Page 17 of The Grumpy Billionaire
“Then it should be your mission in life to make sure that when he does, you convince him you want nothing more to do with him, that he’s better off moving on with another girl—someone of his own class.”
“How?”
“You were smart enough to get into three Ivy League schools. You’ll figure it out.”
And I did. In fact, I rescinded my enrollment at Columbia and went to Stanford instead, hoping the greater distance from home would curb my temptation to sneak back and see Reid.
He was my kryptonite—just talking to him would do me in. I’d fall apart, confess everything to him, including my undying love.
That love would be the death of him—literally.
As predicted, Reid eventually tracked me to California and showed up at my dorm. Thankfully the university’s security protocol kept him out.
When I refused to let him come in or to go outside and talk to him, he sent up a note. My self-preservation instinct begged me to throw it away, unread.
But I couldn’t. I opened the folded paper and stared at the words he’d written. Even the sight of his familiar handwriting hurt.
My eyes watered so furiously it took me a few tries to read it.
Mara,
I’ve searched for you for so long, and now that I’ve found you, I’m not leaving until you agree to see me. I don’t know what happened or why you’re doing this, but please just talk to me. Or at least listen to what I have to say. I love you. I will always love you. I believe you still love me, too. We can work this out, whatever is going on. If I lose you, I will never be happy. My heart is broken, and only you can fix it. Please, sweet girl. Give us a chance.
I sat on the floor of my room, clutching the note, and bawled. The jagged edges of my own shattered heart pulled toward his like a super-magnet.
And still, I didn’t go to him. I scrawled a short response on a sheet of printer paper and begged my roommate Jennifer to take it down to him.
“‘Go away?’ That’s it?” she asked after reading the tear-stained note in her hands. “The poor guy drove, what? Three thousand miles to get here, and all you have to say to him is, “Go away?’”
I could tell she thought it was monstrous of me not to at least talk to Reid, but it was the only way I knew to keep him safe.
* * *
No doubt if that tragic scene had taken place today, all Reid’s money would have broken the doors of my dorm down like a gold-plated battering ram.
But back then he’d been just a confused college kid with an empty wallet and a broken heart.
He was alive though. He was safe. I’d accomplished that much.
Even now that we were both adults and he was a self-made billionaire, I worried about his safety… about what my father might do to him.
Dad’s power had only grown. After completing his second term as Attorney General, he’d run for governor and won. In a state as small as this one, he knew everything that went on, and he could get to literally anyone.
Which meant the danger to Reid was still just as real. After all, I was his kryptonite, too.
I’d have to do whatever it took to stay away from him.
SIX
Bygones
Reid
Pizza? Really?
Thatwas the big emergency that had sent Mara and her camera man running from the state house without sticking around to even ask me questions after the hearing?
Not that I would have answered them. In fact, I’d been gleefully anticipating refusing her request for an interview. Of course I’d say no toanyreporter who asked, but I’d take particular delight in turning Mara down.
