“Oh, Ms. Hent. Yes, her son is adorable.”
“Mm hm. I need her room number.”
I followed her over to her computer, watching as Tori’s information loaded.
“She’s staying in the tenth-floor suites.”
I frowned, wondering why she would be on that floor. My father usually reserved the two floors below mine for special business guests, which included the floor Liv’s place was on. Maybe he’d opened them up and not told me.
I thanked her and turned away, stopping as a thought occurred to me. “Did she say what age her son is?”
“No, but we have it since he’s staying with her. Let me see.” She scrolled another page. “Ah, he’s four. He’ll turn five at the end of October.”
“Thanks.” I walked away in a daze, my mind churning through the numbers. Five years, eight months, and twenty-three days since I left Tori. My feet stumbled, and I reached out to the wall to brace myself. It couldn’t be possible. The shock on her face when I’d commented on how quickly she’d gotten over me had been for good reason.
Straightening, I swallowed back the emotions that were threatening to break my composure—pain, guilt, fear, disbelief. Following my path outside, I nodded to the valet, who called my driver. It was good I wasn’t planning to drive myself to the office. I likely would have crashed.
During the drive, I convinced myself the staff had typed in the wrong date when booking the room. That had to be the case. The alternative was too gut-wrenching to believe. That not only had I left her, but she’d been pregnant when I had.
After a brief recap of my meeting with our father, I left Liv, intending to transfer my office to his. She had already packed up his belongings and left them at the front desk. The guards posted out front would escort him out. I couldn’t wait to hear his reaction to that.
“Weird to see you in here and not Dad,” Liv said, popping her head in.
“Yeah.”
Head cocked, she studied me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just been a long day.”
She strolled closer to my desk. “No, there’s something wrong. You should be celebrating. And I don’t mean with a glass of scotch in your hand.” I swirled the glass and took a sip. “We should be out toasting his defeat. We finally did it.”
I stared out of the office windows, the city skyline looking back at me. “I saw her today.”
“Who?”
“Tori.”
“Should I know who that is?”
I looked back at her, reading the confusion. I’d forgotten that I had kept everything about Tori from her. Not that she would have asked, but after she’d had me delete Tori’s contact information, I’d never mentioned her again. Keeping all my thoughts of her to myself.
“The fiancé I destroyed.” Saying the words brought it all back. The excitement of proposing, the moments of happiness that existed despite the storm brewing outside our bubble.
“You did?”
“Yeah.” I scratched my neck before taking another drink.
“And?”
“She has a kid.” Who might be mine, I wanted to add, but I didn’t have confirmation, and without that, I would stay silent.
“Oh, well, that’s good. See, she moved on without you. Now you can move on and stop pining over her.”
“I’m not pining.”
“Whatever you want to call it.”
A knock at the open door had my eyes rising to see Tina, our head of Human Resources. “I have the files for tomorrow’s candidates.”
