Page 46 of Discord
I lifted a shoulder. “Maybe after I turn twenty.”
He inspected me coolly. “Interesting.”
“Our age difference will seem drastic while I’m still a teenager,” I hurriedly explained. “If we wait a couple of years, the backlash might not be so bad.” It seemed like an awfully long time, and my heart twisted at the idea, but I could do it. I hoped he could, too.
“Is that right? Everything will be magically perfect after a couple of years?” The way he glared made me want to make a run for it. He was pissed that I could stand to be away from him. However, he didn’t know my truth. I already had years of practice waiting for him.
I buried the feelings of despondency. “I don’t know if everything will be perfect, but it’ll give us a fighting chance. I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with everyone. We won’t be able to keep this a secret for years on end, but if we put our relationship on pause—"
“On pause?” His eyebrows raised.
“For a couple of years.” I gave him a tentative smile. This was harder than I could verbalize, but I had already cried a river over it. There were no more tears left to spill, only facts. “Once I’m halfway through college, it won’t seem so bad from outside looking in.”
A female teenager dating a former semi-babysitter would make the male appear predatorial. But a twenty-year-old dating an older man would somehow turn the tables. I would be seen as a seductive young woman pursuing an older rich man. Any younger and it’d be on him. It was all about optics.
“You’ve thought about everything, haven’t you?” Brandon sounded disengaged, but there was more to it. He was hurt.
The feeling of nausea I had trekked in began to spread. I considered going to him, but his aloof nature kept me at bay. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t!” he snapped. “You came here to end things with me,” he accused. “Don’t make it seem like something else. You think I’m paranoid, but guess what? I was right. All it took was one of Raven’s well-crafted speeches, and you caved.”
The gravity of the situation had dawned on me before my talk with Raven. I kept pushing it aside because I was addicted to the man in front of me. However, reality had shown me its ugly face. We were playing a dangerous game, one without winners. I came here to put a pause on things and wait until we could change the outcome. “I didn’t cave. I found a solution for us to be together. I hoped you’d wait for me.” Because I’d wait forever foryou.
The hairs on my nape rose at the way he spoke. “You mean wait for you while you fuck your way through college?”
I jumped at the maliciousness in his voice and couldn’t suppress my audible gasp. Brandon hadn’t raised his voice or been spiteful in weeks. We had stayed cocooned from outside threats, and I forgot him at his worst.
We stared at one another, the distance between us growing by the minute. “I would never do that,” I protested weakly.
“I told you there was no going back,” he hissed, savoring the bitter words. “You don’t get to walk away from me, not after I risked everything for you. And you certainly don’t get to move on with other men.” I tensed when he moved closer. His build appeared dangerous with every step. His eyes were hooded, voice toxic. “I won’t let you walk away.”
But I wasn’t walking away. I had waited a lifetime for him and could wait a little bit longer if it meant we could be together the right way.
I only hoped he felt the same.
“You’re young,” he stated factually, though his face was twisted with disgust. “I remember what it was like being seventeen. Raven wants you to explore new relationships, doesn’t she? That’s what she wants for you? Other men?”
“No,” I breathed, horrified.
The veneer around Brandon was shattering, his anger palpable. “This is your way of leaving us behind and moving on with someone your own age. Isn’t it?”
I took a step back. A sinking feeling in my stomach told me I was no longer welcome here. There was nothing more I could say to ease his anger.
“None of that’s true, and you know it,” I said softly. “I’ll give you time to think about what I said, and I hope you consider it.” The idea of putting our relationship on pause was hardly ideal, but I hoped he’d conclude what we shared was worth the wait. I placed the key fob softly on the living room side table. His eyes narrowed over the minute action. “I’ll call you later.”
Just as I reached for the doorknob, Brandon spoke quietly. The deafening silence in his apartment carried his voice. “Do you remember the documents you found in Italy?”
I narrowed my eyes, still facing away from Brandon. “What?”
The reference was familiar. I remembered uncovering divestiture documents in Brandon’s cabin in Italy. They jumpstarted my interest in Milo’s company and learning about stocks.
But how did those documents pertain to our conversation?
“If you walk out that door, I’ll use them to ruin your family.”
I stiffened, heart stuttering. What the hell!
Brandon didn’t rush me, patiently waiting for me to connect the dots on how he intended on carrying out the threat. There was a sequence of events I had been trying to link for days, and his comment sparked my determination.
