she told me to get out of your life because you already have a big opportunity coming your way. The night she told me I was not good enough for you, that I was a phase she’d tolerated long enough.”
His eyes widen as he stares at the check.
“She said over her dead body that she would let me into her family. That she already had someone better lined up for you,” I continue, a tear dropping down my face. “She said she let us be together because she thought you were just having fun with me. And your sisters, Lillian, and Linda? They mocked me every chance they got, I just never told you about it.”
