A lump formed in Corrie’s throat. Thirty-five years of her life, and the first time she tells someone other than a family member that she loves them, the response isplease don’t say that? So that was what it felt like when men told her they loved her and she didn’t reciprocate.
Except Corriehadn’tloved them and she was pretty sure Forddidlove her.
“Ford... please. I—” she said, taking a step toward him. She needed to hold him. Hold him so he could feel her love.
But he cut her off and stepped away, turning his body to the side. Closing himself off to her. “I’m not even supposed to be here,” he said, stopping her in her tracks.
“What are you talking about?”
“Here, leading this dig.” He closed his eyes for a moment, then looked her straight in the face. “I learned about this dig through Dr. Crawley and that the investor was planning to hire you, so I called him and convinced him to choose me instead. Told him that I knew as much about Chimalli as you did.”
Corrie blinked several times before fire rose through her belly as his words sank in. “You... you took this from me?” She was unable to contain the confused anger rising through her voice.
“Yes.”
“Why? Why would you do that? You know how much this dig meant to me.”
“Because he was going to pay me a lot of money if I succeeded.”
“You did this... formoney?” She scoffed and shook her head. “How much? How much is he paying you?”
He slumped his shoulders. “A million dollars. One-point-five million with any skeletal remains, but all he really wants is the knife.”
A torrent of fury whirled through every inch of her. Money? He wanted fucking money?!
“What world are you living in? That’s ludicrous, Ford, for someone to pay an archaeologist that much to find an artifact. No one does that. And that’s not whywedo what we do. We do it to preserve history. And for the adventure. We don’t do it to line our pockets with gold.”
“Well, I needed the money!” he shot back. “For my mom’s treatments.”
“So you compromised an archaeologist’s moral code and your integrity to get it?”
“My integrity? I did this forher. I’m broke, Corrie. Completely and utterly broke. My father wasted everything they had on phony artifacts and left my mother with nothing. And I’ve been supporting her ever since, even after I got a pay reduction due to budget cuts that conveniently happened to coincide with my breakup with the boss’s daughter. So, yeah, I did this for her. I did it so I can pay for treatments that might save her life,” he argued.
“Ford, there are other ways to get money. Once word gets out about this dig, our reputations will be that of money-hungry gravediggers. No one in the professional archaeology world will respect us after this.”
“What do you care about those people? They don’t respect you anyway.”
Thwack!
Corrie’s open hand flew out and smacked Ford’s face as tears rolled down her own. Cheap. He’d made her feel cheap. Confirming all the whispers and crass jokes made about her all these years. Except she wanted to believe Ford was different. That he saw her for more than that.
Clearly, she was wrong.
“Corrie, I’m sor—” He moved toward her, but she snatched herself away.
“Fuck you, Ford. It’s because of people like you that I’ve acquired this reputation. People who’ve treated me like a joke—a caricature,” she said, her voice shaking.
“That wasn’t what I meant. You’re better than those people. Who gives a damn what they think about you?”
“I do!”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t.”
Corrie laughed, numb and filled with disbelief. “That’s rich coming from someone who’s gotten where they are by keeping others down. I trusted you, Ford. I trusted you with everything. Gave you parts of me I haven’t shared with anyone. And here you are, throwing it all back in my face like none of it ever mattered.”
“I tried to tell you. Two times today—” he pleaded.
“After you slept with me.”
