Page 114 of Hurt Me Not
My eyes snapped up to him, but he was meeting me with a stare that told me he wasn't going to back down anytime soon.
“Listen,” He leaned forward with a sigh, putting his hands on the table and dropping his voice to a whisper. “We all know that you had a relationship. Not everyone visited you in the hospital, but Leslie and I did, and do you know what we saw?”
I bit my tongue, not wanting to answer him.
“Pearl, taking care of you. Making sure you were comfortable and that you weren't alone. She wouldn’t leave because she was sure you’d wake up and she wanted to be there?—”
“You think I don't know that?” I spat at him, my eyes narrowing. “You think I don't know how much she gave up to stay by my side? I fucking know, Cristian.”
“Do you also know I wasn’t the one who handled things while you were in the hospital?”
“What?”
“Work was piling up without you here. We all did what we could, but it wasn’t enough. Pearl was the one who picked up the slack. She asked me to take her computer to the hospital. While she was there, she answered and organized your emails, rescheduled things, smoothed things over with anyone who was upset about us taking so long to reply. She charmed the board members and kept them updated on your situation. Didyou know she even gotParkerto agree to a dinner with you whenever you were back?”
“Parker?” I echoed.How on earth did she manage that?Parker hated me, especially because I pushed back so much on her “cost-saving efforts.”
“Yes, Parker! Tell me, since when has that cold-blooded witch ever wanted to meet you outside of meetings where she chops you up and serves you on a goddamn platter for profit?”
His voice was rising toward the end, his anger and frustration becoming clear.
“But she didn’t?—”
He let out a heavy sigh.
“Whenever she wasn’t sure how to do something, we’d help. She wasn’t afraid to ask, and we showed her what she needed. We taught her what she didn’t know.” His face softened. “And… she didallof that without leaving your side. Even when we begged her to.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Pearl had worked herself like a dog, even though she didn’t have to. Even though I was in a coma and knew nothing about what she was doing, and she didn’t even know if I’d ever wake up.
She did it all for me.
I must have been thinking for too long because he let out another sigh and stood straight, his work-appropriate mask clicking into place. Just like that, his anger had melted into something that left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Pity.
“Emerson, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I'm sorry. You’re the boss, so please don’t fire me. But please get over yourself. Go apologize to her. And bring her back. For everyone’s sake.”
After he turned and left my office without another word, I pressed the button to darken the windows.
I thought about Pearl every waking moment. I couldn’t forget how she looked when she cradled me in her arms, blood splashed all over her face. Or the last thing I saw before I passed out—her face as she was about to pull the trigger on my father.
I couldn’t believe she did it. And the way she wasn’t sorry for it was just the icing on the cake, along with the way they’d discarded his ashes, even though I could sense a hint of Jax’s pettiness in that.
She did it all for me, and I pushed her away.
Jax was right. I was fucking stupid.
And it didn't help that she kept messaging me with updates even after I fired her security company and uninstalled her app.
Pearl was late for class today.
Got a coffee on her way to school.
Bought a new apartment.
Bought a new TV.
