Page 192 of Filthy Hot Billionaire
Rhett had continued on, revealing detail after detail, all of which told me that some of it was real. Which parts, I didn’t know. By the time he’d finished his story, my heart had been effectively shattered, and from the look on my father’s face, he considered himself the victor, oblivious to my pain.
Of course, that was the moment Rhett had pounced. Always one to see an opportunity, he’d thrown out his ideas for a father/daughter reunion, boasted about his ideas for us to take Delta June’s to the next level together.
Had he not made a play for my company, I probably would’ve bought some of what he was saying.
At the same time, I needed the truth, and there was only one person who could give it to me.
I just wasn’t sure I was ready for the truth at this point. I was too busy wondering if the past month of my life had been as much of a sham as the years preceding it.
I spent the remainder of the day holed up in my office, ignoring emails and phone calls in my desperate attempt to process everything my father had told me. Oh, sure, I knew without a doubt that everything he’d said was his version of events, but there’d been enough truth to it to cause an ache in my chest.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Come in.”
It opened slowly, and my driver’s face appeared. “Miss Emily, I’ve been asked to remind you about dinner.”
I stared at him, remembering Kieran’s invite for dinner at the apartment he shared with Knox. Just the thought made my stomach churn and bile rise in my throat. I was supposed to have dinner with the two men who had purposely kept things from me. Important things like the fact that Knox had manipulated the university into giving me a fake scholarship that Knox had funded. Today hadn’t been a complete waste. I had done my homework, looked into everything my father told me. The university had copped to creating the scholarship for me at Knox’s request. It had pained me to learn that while I’d thought I was making it on my own, doing my own thing, Knox had been pulling my strings all along.
That was just one of the things I intended to confront him about, which was the only reason I got to my feet.
“I’m ready,” I told Chris, reminding myself that he didn’t deserve my wrath. He’d played no part in my betrayal.
He offered a shy smile, then stepped back out of the way so I could exit the room.
Twenty minutes later thanks to traffic, we were pulling up to a building just two blocks over from my apartment. The doorman came out, opened my door, and kindly helped me out of the car. I smoothed my hands down the front of my slacks and held my chin up as I headed inside. I went to the security desk, gave them my name. I was told Kieran and Knox were expecting me, then directed to the thirty-second floor.
The elevator carried me up while at the same time leaving my heart somewhere below in the lobby. No matter how I tried to process everything, I couldn’t see a future with either of the men who’d manipulated me. I was only here to confront them and get the closure I needed to move forward. Once I did, I had no intention of seeing either of them again. How could I? After what they’d done? Their betrayal?
I exited into a dimly lit hallway lined with expensive wallpaper and ornate sconces. I found the door for their apartment, shored my nerve, and knocked. A moment later, the door opened.
Kieran stood there wearing a wary expression, a glass of amber liquid in his hand.
Early this morning, I had imagined this moment differently. I had thought about coming in, admiring the decor, taking in more of Kieran’s obvious design touches, then having a meal with the two men I’d somehow managed to fall in love with in the span of a month.
Now, I just wanted to rail and scream and throw things, and based on the way Kieran was watching me—like I was a wounded animal—he was expecting me to do just that.
36
Kieran
“Come in,” I told Emily, stepping backout of the way to allow her past the threshold. “Can I get you something to drink?”
Was it me, or was there a cold draft accompanying her presence?
“Where is he?” she demanded, her shoulders set, her eyes hard.
“He’s not here right now.”
Emily spun to face me. “Why?”
I took a deep breath, closed the door behind her. “He said he’d be here soon.”
“I’m not here for dinner, Kieran,” she snapped. “I want to talk to Knox.”
It was worse than I thought. Based on her tone, Emily had already written me off completely. The only reason she was likely talking to me at all was because I stood between her and the man she wanted to blast with the laser beams shooting from her eyes.
I walked past her toward the living room, needing to sit down. In the span of one day, my world had crumbled into rubble at my feet, and the sad part was, there was nothing I could do to change the outcome. I’d known all along that Emily deserved the truth, but I’d been sworn to secrecy. There for a minute, I’d thought the three of us had started to build something stronger than the betrayal it was all built on. I was wrong. So very,verywrong. My loyalty to Knox had gotten in the way, had kept me from doing what I should’ve done, and that was to tell Emily everything from the beginning. She deserved better than that.
