He wasn’t alone. Our chief financial officer was sitting across from him at his desk.
I didn’t give a fuck.
“Get out,” I snarled at him, and at least someone chose to listen to me today. He quickly scurried past me, leaving me alone with Leon.
I’d never seen such anger in his eyes, but I was sure he’d never seen such anger in mine either.
“You’re a piece of shit,” I seethed.
“How dare yo—”
“How dare I? How dare you!” I shouted. “Firing Matthew, and now Rachel? You miserable fucking cunt. Throwing a fucking tantrum when you don’t get what you want. It’s enough. It’s over. You fucking lost. Now you’re going to give Rachel her job back. We both know she didn’t steal anything.”
He inhaled slowly, composing himself. I wished he wouldn’t. “Miss Forrester either stole or misplaced a prototype tracker from Project Echo-12. She signed it out, and it was never signed back in. She refused to answer any questions regarding its whereabouts, and there was no paper trail. Do you suppose we can allow that?”
My insides twisted, guilt hitting me like a wrecking ball.
“It was me. I took it.”
Leon pursed his lips for a moment. “It doesn’t matter. It was signed out in her name.”
“Because I told her to!”
“Well, I guess it’s your fault, then.”
My palms stung where my nails bit into them. “You’re doing this because of the articles.”
His eye twitched slightly, but his mask remained otherwise intact.
“Give Rachel her job back. Now. And Matthew. This has nothing to do with them.”
His jaw clenched. “Certainly. When you come to your senses and mend the damage you’ve done to our reputation, I’ll give them their jobs back.”
“Break up with Benny, you mean? I won’t.”
“Then you’re wasting my time. Get back to work.”
“No. Give them their jobs back. Now. Or I quit.”
A vein pulsed in his forehead. “You can’t quit. You’re theheir.”
“I don’t care. Give them their jobs back or I walk out of this building and never step foot in it again.”
“You can’t.”
I smiled. Because all my fucking life he’d told me that.You can’t. I’d believed him. I didn’t anymore. “Who’s going to stop me? You going to tie me to my desk? Do it. You still can’t make me work. You can’tmakeme do anything. You’ve run out of people to fire.”
“I can do other things.”
“Like what?”
His jaw clenched.
“I used to be afraid of disappointing you. I’m not anymore. Becauseyoudisappointme.”
“Harper.”
“Leon. I’m out. Pass the title of heir down to your next child. Oh wait, you can’t, because both your children hate you. You’ve run out of heirs.”
