After a quick glance at Allen, Connie stepped toward her sister. “You can’t. It’lldestroyyou.”
Josh took her hand, but she slid away. “We all knew I’d never finish that drawing. Besides, you heard him. I’m under contract.” She dropped into her chair. “You don’t get it. If I don’t do what he wants, he won’t just take me to court. He’ll ruin you, too. All of you. He won’t stop until he gets what he wants or he getsrevenge.”
“I don’t care.” Josh moved to her again, but didn’t touch herthistime.
“I do. Besides, he’s right. This is probably my only chance to rebuild my reputation. He created me, and he ruined me. He’s the only one who can bring my work back to thelight.”
“That’s not true,” Josh said. “I don’t know what he taught you, but I know that the art I’ve seen you create is not something that can be learned. Your talent was already inside you.” He dared to touch her arm, lightly. “Don’t do this,” He pleaded, his heart shredding by the sudden turn ofevents.
Lily wouldn’t look at him. She only kept her gaze on the envelope on the table. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it. That I couldn’t finish the drawing for your advertising campaign. Better that you know now, while you still have a couple of weeks to develop something different, than if I failed at the lastminute.”
“Lily.”
She gripped the arms of the chair. “I think you shouldgonow.”
Josh looked to Connie, but she looked as lost as he felt. Allen went to the front door. “Come on, man. We’ll work this out somehow. Let’s gofornow.”
Josh backed away from Lily. Not even an hour earlier, he had believed in them, believed they had a shot. Now, in just a matter of minutes, everything had fallen apart. He thought he would fall apart, or lose it if he didn’t get out of there, so he followed Allen out the door. The entire ride back to the hotel, they didn’t say a word until Allen pulled into a parking space and turned offthecar.
“Give her until morning, then go talk to her. She’s just in shock. That was a heavy threat he threw in her face,” Allen said, trying tosoothehim.
“Thanks, but it’s up to Lily now.” He’d seen it in her eyes. She was gone, lost to the man who had some sort of inexplicable control over her. He couldn’t compete with that, and he couldn’t watch that monster manipulate her either. “I tried to help her. I even put her well-being before our company.” He shook his head. “How stupid could I have been? Now, we need to figure out how to save this contract and our company. It’s time to stop living this beachfantasy.”
