Page 43 of Hated By the Boss

She saw him still. Stiffen, like the sound of her voice blasphemed his ears, and her chest nearly caved under the force of her pain.

But then she saw him slowly turning to face her—-

And God.

Even though she was still reeling with pain, hope was also blossoming inside of her heart.

Hope that just like with Thomas, it was still not too late.

Golden eyes clashed with hers.

"What do you want?"

His voice wasn't like before.

None of the contempt that used to—-

Oh.

It occurred to her all of a sudden, with everything that had happened, it was only now she realized rather foolishly why he had seemed to hate her so much when she started working for him.

"Sasha told me you hated me because I reminded you of someone you know," Tahey heard herself blurt out. "And at that time, I thought he was talking about some ex-girlfriend you couldn't get over."

She wasn't quite sure why she thought to tell him that. Maybe she wanted to see if she could make him smile or his lip curl? Maybe she just wanted to see if she could still make him feel.

Because that was better.

Anything was better than the way he was now.

Staring at her like she was a stranger.

Talking to her like she was a stranger.

Like she had always been a stranger, and all those times she thought they were becoming closer—-

Oh God.

"Did you only take me to bed," she asked unevenly, "because you were planning to use me to hurt my dad?"

She waited for him to answer. Heart on her sleeve. Waited for him to just say sorry. To just say—-

"Goodbye, Ms. Baskerville."

She saw him turn but could no longer see him walk away.

"P-Please."

Because her tears...

"Please just...at least say, just say it meant s-something."

The tears made everything blurry and crystal clear at the same time.

And when she heard the door close softly behind the billionaire—-

It was as good as hearing the door close on everything that could be...but was now over for good.

Chapter Sixteen

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