I felt the words melt my insides a fraction, but I bit the inside of my lip to refocus myself. “See me? About what?”
Rowan stepped aside as I slid past him to go back to my dinner. I wasn’t going to let him interrupt my plans for the night.
Rowan’s fingers trailed down my arm as I passed him, but he followed me as I kept moving. “Things are happening behind the scenes. And I wanted to talk to you about it all, plus…” He trailed off as I sank on to my couch.
I pulled out the meals I got today. “Have you eaten?”
“No.” He sat down as I gestured.
“Pick one.” He stared up at me and reached for a dinner. I grabbed one of my own and sat down in the chair. His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment on the space I created between us.I dug into the cold meal, not caring enough to heat it, and then I looked up. “What’s been happening?”
Rowan finally stopped staring at me and dug into his own food. “Your father has been able to move things around. You now have access to his accounts. This way, it looks like you inherited all of his money.” Rowan paused. “We need you to go out and start spending. New clothes, new furniture, anything that will catch Brandon’s and Vince’s attention.” I nodded.
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I tilted my head.
“Here.” He pulled out a card I recognized well.
“Have you been to the Agora to see him?” I reached out and took my father’s bank card.
Rowan nodded. “I had a lot to discuss with him, and years to apologize for.” I just nodded. “He gave me a letter from Cassie to give to you.” He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it over.
I felt tears spring to my eyes. “Cass.” I smiled as I put the letter on the table.
“You aren’t going to read it?” His voice was soft.
“I’ll read it when I’m alone.” I flicked my eyes to his, and he deflated a little. But I had to create space. After everything. After today. I needed to create this space between us.
“You haven’t emailed me. You have been ignoring me and I’m just confused.” He started, but I laughed.
“Seriously?” He was trying to turn this on me.
“What?” Rowan’s eyes snapped up from his meal.
My anger spiked so fast, I nearly fell when I stood. “Get out.” My voice held the venom I felt.
“What?” He stood.
“If you are going to fucking sit here and blame me when you are the one that has ignored all of my calls, my emails, my texts, you are going to fucking blame me. Get the fuck out of my apartment.” Rowan stared at me for a minute before he stood.He pulled out his phone and started to hit buttons. “Did you hear me?” I snarled, and he turned his phone screen to me.
“Look.” I stared at his face before my eyes flicked to his phone. It was our text chat. I read through the screen and stopped.
“That isn’t right.” I pulled out my phone and selected our chat log and showed him.
“What the fuck is going on?” He pulled my phone to his face. I stared at his phone. Messages he sent that I didn’t receive. I pulled his phone out of his hand and clicked the call log. Nothing. All the calls I made were missing.
“How is this possible?” I looked up. Rowan was still looking at my texts.
“You texted me?” I just nodded.
“Of course I did. I also called. I felt pathetic after a week of being ignored, but I had questions and you were answering my emails.” I handed back his phone.
“Wait…you emailed me? My secure email?”
I nodded. “Yes.” I nodded. “You told me to. So I did. But I had a question that I needed an answer to about breaching a security wall and you never emailed me back. So I texted you, and I called, and then I just stopped because obviously you didn’t want to answer me.” I placed my fork down and went to grab my computer. I came back out to a very confused Rowan, but anger entered his eyes. “What?”
I walked over and clicked into my email. I went to the sent folder and quickly counted. Twelve emails…I sent twelve fucking emails to this man over a course of a month. I shook my head in disgust. I never counted, but seeing them all there without even a one-word reply made me feel fucking weak and pathetic.
You are not pathetic.Megan came out and laid down in the clearing by Nix, who I realized had been keeping the flame on the candle, changing my scent, going.
