Jesse Westwood’s latest distraction? Sources speculate the identity and value of his mysterious girlfriend.
I skimmed the paragraph, my heart sinking and pulse ticking up with every line. They’d dissected me like I was nothing more than an acquisition. There was mention made of the fact that I was Harvard educated and of my career at Ellis & Addeson, all of which tied into the speculation about what I might be worth,what I’d brought to the table, and what kind of arrangement this might be.
The question had even been posed as to what deals had been made in the background. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.
No deals had been made because this was fake. We had both signed an NDA, but that was standard. Jesse and I weren’t even really together, and it’d never been meant to go as far as it had, but that was exactly what’d happened.
It had gone this far. Further even than these people could possibly imagine. But not because ofmoney.
My throat tightened as I locked the screen and handed her phone back. “I’m going to take the rest of the day.”
“Of course,” she said gently. “Use your unlimited PTO, please. That’s what it’s there for.”
I nodded, but I was already turning toward the door, unable to believe that anyone would be trying toquantifymy involvement with Jesse. It was absurd but the public at large right now believed that I had a price—and that he’d paid it.
Westwood and Sons’ offices reflected that same kind of chaos that was swirling around my insides. When I arrived, phones were ringing off the hook, overlapping voices were coming out of every room, and people were moving too fast in too many directions.
The second the doors to the upper levels slid open, I nearly got bowled over by a guy in a bespoke suit moving like his life depended on it. He was gone in a flash, but not before I’d recognized him as Theo, the youngest brother.
As far as I knew, he was in marketing and PR. I wasn’t super familiar with him, but I had been trying to learn a bit about each of them from Jesse. He cared about them, truly, but right now, the youngest soldier looked like a man on a mission, which probably wasn’t the best time to introduce myself.
The receptionists also looked like they were barely holding it together, juggling calls, typing furiously, and fielding questions they probably didn’t have answers to. No one stopped me when I strode past them.
Hell, no one evennoticedme, but that worked in my favor today. I slipped down the hallway without incident, striding toward the private row of elevators I’d used once before. My reflection stared back at me in the mirrored doors, my eyes a little too wide, but otherwise, I didn’t look like I was spiraling.
The elevator opened with a soft chime and I stepped inside, pressing the button for the executive floor. I was rather certain that was where Jesse would be, but when the doors opened again, I wasn’t expecting him to beright there.
But he was. Jesse stood just outside the elevator like he’d been about to step in himself, his expression morphing from tension to surprise when he saw me. Then the relief set in. “Jacque, thank God, you’re here.”
Instead of letting me climb out, he got onto the elevator with me and hit a button without looking. For the parking garage, of all places.
The doors slid shut again, sealing us in alone together, but for a second, neither of us spoke. He simply took a long, slow breath, like he’d just escaped from hell. Then he looked down into my eyes and I saw that same relief threading through his features.
“I was just on my way to come get you,” he said.
“Why?” I asked, a little breathless as I tried to absorb it all. “Isn’t this… Shouldn’t we come clean now?” I gestured vaguely upward, toward the PR firestorm we’d just left behind. “Your family is being raked through the coals.”
“I know,” he said quietly, his voice barely audible above the soft hum of the elevator as it descended, but those eyes werelocked on mine and the space between us suddenly felt too small again, too charged, and like it was entirely too much.
That had been happening more and more often, but I tried to push past it and searched his face instead, trying to read him to understand where his head was at in all of this. Mine was everywhere and I was truly hoping they had a better handle on it than I did.
“I need your help,” he said finally. “Weneed your help. Will you come with me, please?”
We.
My stomach flipped, but I nodded anyway. “Yes, of course, I will. Where are we going?”
“Home,” he said, as if that explained everything.
It didn’t. Not to me, anyway.
I had no idea what exactly he was asking me to do, but as the elevator slowed, he was looking at me like whatever came next mattered more than anything that had come before—and honestly, the idea of that scared me more than I wanted to admit.
CHAPTER 29
JESSE
Our old house had felt like the right place for this. Neutral ground, or at least as close to neutral as anything with the nameWestwoodattached to it could be right now.
