“Mia, you can’t—Just give me some time. Let me talk to …”
“Your wife?” She raised an eyebrow at me.
I took a deep breath. “Please let me work this out.”
“Do what you have to, Jameson. I’m sure I won’t be able to leave here until you tell them I can anyway. But just know I want to, that you gave me a reason to when you withheld all this from me.” She walked toward the door. “And know that when I told you not to worry about me falling in love with you, I meant it. Because, quite frankly, falling out of love with you today was as easy as me swinging open this door.”
With that, she walked out of the room, and I roared in anger, ripping it apart. She didn’t come to check on me. I knew she wouldn’t. She had no reason to.
Mia
IHEARD THEIR VOICESon the other side of the wall as I pulled my duffel from the closet. He may have told me to stay, but I wasn’t listening to anyone anymore.
Instead, I was just listening to their damn conversation in his office.
He must not have cared at all if I heard. He had to know I could, and yet they argued viciously with a passion that only two people who loved each other could have.
“Did he make you do this, or did you come up with it yourself?” Jameson asked her like he was spitting vitriol.
“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, Jameson.” Her words slithered through me and sliced at my heart.
“Jealous?” Forget the vent, his bellow could be heard through the walls. “Do you even hear yourself? You think I’m jealous after years of you actingdead?”
“Don’t be dramatic. I did what I had to do, Jameson. You pushed me to it.”
“Pushed you? Had you asked, Lex, you would have known the plan all along was to build ties with the FDA and that import checks were inevitable. Instead, you packed up and left your daughter and your husband for a better partner.”
“My duty tied me to it. Think ofmyturmoil.”
“You left.”
“Yes, because you wouldn’t help Wilshire, Jameson! God, you sat there like a doormat while I was pregnant, and I had to conjure up the plan myself. Ihadto leave you and Franny for my parents’ company. I put in years of planning, and it would have worked if you hadn’t—”
“It never would have worked because your family’s business was embedded in a scandal so big they couldn’t get clean. They still aren’t.”
“So, help me. Help us. Paolo is willing to give you a cut. Think of the money you’ll make. Think of how happy we could all be.” My stomach rolled with her logic, with the idea she could get her family back so easily after leaving them for so long.
“You think I sat like a doormat? I fucking restrained myself from putting us in the line of fire by being a parent and dedicating myself to making the Diamonds what they are today.”
“Had I known this was your plan all along—”
“You didn’t, because you never confided in me about your fucking company, Lex. You never wanted a real relationship.”
“Well, I could now. That’s what I want now anyway. If this is what you were aiming for, Paolo and I—”
“Do you think I give a flying fuck about Paolo and you?”
“Fine. Act like you don’t, my love. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m back. That we’re married. That Frannyneedsher mother, right? I’ll be a good wife, and if you want me to stop seeing Paolo, I will. Just let them have a warehouse or two a month. It would make the Diamonds stronger and save my family’s company. It’s really the only way at this point.” She sounded defeated.
“Why did you fake your own death, Lex? You thought if you were gone I’d partner with Paolo?”
Even I could hear that she shouldn’t have answered thatquestion but she did, as if she were proud of it. “Well, of course. I knew you were mad at me. I knew we’d gained a lot of enemies. What better way to lose them than to get rid of myself? It afforded Paolo the perfect opportunity to ask for help from you … but you wouldn’t even meet with him. Not until the academy incident.”
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“Oh, Jameson. Don’t make me spell it out. I’ll come back to you if that’s what it takes. I could be so good to you and Franny. You understand?”
“I don’t want you fucking back after you ran to Paolo, Lex. I will never want you back.”
