“Drink?” he asks.
I shrug and stare at the glass of water in front of me.
I did get drunk the first two nights after I couldn’t find her.
Now I feel like I have a perpetual hangover, which bites into me as soon as I walk into our home.
It’s empty…or rather, it feels that way because she isn’t there.
“I can’t believe she planned the whole thing.” I’m still baffled that my Mia did what she did on Christmas Eve. The whole Winter family is dealing with the fallout.
Mom is threatening to leave my father unless he givesup his mistress, Kitty. That’s her freaking name, and every time my mother says Kitty, I feel inappropriate laughter bubble up inside me.
Lulu has been fired and shipped back to Lyon.
Nelson Jr. and Carla are crying, upset to lose their nanny.
Betty is yelling and screaming at everyone—except Tristan, who is spending more time in the office than ever before. He’s not doing any work, though.
Gianna is now openly asking for money. Patrick has gambling debts.
His family, we find out, cut him off a year ago when he started to steal from the family firm. Apparently, he emptied his trust fund, as well as Gianna’s, and their joint savings accounts, blew through their investments, and then,finally, got caught when he resorted to embezzlement.
I told Gianna to divorce his ass and get a new job—and not necessarily in that order, but I wasn’t giving her a goddamn dime. She feels she’s entitled. Is she? I don’t know, and I don’t care. She got a sizeable payout when she married, based on the value of the company at the time, which is tradition for Winter women. They don’t get shares and don’t have to work their butts off to make those shares valuable.
Besides the Winter family shit show, I have Diana, who is insisting that if I fire her, she’ll take it to the EEO and sue me. She says she’s doing this because she’s fighting forus. She’s obviously lost herfucking mind.
“Mia is resourceful.” Huxley chuckles. “I’d have liked to be there. Too bad no one recorded it.”
I huff out a laugh. “Itwasepic.” I run my hands over my face. “What do I do, Huxley?”
He regards me thoughtfully. “I have no fucking idea, man.”
I suck in a breath, and let it out in frustration. “I lost her. You told me I would, and I didn’t listen. I was so cocksure that she wouldn’t leave me, no matter what, that she loved me too much to do that.”
“Everyone has a breaking point.” He nods at his bartender and points to his scotch glass, and gestures to pour me one, too. The man does so with alacrity.
I pick up the scotch and smell it. “Bardstown.”
“Only the best for us.” He raises his glass, and I clink mine against his.
I set my glass down and twirl it on the smooth mahogany bar top.
“I don’t even know who was driving the SUV that night. Maybe it was an Uber or a friend? I’ve checked all the hotels in Burlington, and no one has seen her. I have no idea where the fuck she is. If she’s okay. If she’s….”Still crying as she had been when she left.
Huxley takes a slow sip. “It’s obvious she needs time. I don’t think you’d achieve much talking to her now, even if you found her.”
I lean against the bar counter, fingers idly tracing its surface. “I know. But I need to fix this, and I can’t unless she’s there…. Though, to be honest, I have no clue how to make any of this right.”
A flicker of compassion crosses his face. “Then maybe it’s time to stop chasing herphysicallyand start figuring out how the hell you’re going to mend what you broke.”
I stare at my untouched drink. "I didn’t sleep with Diana."
"That’s your opening line?" Huxley raises an eyebrow.
I laugh, bitter and humorless. "She kissed me, and now I know she did it because she knew Mia could see us.ButI kissed her back, Hux, for several seconds, before I pulled away.”
“The length of time your mouths were joined is just semantics,” Huxley points out. “Mia didn’t leavejustbecause of the kiss, Aiden. She left becauseyoudid…two years ago.”
