“No, you won’t,” Nora snapped. “You obviously knew Cole was lying to Sunny—leading her along from the start—and you didn’t say anything.”
She patted Sunny on the shoulder. “I’m so sorry, dearie, for everything these worthless boys have put you through. That’s why I’m going to giveyoumy shares in Benton Worldwide tonight.”
“What?!” Max didn't look nearly as gleeful now.
“You heard me!” Nora answered, her voice sharp as a knife’s blade. “You both need to learn that people aren’t pawns to be used in your childish rivalry.”
“No, Nora.” Sunny spoke before I could. “I won’t let you do that.”
“Sunny, maybe you don’t understand.” Nora took her hands, her dark-green eyes brimming with pity. “Cole doesn’t genuinely have any feelings whatsoever for you. He was just using you to get his revenge on me. You don’t owe him anything—nothing at all. Let me do this for you. It’s the only way he’ll learn.”
“No,” Sunny said again, even more firmly this time.She took her hands back from Nora. “You were wrong to try to force Cole to marry me.”
“Yeah, you were,” Max agreed. “I mean, you could have at least opened with a date and gone on from there.”
Sunny shook her head. “Even a date would have been wrong. Cole is a grown man, who has worked extremely hard to bring Benton Worldwide back to its former glory—beyond that, really. He has a vision for the company, and you can’t just ruin everything he’s worked to achieve to get your way, Nora. That’s not fair. Or right.”
Nora frowned, having obviously never thought about it that way before.
“Maybe that’s true,” she admitted with a sniff. “But still, he had no business using you the way he did.”
Sunny shook her head. “No, this is my fault. Heshowedme exactly what he was the first day we met—a businessman, first and foremost—and I chose not to believe him. Then I did something even more stupid. I fell in love with him.”
Sunny’s eyes landed on me, and she didn't bother to put back on the mask she'd been wearing when she walked into the party. I could see every ounce of hurt and pain my actions had caused her. “Lesson learned.”
With that, she turned and rushed away toward the exterior gate door, located just beyond the balloon arch.
“Sunny…” I started to go after her, but Max moved to stand in front of me.
“Let her go with some dignity, bro,” Max said. “It’s the least you can do.”
“The very least,” Nora agreed, stepping in beside her younger grandson. “I’ll give you my chair position on the board. You don’t have to vote me out. But only if you let poor Sunny go in peace. She’s right. I was wrong to ever force you on her. I think we can all agree now that you don’t deserve her or her forgiveness.”
I stopped.
Not because of Nora’s offer to give me control of the board, but because of the realization that dropped down on me then, like a ton of bricks.
Sunny had been nothing but good to me. She had forced me to be a better person and even defended me against my grandmother, despite the humongous wrong I’d done her.
I realized that both my brother and my grandmother were right. She deserved her dignity, and I didn’t deserve anything.
Especially not her.
I let her go, watching her dash through the party and exit out thegate.
Thanks to Sunny, I’d gotten everything I wanted. But watching her walk out of my life—forever this time—I’d never felt more bereft.
CHAPTER35
Sunny
I ranout of the engagement party, but the memory of Cole's proposal continued to haunt me.
Especially late at night, when there was nothing else to occupy my mind while I tried to fall asleep on Tony and Cherenity's fashionable-but-rock-hard couch.
Also in the morning, when I woke up alone.
And during the day, when I ate a protein bar for lunch instead of joining Cole at the Benton Golf Club.
