Pages of legal gibberish unfolded. Aside from that, it contained a list of marriage rules that read as though they were written in 1952. Also, a prenuptial agreement with a compensation amount that had so many zeroes I had to count twice.
I sank into his obscenely expensive desk chair that smelled of his cologne and the finest leather, with the folder open in front of me, the permission slip forgotten on the floor.
He was looking for a wife—a contract wife. Someone to play the role, smile for the cameras, and collect a paycheck at the end. All for show. And it wasn’t me.
My hand drifted to my stomach, hiding the secret I’d come here to tell him. The baby I thought might change everything.
God, I was an idiot.
The dreamer in me had run wild, believing I was building something real here. That Theo’s laughter and Griffin’s rare smiles and the way he’d held me when I was sick meant I was carving out a place in their lives and hearts. That maybe, when I finally told him about the baby, he’d want us both, admit his feelings for me, and I’d become more than the nanny.
I’d taken too long to tell him—I knew that. But every day moved so fast in his world, and I kept waiting for the momentwhen he’d look at me the way he had at the lake. Only then would I feel brave enough to risk everything.
I’d been mothering my whole life—Pauline and Charlene, Mom after her accident, even the regulars at the bar who needed someone to listen. Maybe that’s why Theo already felt like mine. Why this penthouse had started to feel like home instead of a museum. Because it needed a motherly touch. I was good at making a home out of nothing. At finding family in the broken and missing pieces. But this was the truth staring me in the face, printed in legal terms I couldn’t have misunderstood.
Clearly, Griffin didn’t want a partner. He wanted a business arrangement. A prop who was polished and poised, who fit into his world without disrupting it. Someone who could be bought.
Not a broke bartender from Holly Creek who slept in her car and got knocked up after one night.
Chapter Ten
THE RULES
Jessa
“Fuck you,Griffin West, and your penthouse made of gold.” I grabbed the sparkling water from his fancy fridge, poured it into a crystal wine goblet, and kicked off my shoes.
This might be his world, but I’d play by my own rules.
I cranked up my new phone and blasted the first angry-girl anthem I could find. Music filled the penthouse, and I danced around barefoot on his plush living room carpet.
This had been the pattern I’d been living my whole life. Never quite good enough. Never quite the right fit. The girl from the wrong side of Holly Creek who worked too hard and dreamed too big and always, always ended up disappointed.
I’d spent years making other people comfortable, putting my needs last. But I was so tired of being invisible. Tired of men like Griffin who would see me when it was convenient—when they needed something—but neverreallysee me. Not the way I deserved.
I wasn’t going to beg him to notice me. Would not make myself fit into his pristine, controlled world by erasing all the parts of me that didn’t match the standards.
I spun in a circle, taking in the floor-to-ceiling windows, the modern art that cost a fortune, and he life I’d never have.
“I’ll have this baby without you.”
The words hung in the air, brave on the outside, but weak in the middle. I suddenly stopped dancing and pressed a hand to my heart, wishing I believed them.
What the hell had happened to me?
Back in Holly Creek, I was the one my family counted on. The problem-solver. The woman who kept the lights on and food on the table and never needed saving. I’d raised my sisters, nursed my mother, worked double shifts, and still smiled through it all because that’s what Cole women did. We survived.
I never waited around for some prince to rescue me from my life.
Until the day I’d stepped into West Tower. I hadn’t even realized the shift until this moment. I’d walked through a portal into another world. One I’d only seen from the outside, in movies or magazines or through the windows of houses I’d never been invited into. A world where people didn’t worry about electricity bills or broken-down cars or whether they could afford groceries and rent in the same week.
Griffin’s world. The gold and glamour of it all teased me. And I’d wanted it so badly it hurt. Not just the money or the luxury—though I’d be lying if I said that didn’t call to me. But the safety. The stability. The idea that I could finally stop running on fumes and just... breathe.
I’d convinced myself that if I just tried harder, fit better, maybe Griffin would see me—and want me—and the fairy tale would finally be mine. As if I were Cinderella, and all I needed was the right dress and a little magic.
Forget that. I’d figure it out on my own. Just like I always had. But even as I thought it, my chest ached with the loss of something I’d never really had in the first place.
I drained the sparkling water, set the glass down with more force than necessary on the table, flat-out ignoring the coaster, and returned to his desk.
