“I have to tell you something,” I blurt out once she’s gone.
Asher sits down next to me. “Anything, Sugar.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I let the words spill from me. “Richard… he told me it was your father who hired him to… to…”
I trail off, unable to say the words.
Kill me.But I don’t need to. They linger there in the air between us as Asher goes pale.
“I’m sorry,” I say, holding back another sob, causing his steel-gray eyes to pierce me.
“What are you sorry about?” His voice softens, but I can still see the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands are flexed on his thighs. He’s angry. Downright enraged. My brain logically knows I did nothing wrong, but my body shakes, worried that I’ll upset him and that everything happening is all my fault.
“Hey, hey, Sugar.” His calm voice soothes me, and he reaches out, pulling me gently against him. “It’s not your fault, Grace. Please don’t think that. You’re safe here, okay?”
The words put me at ease momentarily, but I have a hard time believing them. “It’s my fault. If I wouldn’t have told you–”
“Stop.” He holds my shoulders and forces me to face him. “None of this is your fault. That bastard took advantage of you and then when he was to pay the consequences of his crimes, he tried to kill you instead. None of this is because of your actions. It’s because we live in a fucked-up world where fucked-up men think they can get away with whatever they want. Do you understand me?”
I nod, surprised by his words and the emotion held in them.
“This is my fault.” He continues. “I’m the one who tried to take the guy down. I didn’t realize it would set him up for my father to use.” Dropping his head, his voice lowers. “I didn’t realize–” He doesn’t finish, and I’m not sure I want him to.
Instead, I lean in, wrapping my arms around his waist. He hugs me back, and we stay like that for a while, just holding each other.
I used to think Asher was one of those men. Someone who could get anything he wanted with the snap of his fingers. And I guess he still is. He has the money to get whatever he wants. But I saw his face when I told the police what happened, and when I told him what Richard said about his father.
I don’t think he’s a bad person. I think he was raised by one. And maybe that caused him to make some bad choices along the way, but I’m starting to realize that being raised with money doesn’t actually make your life easier. It just makes it harder in different ways.
And I think I would take my middle-class small-town family over his wealthy one any day.
Eventually, I drift off to sleep, and when I wake, Asher is gone.
49
ASHER
My hands are shaking as I enter the office the day of the board meeting. I left Grace sleeping on the couch after she told me what Richard said moments before he almost killed her.
Fuck.
This is all my fault.
I can’t stop the onslaught of thoughts and regret. If I’d never intervened, this never would’ve happened. But I hated the knowledge of what that asshole did to Grace, and I wanted to make him pay. I had the means to make him pay.
And now, I’m realizing I am just like my father.
An asshole who uses my money and resources to get whatever I want, not thinking about how it will affect other people.
And then to see Grace with tears in her eyes, claiming this was all her fault when it was never hers. It was always mine.
I don’t deserve her.
I’m not good enough for someone as pure and sweet as Grace.
I run my hands through my hair. How did I get here? Everything was going to plan, but ever since I was handed interim CEO, I haven’t had a handle on anything. I feel out of control, my mind spinning with the number of things that need done, but anger has taken a home in my body and it tells me to kill my father.
If only that was something I was capable of.
