Page 6 of A Diamond Deal
‘The lawyers have delayed as much as they can, but they have come to the end of the road. There are no more loopholes to use.’ He swallowed thickly. ‘The takeover is imminent.’
She nodded, and turned her gaze away from where he sat in his wheelchair.
Guilt pressed down heavily on her heart.
She never should have put Léon in this position, but she hadn’t known about the loan. Hadn’t known how close the spider was coming to wrapping its silken threads around Léon.
She picked up her pruning shears. She’d spent the last year honing in on the things she enjoyed. Flowers. Arranging them into subtle bouquets—large ones, fantastical ones. Léon’s home looked somewhat like a florist’s shop now. But they both enjoyed the scent. The scent of hope the greyness of grief would dim.
‘Usethisas an opportunity, Poppy,’ Léon said behind her. ‘Face him.’
The pruning shears slipped from her fingers onto the mat-lined table. White petals fell from the long-stemmed roses she was arranging in the vase with the thud of metal on wood.
She shook her head. ‘I can’t.’
‘You must at least talk—’
‘I don’t want to talk to him,’ she interjected sharply.Too sharply.
‘If only to end it,’ he pressed. ‘Divorce him.’
She closed her eyes. Shut out the view of Paris in front of her. Shut out the voice of reason behind her.
‘You can’t hide forever.’
She sighed. ‘I’m not ready.’
‘We are never ready for these things.’
Poppy opened her eyes. For a year, she’d waited for it. For strength. But she wasn’t…strong.
She fingered a thornless stem with her left hand. A year later and still it felt wrong not to be wearing her rings. Her hand—her fingers—they were unbalanced without them.
‘We both know you can’t continue to live like this,’ he said, rolling his wheelchair beside her. ‘You cannot live with me as you have done. As if the world outside doesn’t exist.Itexists, Poppy, and it’s coming inside.Heis.’
A tremble raked through her. ‘How long do I have?’
‘A week.Maybe.’ He reached for her hand. Enclosed it between both of his. Such a simple gesture of reassurance that he was here. With her. Her friend. ‘I’m in no position to delay him.’
She looked down into his weathered face. He looked so much older than he had when she’d met him almost a decade ago. She recognised the deeper lines. She had them too. Scars of sadness.Grief.Both had aged him ten years above his seventy. As for her…she didn’t feel thirty. She ached in places no thirty-year-old should.
Her eyes welled. ‘You shouldn’t have to,’ she said, placing her free hand on top of his. ‘I never meant to stay this long.’
His face twisted. ‘Iwas selfish to keep you here. Selfish not to push you to dothissooner. But you—your memories of Caleb—’ His voice broke.
Her throat clogged. Poppy had worked for the Durands for twelve months before Léon retired. Then she’d become Caleb’sthirdassistant. Caleb had never been anything more to her than an employer, although she had seen his determination to keep the business and his family from bankruptcy. But by her fourth year working for the family the business had come under real strain, despite his best efforts, and he started letting staff go…
She never should have taken Konstantinos’s job offer.
But she had. Konstantinos had seen in her something no one else ever had. The potential to be…more.Potential he’d highlighted in a meeting when she’d suggested a workable time-line so Konstantinos and Caleb could work together to ease the worries of a cargo business they’d intended to take over,together, to minimise the monetary risk to their individual businesses. Especially as Durand was looking into new ventures to stabilise the company’s income.
He’d told them a young woman brave enough to speak out in a meeting where she should be taking minutes needed to be given the opportunity to grow. There was no room for professional growth in a business that was letting staff go, closing departments and taking risks on new ventures.
Konstantinos hadn’t stolen her away. He wasn’t underhand. He’d asked them if he could have her. They’d agreed to let her go.
She’d become PA to the richest shipping magnate in the world. Konstantinos had given her an opportunity no one else had, an opportunity to grow, to be more, but still her eyes had chased his lips into every room—watched them until London.
He’d pushed her in the office to take charge of her professional growth, and every chance they had he pushed her in bed too—to demand more. To tell him what she liked when he kissed the skin beneath her ear. When he put his hand between her thighs.
