Some of the board nods in agreement, but my father’s face stays twisted. “Interim,” he mutters as Delmar moves onto the next agenda item, and by the time the meeting ends, my father is clearly annoyed with me, but I remain interim CEO.
When I get back to the penthouse late that night, Grace is in my room, curled up under the covers on my bed. At some point in time, she started sleeping in here with me and never stopped.
Regret curdles in my stomach like sour milk when I see the little cuts scattered on her face and the bruises that mar her skin.
This is my fault.
If I would have never roped her into this charade, she’d be fine. At home with her roommate, writing her book, and watching herGilmore Girlson repeat, not recovering from a car accident.
My own father tried to have her murdered. And for what? To change the narrative running through the news outlets that claim he’s a bad person? Heisa bad person.
Renewed anger floods me, and I’m not sure who I’m more mad at. My father, for all the terrible things he’s done? Or myself, for letting them impact Grace?
She’s too good for this world, too good for me. I can’t risk her getting caught up in my family's drama again, because my father has proven that it could be more than a stain on her reputation. He’s willing to take her life.
And even though the thought tears me up inside…
I know what I have to do.
NEW STORY IDEAS
We meet the heroine in her tragically boring life. Maybe she’s broke?
The heroine is rescued from her average life by the enigmatic billionaire.
The heroine and the hero make a mutually beneficial agreement.
She moves in with the billionaire and is thrust into his life, a world of glitz and glamour so unlike hers.
They kiss! It’s a practice kiss because their arrangement requires a fake relationship but it sends butterflies through the heroine, thoroughly confusing her.
They want each other, but neither is willing to act on it…
