Page 44 of Devotion
Then he spoke. “The situation was handled. You were compensated. Your name was cleared. The details of how it happened are irrelevant.”
Irrelevant.
The word jarred me so hard I lost my breath.Irrelevant. My restaurant. My staff. The weeks I spent believing I’d nearly killed someone. Danny, Rosa, Kevin, and Brittany, scattered across the city because I couldn’t pay them. Vicky’s custody case nearly collapsing because the income disappeared. Eloise asking why Daddy said Mommy was bad.
Irrelevant.
“You did it on purpose. You set the whole thing up,” I said, anger cracking through my chest. “You ate the kiwi knowingwhat would happen. You let me take the fall. You watched my restaurant burn and my name get destroyed and you did nothing—until it was convenient for you to play the hero.”
“Miley—”
“You ruined me.” My voice was rising and I couldn’t stop it. “My restaurant. My reputation. My staff lost their jobs. I spent weeks on my apartment floor thinking I’d almost killed you. All of it was manufactured. Every bit of it. And then you showed up with your apology and your compensation. Arranged a resort dinner and acted like you were saving me when you were the one who destroyed me in the first place.”
“Please, believe me. It wasn’t staged—it was an impulsive mistake. You don’t understand the pressure I was under.” His composure broke, but not into guilt. Into defense. He stepped toward me, his voice composed. “The family. The company. Being summoned to save something built by a man who never acknowledged my existence. You have no idea what that’s like.”
“So you burned my life down instead?”
“I did what I had to do. And I fixed the damage.”
“You fixed the damage?” I laughed and it came out ugly. “You think compensation fixed this? You think money erased what you did?”
“You came out of it better than you went in.” He said it like a line item on a balance sheet. Input versus output. Damage versus return.
Better than I went in.
My palm connected with his face before I knew I was moving.
The sound of the slap was so sharp, that it rang through the kitchen. I felt it travel up my arm to my shoulder.
I was shaking all over, every part of me at once. And the tears were already there, hot and fast, before I could stop them.
“Your words saved my life.” My voice broke and I let it. “When I was fifteen, on a bathroom floor, wanting to disappear.Your voice. Your interview. ‘You don’t have to earn the right to exist.’ I carried that quote for ten years. Ten years, Christopher. Like proof that good people existed. Like proof that someone out there understood what it felt like to be unwanted and had survived it.”
I took a breath that tasted like salt.
“And you’re not that person. You never were. It was all a performance. Just like everything else you do.” My own words felt bitter in my ears.
Something in his face changed. “Miley, wait.” His voice was different. He took a step toward me. “Please. Let me explain. I know what I did was?—”
“Don’t.”
“Just listen to me for one?—”
“Stop.” My voice splintered. “I can’t look at you right now, Christopher. I can’t stand here and listen to you explain why destroying my life was a reasonable business decision. I can’t do it.”
I turned and ran.
“Miley!”
I didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 12
Christopher
The door to her room slammed shut so hard the sound traveled through the walls and found me in the kitchen where I was still standing in the exact spot she’d left me.
I didn’t move.
