Page 24 of The Billionaire's Secret
“Trust you?”The words are torn from me.“Why would I have trusted someone whose life looks like my ex’s?The money, the things…the way you can snap your fingers and people run to do your bidding.”
“I will not apologize for being born into my family and working my ass off to have what I do.Yes, I have power and money, but unlike your ex, I don’t use people and I never would have used you.”
“I didn’t technically use you…I thought if I could get Heloise on board and then she’d tell her circle of friends…” I sigh as the anger drains from me and there’s only sadness and regret left.“I never intended…” I stop myself in time.I’d almost said I never intended to fall for him.
We both fall silent, breathing hard and fast.
He rakes his hand through his hair.“You didn’t have to say you were married.Do you know how much I wanted you?”
“Do you think you were the only one battling that?”I hadn’t meant to admit I wanted him too.
His eyes darken and he moves closer.He runs his fingers across my neck, his fingertips grazing the diamonds in the necklace.“You didn’t have to lie to me.”
“If I hadn’t lied, what do you think would have happened?”I ask wearily.We both know even if he won’t admit it.
“I guess we’ll never know,” he says, his voice equally as weary.“I’ll take you home.”
I never had Locke.Then why do I feel like I lost him?
Back in the car, there’s only silence.It’s thick with words I can’t speak.Words I know he doesn’t want to hear.
When we reach my place, I unbuckle my seatbelt.
“Salem,” he says my name quietly and I brace myself, expecting him to say he never wants to see me again.“I’m angry.And I’m hurt.And part of me is celebrating that you’re single.”
“I…I had to protect myself…” I hesitate, then decide to tell him how me faking a marriage came to be.“Doug said I was a joke.A bet with his friends that he could slum it with the poor girl and get me to fall for him.I was dazzled by the way he supposedly cared for me and I trusted him completely.And he took everything including my family.”
“What do you mean?”
“My father was a contractor with a construction company he’d worked at for decades.He got him fired by saying he was stealing materials and selling them on the side.It wasn’t true and Doug offered no proof, but the owner didn’t want toupset that kind of family.”
My heart squeezes at the memory of how my honest, hardworking father looked when he’d come home and told us about it.
“Then Doug got my mother fired from the restaurant she managed.She fought back but his mother threatened to come up with bogus charges to send both of my parents to prison.That scared her.”
I clench my hands thinking about how my parents were constantly on edge.“They lost sleep and weight from the stress and finally, they lost hope and moved away.”
“Go on,” Locke says quietly.
“My brother was next on their list to be fired.Then his girlfriend.The hits just kept coming.His mother said she’d make things worse if I didn’t learn my place.”
“They wanted to silence you because of your designs,” he says.
“Yes.And I still have to tread carefully or they’ll harass my family again even though they’re not even in Laketon Heights now.”I take a deep breath.
“I see.”
I lower my head.“I’m sorry I lied to you.I did take the job to gain access to your social circle but also because I need the money.I’ll need to pay an attorney to get the rights back to my designs.Then if I win, I’ll need business startup funds.”
He’s quiet and I’m thinking this is it.I’ve lost the job.“I can hand in my resignation tomorrow.”
“No.If you’re going to start something, Salem.Finish it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Stay at the company until you make DB Jewelry pay for what was done to you.I hate thieves as much as I hate lies.Once that’s done, then I’ll accept your resignation.”
Then we’ll never see each other again.
