Page 8 of The Billionaire's Second Chance
A high-pitched ringing came from her jeans pocket, and she held up a finger. “One second. That’s all I need.”
He stared at her. There had never been a clearer sign that her work would always come before him.
“Take it. I don’t have any left to give.” He turned and squeezed his eyes closed, moving away starting with one foot in front of the other until he reached his door. Glancing over his shoulder, he found her seemingly torn between following him and answering the phone. The period at the end of their relationship. Shaking his head, he stepped inside.
The ache of walking away from her had taken every ounce of effort he had, but it was the only way he knew how to put distance between them and get over her.
Chapter 7
Hadley parked her rental car at Bella’s and gulped as she watched Link emerge from Maddison’s car. For some reason, even after he walked away, she’d just assumed Link would be riding with her to dinner. It was just a given.
She wasn’t even sure how she arrived at the restaurant without wrecking the car. She'd been on autopilot. One second, she was answering the phone in the living room with her makeup half-applied, and the next, she was a car length behind Maddison and Link, following them to the restaurant.
It had all started with catching them talking. Hadley had glanced out her window, and a wave of jealousy had consumed her. That was her Link that Maddison woman was smiling at—flirting with. Hadley didn’t have proof, but she could have sworn her nails grew four inches, perfect for clawing that man-stealer’s eyes out.
Only, Link wasn’t her man, and Maddison wasn’t stealing him. Hadley had practically thrown him into her arms.
Perhaps that was why half of Hadley’s makeup was currently streaking down her cheeks in a torrent of tears. Link wasn’t hers. The way he’d turned away from her, saying he’d given her all he was going to, had cleaved her heart in two. It had shaken her enough that she’d never answered her phone, and she’d never returned the call. Mostly because she’d been weeping uncontrollably.
Her grip on the steering wheel tightened, and she set her forehead against it. What was she going to do? She was the one who’d pushed him away by choosing her career over him. A career that she’d always wanted.
How many times had she overheard people talking about foster kids never making anything of themselves? She’d vowed to never let those words stifle her. Hadley Shaw might’ve been a foster kid, but she was a master of her destiny. She’d studied hard, maintained excellent grades, and graduated valedictorian of her high school. Those grades had given her the ability to pay for her entire four-year college degree.
A tap on her window made her jump, and she looked up and smiled.
As she rolled down her window, Pierce asked, “What are you doing?” He looked a little harder at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” A sob broke from her throat. “No.” Again, she dissolved into a mess of tears.
Pierce opened the car door and squatted next to her. “Hadley, what happened?”
“Link talked to that Maddison woman.” The words were clear in her head, but the way they tumbled out of her mouth, there wasn’t a translator made that could decipher it.
“What?” Pierce asked.
Hadley sniffed and fought to make herself clear. “Link talked to Maddison.”
His eyebrows rose. “Okay, but why are you crying?”
Her hands slid to her lap, and her mouth dropped open. Why? “He’s talking to another woman. Carrying her luggage and smiling and laughing. My Link. He’s my Link.”
Nodding, Pierce pulled his lips in, looking at the ground and then back to her. “What did you expect, Hadley? Did you think he’d just…wait forever for you?”
What sort of question was that? “Of course not.”
“But you’re upset that he’s talking to another woman. That’s part of him moving on. He’s going to find someone else.” He stood. “I’ve tried staying out of this, but you need to figure out what you want and then do it. It’s either Link or people who don’t even care enough to let you have a day off. Personally, I think he should have moved on long ago because he’s a good guy and deserves better.” He huffed. “I’ll see you inside.”
Hadley gawked after Pierce as he walked away. He’d never been that harsh before. Grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, she dug inside until she found her pack of makeup remover wipes.
As she cleaned her face in the vanity mirror, the look on Link’s face before he walked away played in her mind again. She’d actually seen it before, more than once. All the times she’d rushed home way later than she said she’d be, at the end of some of the arguments they’d had, and most recently, after their fight when they arrived at Luck Lake.
The lie she’d told herself this whole time was that he hated her success. In reality, it was the only way she could justify picking her career over him, time and time again. Something had broken inside of her when she’d spied him talking to Maddison. An overwhelming surge of jealousy and anger and possessiveness had hit her in such a way that it startled her.
It was him or her career, though. He’d made that clear. Actually, what he’d made clear was that her career couldn’t come before him. If she were honest, in her heart, she wouldn’t want any less than that for herself, and it had been incredibly self-absorbed to demand Link to accept that.
After she finished cleaning her face, she took a minute to look at herself in the mirror. Not only making sure the makeup was all wiped away, but studying herself.
What did she want?
