“Iamthe breach.” She gives me the softest of smiles. “Did you really think you could get away with screwing me over?”
I look at that picture again. At Francie. All I can think about is how happy she sounded on the phone.
“I have the videos, too, of course.” She wrinkles her nose. “Those weren’t my kind of fun to watch. Of course, you don’t seem to have lost your touch.”
I say nothing.
“And backups. I’m not an amateur here. Shaun was very detailed.”
“You paid him?”
“Shaun’s an old friend.” She lifts a brow. “Not that his name is really Shaun. But I think you know that already.”
There’s a crushing feeling on my chest. Like the world is trying to push against me. Box me in. That kid being pushed into the cupboard, hearing his father screaming out in pain.
Knowing he’s responsible.
My head starts to pound.
“What do you want from me?” I grit my teeth so hard my jaw aches.
Her knowing eyes catch mine. “An apology would be a good start,” she tells me.
“An apology for what?” I can’t stop looking at the photograph. It’s like every mistake I’ve ever made, pixelated and formed into the face of the woman I love.
“For treating me like shit. You didn’t have to throw me to the wolves when Nathan tried to remove you from the company.”
“You were feeding him information,” I remind her. “You were in my bed while your brother worked to gut my company.”
“It was his company too,” she says, like I didn’t already know that. “And family’s complicated. You of all people should know that.”
“Ethics aren’t.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” she replies, her voice light. “You always took things so personally. That was part of the problem.”
Something twists in my gut. The same hollow, scraping feeling that’s been following me for days. The same one I got when I found out that my dad had started to use Eden to cheat at poker, the exact same way he’d used me.
And I hadn’t protected her.
Annalise tilts her head. “But none of that really matters anymore. What matters is those videos,” she tells me. “And what I intend to do with them.”
My jaw tightens. “If you do anything at all to expose these I’ll fucking slay you.”
Her lip curls. “I’m not planning to do anything at all. As long as you do what you’re told. I want you to walk away. From the company. Transfer fifty percent of your shares to Nathan and fifty percent to me. Quietly. No fanfare. No scandals. You just… walk away.”
“And if I don’t?” I lift a brow.
Her smile is ice cold. “Then I upload these photographs and the world can see your little girlfriend playing show and tell.”
Something inside me snaps. “I swear to God if you hurt her…”
“I’m not the kinky asshole who recorded her. That’s all you. All of this is you.” Her eyes catch mine and I can see how deadly serious she is. “You handed her to me on a silver platter, Asher. You get to decide what happens next.”
The roaring in my ears reaches a crescendo. She’s right. This is me. My carelessness. I thought I could control everything.
I was wrong. And now history is repeating itself, giving me the worst déjà vu.
I’m the common denominator.
