Page 69 of Shattered Throne
Kim reached the elevator. Pressed the button. The doors opened.
She stepped inside.
The doors closed.
She was gone.
I stood there for a long moment, staring at the elevator, the weight of what had just happened settling over me like a shroud.
Then I turned and walked back to my office.
The door closed behind me. The silence was deafening. I collapsed into my chair and stared at the ceiling, my mind spinning.
What was I going to do?
The arrangement was supposed to be simple. A business deal. Three months of pretending, then a clean break. No mess, no complications, no feelings involved.
But feelings were involved. That was the problem. Somewhere along the way, between kite-flying disasters and midnight breakfasts and the way Kim laughed when she forgot to be guarded, I'd started to care.
Not just about the arrangement. About her. About Zoe. About this little family I'd stumbled into, this warmth I'd never known I was missing until I felt it.
I didn't want to lose them.
Not for the act. Not for my grandmother's approval or my inheritance or any of the reasons I'd started this in the first place.
I wanted them back because I wanted them. Period.
But Kim was furious. She had every right to be. I'd promised to protect Zoe from exactly this situation, and I'd failed. The fact that it wasn't intentional didn't matter. The result was the same.
I needed to fix this.
I needed to make her understand that this wasn't just about the arrangement anymore. That somewhere along the way, it had become real. That I would do whatever it took to earn back her trust.
But how?
I leaned back in my chair, running my hands through my hair, thinking.
Kim didn't trust easily. She'd been burned too many times—by the foster system, by Zoe's father, by every person who'dever promised her something and failed to deliver. Words meant nothing to her. Only actions.
So I needed to act. Needed to show her, not tell her, that I was serious. That I understood what I'd done wrong. That I was willing to do whatever it took to make it right.
If there was one thing I knew, it was women. I'd spent years studying them, charming them, figuring out what made them smile and what made them melt.
But Kim wasn't like other women. That was the whole problem. And the whole point.
An idea began to form. I reached for my phone.
11KIM
I was furious.
The kind of furious that lived in your chest like a fist. The kind that made it hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to do anything except replay the moment over and over in my head. I'd told him. I'd been explicit. One rule. One condition. Keep Zoe out of it.
And he'd failed. Whether he meant to or not didn't matter. The result was the same. My daughter was now tangled up in a fake relationship with a fake future, and when it all fell apart—because it would fall apart, it always did—she would be the one left confused and hurt.
I had to call this whole thing off.
Even though I needed the money. Even though it had been a huge help, had let me breathe for the first time in years. Even though walking away meant going back to the constant math of survival, the juggling of bills, the exhaustion of never having enough.
