He stopped immediately, his hand dropping to his side. He looked devastated but I didn’t care, couldn’t let myself care.
“My father died in a stairwell after your company sent that notice.” The words came out thick with resentment. “Heart attack. The stress killed him. Did you know that when you signed those authorizations? Did you even care?”
His face went white. “I didn’t know then. I swear I didn’t know?—”
“Is that supposed to make it better?” I was yelling now, past caring that his assistant could probably hear through the door.“That you erased fifty-two families without bothering to learn their names? That my father was just a number on a spreadsheet you approved?”
“No.” His voice broke. “Nothing makes it better. Nothing excuses what I did.”
“Then why?” I grabbed one of the documents off his desk and held it up. “Why didn’t you tell me? During our dates, during the drive to Millbrook, at Mary’s house when we pretended to be married?” My voice cracked on the last word. “In bed when I gave you everything? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He looked like I’d hit him. “I was afraid of losing you.”
“So you lied instead. You let me fall for you, let me trust you, let me sleep with you while knowing exactly what you’d taken from me.”
“I know.” Tears were forming in his eyes, and I hated that I noticed, hated that part of me still wanted to comfort him. “I was trying to become someone who deserved you before admitting who I’d been. I know that was cowardice. I know I was being selfish. But after that day at Mary’s, I couldn’t keep lying anymore.”
His eyes closed like the words caused physical pain. “I love you, Gianna. I know I don’t have the right to say that after what I’ve done, but I do. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything.”
“Love?” I laughed again, that same broken sound. “You call this love? You let me talk about my father’s death, about how Devlin Holdings destroyed my family, about the case I was building against your company. You looked me in the eye and lied while I told you everything. That’s not love, Archie. That’s manipulation.”
“It wasn’t like that?—”
“Then what was it like?” I was crying now, hot tears I couldn’t stop. “Explain it to me. Make me understand how the man whoheld me and told me I was beautiful and made me feel safe is the same man who killed my father.”
“I didn’t mean to?—”
“But you did!” The words came out as a scream. “You signed those papers. You authorized that project. You made the decision that destroyed my entire life. And then you had the audacity to let me fall in love with you without telling me the truth.”
He reached for me again, desperate. “Please. Let me fix this. I’ll do anything. I’ll resign, I’ll go public with everything, I’ll spend the rest of my life making this right. Just don’t leave. Please don’t leave.”
I stepped back toward the door, needing distance between us. “There’s nothing to fix. We’re done. I never want to see you again.”
“You don’t mean that.” His voice broke completely.
“I do.” The certainty in my voice surprised me. “I mean it with everything I have left. I slept with the man who killed my father. Do you understand that? Every time I close my eyes now, I see you signing those papers and then I see you touching me and I feel sick. I feel disgusted with myself for being so blind, for wanting you, for loving you.”
His face crumpled and fresh tears spilled down his cheeks. “Gianna, please?—”
“I can’t even stand to look at you.” The words came out cold, final. “Everything about you makes me feel dirty. The way you touched me, the things you said, the way I trusted you—all of it was built on lies. And I hate myself for believing them.”
“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that.”
“Why not? It’s true.” I grabbed the door handle. “You’re the reason my father is dead. You’re the reason my mother spent years unable to leave the house without having panic attacks. You’re the reason I had to drop out of school and work three jobsjust to keep us fed. And then you had the nerve to seduce me, to make me care about you, to let me think maybe I deserved something good.”
“You do deserve something good?—”
“Not from you!” The words echoed in his office. “ You don’t get to take everything from me and then pretend you can give it back. You don’t get to destroy my life and then play savior.”
“I never meant to hurt you.”
“But you did. Twice.” I stepped into the hallway. “Once when you signed those papers ten years ago, and again when you decided your guilt was more important than my right to know the truth. You’re a coward, Archie. And I was an idiot for believing you were anything else.”
“Gianna—”
I walked away. He called my name again but I kept walking, past his assistant who’d clearly heard everything, past the elevators to the stairs because I couldn’t bear being still. I took them two at a time, my breath coming in gasps that had nothing to do with exertion.
Twenty-three flights down, I burst through the lobby doors into afternoon sunlight that felt too bright, too normal for how thoroughly my world had just ended.
