Page 8 of Blackmail of a Billionaire

The words cut into him like a knife, stunning him into silence. He had been in this position before. He had expected a fight, not cold indifference.

As he reeled, she tugged away from him and stepped into the waiting elevator. The doors started to close before he could stick a hand in to stop them. “No, Julia, please, wait.”

The doors cut off his statement. He leaned against the wall, his mind racing. He’d never felt this panicked upset before in his previous relationships. Why did he feel it now?

His last glance at her features, pinched with an upset he couldn’t define, burned through his brain as he let out a low growl and raced back to his office.

Bianca still stood there, her features apologetic. She tugged her full lips into a wince. “Sorry, Grant, I never intended for your wife to see us.”

He bristled at the familiar use of his first name as he crossed to his desk and grabbed his phone. He couldn’t even look at her. She’s caused more strife than she knew. “Get out.”

She fluttered her eyelashes at him as he found the contact he wanted and initiated the call. “Grant, I know this didn’t happen in the best way, but I think we both–”

“I said get out.” The phone rang one final time before James’s voice asked him to leave a message. With a growl, he pulled the phone away from his ear and scrolled to another with a shaky thumb.

Bianca stood for another moment before she took a few tentative steps toward the door.

He stared down at the name on his phone, spinning to face the assistant before dialing. “Oh, Bianca?”

“Yes,” she asked, whipping around to face him, an expectant expression on her face.

“You’re fired. Clean out your desk and get out of here. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

Her features fell in disbelief, and she hurried toward him. “But Mr. Harrington–”

“Out!” he shouted at her, thrusting a finger toward the door. He wanted nothing more to do with her. This little snafu painted him in a bad light overall and with Julia.

With a frown, she hurried from the office. He followed after her, slamming the door behind her and pressing the call icon. The line trilled a few times before Julia’s voice said, “Hi, you’ve reached Julia Stanton. I’m not available to take your call right now, but if you leave a message, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Bye!”

His fingers tightened around the mobile device as he waited for the beep. “Julia, call me, please.” His mind searched for a compelling reason to convince her to call back, but all he found was. “I can explain.”

He paced his office as he waited for the phone to ring, but the call never came. She’d fled into the city, and he had no idea where. James had left, he couldn’t rely on his trusted chauffeur to stall her until he could get to her.

Her words echoed in his mind again. “You don’t have to explain anything to me.”

The coldness stung him all over again. The dismissal, the disinterest. If she’d have called him names, screamed at him, threatened to leave, he could have handled it better. He had no idea how to handle this reaction.

His chest heaved as he collapsed into his desk chair and scrolled to another name. With a shake of his head, he waited to see if his new target would answer.

“Daddy?” Sierra’s curt voice barked into the phone.

“Sierra, thank goodness. I need your help.”

She scoffed, her annoyance obvious. “I’m busy.”

“Well, get unbusy. Your little plan to save my image and hence my company is going up in flames.”

“Why? What happened? What did she do?”

“It’s not what she did,” Grant said with a sigh as he sank his forehead into his palm.

Sierra sighed on the opposite end of the line. “Seriously? It hasn’t even been three months, Daddy. How compromising of a situation did she find you in?”

“No, it was…I didn’t do anything. It was a misunderstanding. It looked like something it wasn’t.”

“So, wait. Did you cheat or didn’t you?”

“The new secretary got a little too close for comfort, and Julia walked in at the exact wrong moment. She tore out of here, and I can’t find her.”

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