Page 94 of Ice Cold Christmas
A sharp inhale from Melody. “Victor?”
Fuck. Change of plans. The fuck now. Because his world had just exploded right in front of him. “In the boardroom,” he snapped. Dario and Olivia had been far busier than he’d realized. “I want Olivia in the boardroom.” Before she blurted out more secrets for even the freaking guards to hear. “Get Dario in there, too. Now.” Because too many secrets were coming out, and if he wasn’t careful…
“Victor?” Melody said his name again. Confusion. Pain. Fear. Sorrow.
If he wasn’t careful, he’d be losing her.
The door to the boardroom closed quietly.
Melody rubbed her chilled arms. The big boardroom almost felt like—like a tomb to her. It shouldn’t have. The place was gorgeous, with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city. The middle of the room was dominated by what appeared to be a fourteen-foot conference table. Leather chairs surrounded the oval table. A Christmas tree—tall, white lights, green ornaments—waited in the corner to the right.
A little crowd had assembled in the boardroom. A glaring Dario. A tearful Olivia. A silent Victor. Calista and Luis waited just beyond the closed boardroom doors. Melody figured there were some things Victor didn’t want the guards to overhear.
She was almost afraid to hear the truth herself.
Victor loves me. He loved me a year ago. He loves me now. He wants to marry me.
“His only goal was to destroy Mage Industries.” Dario swiveled in his chair as he jabbed a finger toward Victor.
Her temples began to ache. Her gaze darted around the boardroom. The colors on the tree were wrong. The ornaments shouldn’t just be green. They should be a variety of colors. Red. Blue. And an angel should be at the top of the tree, not that red ribbon.
Her breath shuddered out. This place, this boardroom…
I’m done being your dirty little secret. She could almost hear those words. In her voice. Because they were—or had been—her words? From a different time?
“He holds Mage responsible for what happened to his father,” Dario continued as rage vibrated in his voice. “His dad died, his family fell apart, and the guy wound up shuffled around in foster care.”
Yes, Victor had been in foster care. He’d told her about that time. He’d told her about his father’s death, but she hadn’t realized his dad had been working for Mage. “Is it true?”
“My father worked for Mage.” Victor sat at the head of the boardroom table. His hands gripped the armrests on either side of his body. “He died when I was six. My family did fall apart, yes, my mother turned to drugs and alcohol. I got passed around to distant relatives and eventually wound up in foster care. All completely accurate facts.”
“See! See!” Dario crowed.
Olivia sniffled.
“He found out that Mage cut corners. Safety protocols weren’t followed like they should have been.” Dario slapped his hand down on the table.
Olivia jumped.
Melody didn’t move. Unlike the others, she wasn’t sitting. She stood near the tree, almost seeing two scenes in her head. This scene, with the angry group and another scene…another tree… another time…
Just her and Victor in that scene.
“You’re breaking my heart.” Again, her voice, whispering through her mind. A memory?
Olivia pushed back her chair. “Victor made it his mission to destroy Mage, by any means necessary. He got a job here. Worked his way up the corporate ladder. Manipulated your father. Manipulated you.” Pity flashed on her face. “You asked me if you were engaged to him.”
Had she asked? Melody thought she’d told the other woman they were engaged.
“I thought it was a joke, but the more I considered things, the more I realized—shit, it’s true. Only you don’t remember it, do you? The engagement, I mean?”
Melody felt rooted to the spot.
“If you are engaged, he tricked you,” Olivia informed her flatly. “Part of his effort to really screw over the Mage family.”
Her breath shuddered in and out. “Didn’t think you could break a heart that someone didn’t have.” That voice running through her head—it wasn’t hers this time. The voice—the words—had been Victor’s. He’d said those words to her, right in this very room, even as he looked at her with ice cold, dark eyes.
Melody’s hand rose and pressed to her chest.
