Page 8 of The Forever Promise

Ugh.He needed me, but not the way I needed him. “You’re the one who fired me, in case you don’t remember.”

He looked past me, out at the water. “Oh, I remember.”

Why did he sound hurt? He’d been the one to end things; he’d been the one to send me away. That was the truth, and I refused to lose sight of it. “It doesn’t matter anymore—I’m here. You’re paying me to be here. What do you need me to do?”

“Honestly, not much.” Bryce sounded exhausted. “But it’s essential that everything between us look okay.”

“How come?”

“Our board might mutiny if there’s any more trouble.” His brow furrowed. “I can’t be having marital problems on top of the charges against my father. The board’s aware that our marriage is a stipulation of my vesting. If my stake in the company’s threatened, they might try to bring someone else in—or have a vote of no confidence. I can’t let that happen.”

I nodded. But inside, I wanted to die. I was nothing but a business transaction to him, a way to save his company. All he cared about was how this looked to his board and shareholders. It was just as I’d feared: I was nothing to him, no one. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do. I’m sorry about your father.”

Bryce snorted. “Don’t be. He got greedy, that’s all. And it was stupid because he already has so much. He just loves to feel like he’s ahead of the game like he’s smarter than everyone else. It finally caught up to him.”

“Is he going to be arrested?”

“Probably.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “But he’s got the best lawyers money can buy, so he has some time. I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“What about Daphne?” The last time I’d spoken with my mother-in-law, she’d discovered she was pregnant with another man’s baby. The father was none other than Michael Jones, who was also father to Felicia Jones, Bryce’s ex-fiancee and Bitchface extraordinaire.

“She’s not handling this well. She was about to see her divorce lawyer to start proceedings against my father, but now everything’s on hold. His assets might be frozen. Oh, and she’s pregnant. With Michael Jones’s baby.”

When I winced, he sighed. “But you already knew that.”

“I did,” I admitted. “She wasn’t exactly hiding it.”

He laughed. “She’s screwed now. She might not be able to get anything from my father, and Michael Jones wants nothing to do with herorthis scandal.”

“What about Felicia?” I asked. Her name tasted like acid on my tongue, but it no longer mattered. If Bryce was seeing her again, I should know about it now.

He shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Is that because you haven’t asked her?”

Bryce scowled, and just as he was about to answer, his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. “I have to take this—it’s Dale.”

He answered it and was silent as he listened to Dale, then grunted. “Tell them we’ll be there. Thirty minutes.” His gaze raked down me. “Chloe needs to change.”

When he hung up the phone, I asked, “What do I need to change for?”

Bryce smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “We have a press conference. You’re going to hit the ground running, Mrs. Windsor.”

* * *

“I am so glad you’re back!” Midge jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “But we have to hurry—the reporter’s already downstairs. And yourhair.” She frowned as she ran her fingers through it. “No one told me you’d be arriving windblown. Gah! Come in here.”

She dragged me to the enormous bathroom and stuffed me into the makeup chair. Before I knew what was happening, Midge had fired up the flat iron and was expertly smoothing my unruly waves, talking a mile a minute. “Mr. Windsor said that we were allowed to use your old bedroom as a dressing and changing room but that you were moving into the primary suite. He wasvery firmabout that.” She waggled her eyebrows. “So what’s the deal, huh? No one knew what happened when you left! And then I didn’t hear from you…”

Midge pouted as she finished with my hair and moved straight away to my makeup.

“I wanted to call you,” I moaned as she applied concealer under my eyes and blended it. “But I didn’t think I should. It was all so sudden… What did Bryce say when I left?”

“Literally not one word!” Midge wailed. “We were alldying. But he didn’t say anything—he just stormed around for the past two weeks like he was on his period, and it was abadone. You know what I mean? And then all hell broke loose with his father, so it’s been crazy. Nobody knew what was going on.”

“Was Felicia here at all? While I was gone?” My palms started to sweat as I waited for an answer.

“She was here once,” Midge said, her voice neutral. Midge hated Bryce’s ex almost as much as I did. “I know she had lunch with Mr. Windsor. But she left right after, and she didn’t look happy.”

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