Page 67 of Legal Desire
“Which is it?” she asked. “You’re telling me not to go even as you’re damning me.”
“I’m damning me,” he said. “I should have been honest with you from the get-go.”
“It’s too late now,” she told him. And it was. She wouldn’t be able to trust him again, not that she ever actually had. But that was a good thing, wasn’t it?
Or she would have fallen harder, would have been hurt more?
But how much more could she hurt? Her heart ached so badly now. Her body did, too, as if it had been run over by a bus. “I came over here right after I fired Edward—”
“You fired Edward?”
It was something she should have done long ago. She’d considered it so many times, but she wasn’t the ice queen she’d wanted to be. She wasn’t her mother.
She nodded. “Your plan worked to flush out the mole.”
“Why was he doing it?” he asked. “What was his motivation?”
He’d stopped his friend from asking the question, so she wondered why he was. Was he just stalling? Trying to get her to stay...
That ache in her chest intensified, but it wasn’t about him this time. Maybe that was why she’d rushed over here. She’d told herself that it was to apologize for the story leaking to the media.
But it had been because she’d needed him. She’d needed his comfort. His protection.
But she should have known it was better to need no one. People always let you down. Never more so than now.
“Is he in love with you?” Trevor asked, his voice gruff and his eyes dark with anger as if he was jealous that another man could love her.
He couldn’t.
If he did, he wouldn’t have suspected her of being the mole. He wouldn’t have continued to lie to her.
“The only thing Edward loves is money,” Allison said. “And my mother was paying him quite a bit to sabotage me.”
“Why didn’t she want your firm to succeed?” Trevor asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.
She shook her head. “She doesn’t care about the success of the firm. Street Legal was the only client she paid Edward to sabotage.”
“I don’t get it.”
She hadn’t at first, either. But Edward had explained it to her. He’d actually felt a little guilty for betraying her, so he’d told her everything. Well, he’d told her everything after she’d threatened to call the police.
Unlike his empty threats, he must have known she would go through with it.
She probably should have. But she’d realized he’d just been a puppet doing someone else’s dirty work.
“Why would your mother go after us?” Trevor persisted.
“You’re all young, rich, successful lawyers.”
“Isn’t that her type?” Trevor asked.
Allison’s face heated. “Yes, it is, and that’s why she did it. She didn’t want me getting involved with any of you—didn’t want me to have the life she’d wanted.”
Trevor’s brow was furrowed yet with confusion. “I don’t...”
Of course, he wasn’t the marrying type—like her mother—so he didn’t understand.
“Your plan worked,” she said. “When she heard from Edward that you and I were spending time together—” her face heated again. Edward had always suspected she’d had a thing for Trevor Sinclair “—and then that you were running for office, she lost it.”
