Her, breaking, before me.I regretted it. So fucking much.
Regretting was better than allowing her to get close to me.
The more I pushed her away, the less love she’d feel.
“My wife is giving me the silent treatment and my dad is on the same side as Eda,” I lifted the glass to my lips only for it to be dragged out of my hands. “Of course, I look like shit.”
After placing the glass on another table, Hasan leaned back against his chair with arms crossed. “I call it being a bastard.”
“Bastard?”
Hasan raised a questioning glance in response to my forced chuckle.
This morning—with my ear against the door—I waited until the door on the other side of the hallway closed and then watched Adelaide as she sat on the island table. Staring at her from the top of the stairs as she drank her coffee, while lookingthrough a file on her iPad. Her hair ran down her back in silky waves. I’d noticed that about her. She started experimenting with her straight hair, doing styles I’d never seen before.
My self-control was on a precipice of completely shattering with the new outfits she wore. Gone were the flowy dresses and skirts, in replace of them were pants, jeans, and tight skirts that hugged her ass. Around her, I was constantly hard.
My hand became chafed from how often I pleasured myself to the image of her in my mind.
Maybe Iwasthe fucking bastard.
“Eda was out with your dad yesterday.”
No surprise there. It wasn’t like they hid it from anyone.
“Where’d they go?”
“Louis Pizza.”
If I weren’t in a shitty mood, I’d laugh. “Any update on Osama?”
He was pretending to work with Umaima during the day. At night, he’d try to crack my father’s code.
So far, no success.
Daniel Hayes trained Osama.The mentee was up against the mentor.
“Nothing yet, but we got an update from Rowlen.”
I waited for him to continue.
“The file is at the house.”
No. “You sure?”
Dark circles pushed Hasan’s cheeks down. He was trying fucking hard to figure it, digging himself into a grave. He must resent me for it. For making him go up against his sister’s best friend—a woman who he looked at as a sister.
Adelaide thought she was making all the decisions at Starlight right now.
But it was me and she had no clue.
After each meeting, Harry would forward an email with the rest of the board members CC’d. They would share their notes about Adelaide’s decision and leave it up to me.
It didn’t feel as good as I thought it would—taking that position from her when she finally felt free enough to do it. I never refused her decisions because sure, I was the fucking CEO of Moonshine and Starlight, but Adelaide Mikael was ten times smarter than me.
One betrayal after the other, they started blending into a big one and like discarded garbage at the side of the road, it started to stink up my sanity and my choices.
Hasan noticed it too.
