Page 115 of One Little Lie
He barks a humorless laugh. “I just told you my boyfriend caused you to lose nearly a billion dollars in revenue over the last year, and you’re still concerned about me?”
“Don’t do that, Mason. You’re one of us, and we take care of our own. You know that. This isn’t on you.” Easton leaves no room for debate, and I silently nod in agreement.
“Thanks, East. I … shit. I’m going to stay at a hotel tonight. I’ll tell Jonathon I have a last-minute work trip. I just can’t face him in person without exploding, so the sooner you can make a plan, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll fill Ash and the legal team in now. Let us know if we can do anything for you, okay? This isn’t your fault, Mason. We trust you completely.”
“Thanks. After this, I really appreciate that.”
He leaves my office, but my gut twists painfully at his dejected state. He looks like I feel.
I don’t realize I’m staring after him long after he’s gone, until Easton interrupts my thoughts.
“I’ve forwarded a message to legal and to Ash. We’ll need to move quickly on this.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, trying desperately to get back to the stone-faced, emotionless statue I was a half hour ago.
“Have you heard from her?”
My gaze cuts to the computer screen. Eyes so similar to my own stare back at me, and I shake my head. “We texted a little yesterday, but I-I think it’s over.”
“She’s been in New York for two weeks, Halt. You need to do more than text if you want to get her back.”
“I don’t think that’s what she wants, East. She left me, remember? I wanted to go with her, and she said no, but she’ll let Colton stay there this whole time?” It feels like a betrayal that he’s there, and at the same time, I’m fucking glad she has him. It’s a double edge sword that stabs me in the heart with every breath.
“I don’t fit into that world, and she realized it the second she got that job. She didn’t even give me a chance to try. She assumed because her life was my nightmare, we needed to take a break like we’re fucking Ross and Rachel. Taking a break never works out for anyone.”
“She said her life was your nightmare?”
I glare at him through the screen. “Yes,” I growl, but he just reclines in his seat and clasps his hands behind his head.
“That doesn’t seem odd to you? Where were you when she said this?”
“Odd? No, I said the same fucking thing. To you.”
“I know. That’s why I said it’s odd that she used the same exact verbiage you did to spew that nonsense. When did she say it?”
“Are you out of your tits? What are you getting at?” A niggling feeling attempts to scratch the surface of hope, but I tamp it down.
“Well, according to Colton, everything went to shit immediately after our conversation. I think we’ve proved that our family has a communication problem, so is it possible that she overheard you screaming about not fitting into her life?”
I flop back into my seat and take the same stance as East. Folding my hands behind my head, I stare into the screen.
“If she did, she would have heard me say that she was worth it. That I would do whatever it took.”
“Not if she heard you freak out. She probably would have tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Which brings me back to Colton, who was pissed off at you. He thought you’d hurt her again, so she must have been out of sorts, right?”
My clasped hands pinch the back of my neck. “She would have said something,” I mumble.
Easton quirks his eyebrow. “If she thought her lifelong dream was going to hurt you? Do you really think she would ask you about it? Or do you think she would have drawn from your history and assumed the worst?”
“Which is what?” My teeth grind together, afraid of his answer.
“That you would push her away again, or that you’d force yourself to live in a nightmare. Neither option seems all that great for someone you love, now does it?”
My fist comes down on my desk so hard the monitor wobbles for a full minute before evening out again.
“She left,” I growl.
