Page 47 of Maid for My Billionaire Boss
Ignoring my question, she sputtered, “You don’t get to break me anymore.”
Suddenly I saw it clearly. Her tears weren’t about her husband or losing everything. She was crying because of heartbreak.
New heartbreak.
HeartbreakIhad caused.
Even in the shadows of the dimly lit room, the heartbreak was radiating from the depths of her eyes. Raising my hand, I reached the tips of my fingers out to caress the side of her cheek. Holding my breath, I waited for her to slap me, but instead her wounded eyes latched onto mine, seeking clarification. I was done explaining. I didn’t want her to hurt anymore. Everything inside me said I had the power to fix my mistakes, and I needed to reassure her everything would get better. “I’m going to make it better,” I whispered. “I promise.”
It was as if my words threw her back to her reality, and she took a heart-stabbing step back and bit out, “I’m going to tell you again, and if you don’t listen, I’m going to call the cops. You need to leave.”
Some moments in life play out in slow motion, and you can count them out on your fingers how rarely they happen. For me, the day I heard about my dad’s disappearance was one of them. The day I heard about Damion dying was another.
Right now. I was living in another one.
Bonding my eyes with hers, I begged her to forgive me. I didn’t care if she understood. I was not sure if I understood at this point, but I needed her to be willing to forgive me because I was just as lost as she was. I’d put on a good show, trying to move forward but I had been broken for the last year, and clearly not thinking about a lot of stuff. Stuff I really messed up. However, right now, I knew it wasn’t an accident that she came into my life. I could see her struggle to break my eye lock, but I leaned closer, pulling her back like there was an invisible string pulled tight between us, tying us together.
Because we are tied together.
There was no other way this story could happen unless we had been guided . . . somehow. “Atalie,” I whispered, feeling her name burn in my chest. “Why did you apply for your job?”
“Ah, I needed a way to put food on the table since you stole my bank account.”
“No.” I reached forward, trying to grab her hand, but she pushed my hand away and gave me a warning look. I wasn’t giving up until she saw it too. “It was Damion,” I said softly. “There’s no other way.”
“Stop.” Her voice was so weak, I felt bad pressing the issue, but I had to.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. We were both hurting. I majorly screwed up letting my team run my business for me, but I can fix it. I can totally get everything back for you and you can stop hurting because we can be there for each—”
“Get out of my house!”
I heard her demands, but I was affecting her, so I pushed on, “Atalie, I’ll admit I suck at reading people, but you must admit something happened between us. I can’t walk away from that—”
“Then I’ll call the cops.” She practically lunged over the couch to where her cell phone was sitting.
I knew she wasn’t calling my bluff, and I didn’t want any legal problems, so I held my hands up and called back to her, “I’m leaving.” I even took steps until I was standing on her front porch. “But I’m going to fix this. I promise.”
“Eat dirt, you disgusting jerk!” She scurried back to the door and tried to slam the door in my face, but it popped back open, leaving us facing each other. I was silent, but she called out, “Oh, not this stupid door again!” She slammed the door, but it floated back open. “Seriously!” She wrapped her fingers around the edge of the door, crying real tears. “Stupid door!”
“Here, let me try.” I turned the knob the whole way and pulled the door as hard as I could until I felt it stick. Then I was left standing with the door in my face. So, I went home to work on my plan.
Twenty-Four
Atalie
Iquicklylockedthedeadbolt and attached the chain, putting as much distance between us as possible. Then I turned, letting my back slam against the door so hard it hurt, but I wanted it to hurt because I needed a worse pain to shadow the anguish that burned in my veins. My knees buckled. My legs caved, and I slid down to a human ball of agony on the floor, where I violently wept. I warped into a weird trance where my mind kept tossing out random sentences Damion had said to me over the years. At the time, they seemed like casual conversations, but now they were strung together.
Lea, the bank won’t take our loan, but I talked to my buddy from back home and he will invest with us. It’s great news!
Babe, I know we need a new roof, but business has been slow.
I got the money for the roof.
Bad news, I think the leaky roof gave us mold. I don’t have the money to fix it, so we will need to stay at your mom’s.
Great news, I got the money to fix the mold!
I know you want to send Josiah to that expensive private school, but I don’t think we can swing the tuition. Can we look at the public school down the street?
