Page 92 of Battle with a Billionaire

“Grant said it wasn’t quite that simple.”

“You told him?”

She bobbed her head up and down. “Yes, I did. I thought it was only fair.”

Kyle scoffed. “That’s you. Always fair no matter how unfair everyone is to you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me it caused an uproar? Or that he knew?”

“I didn’t want to get into all of that before you knew about the contract. But now that you do, we can talk about it all you’d like.” He squeezed her hands and offered her a soft smile.

“I was hoping it would help jog my memory, but I’m still really confused.”

“That’s okay. I’m here to help.”

“You said you didn’t know what my feelings were, but…I asked you to leave after the kiss, right?”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Grant asked me to leave.”

“But I agreed.”

“Of course, you did,” Kyle said. “I can’t imagine you wouldn’t have.”

“What does that mean? You can’t make cryptic remarks like that and expect me to understand them. I have no context to work with.” She sucked in a breath as her muscles tensed. Her upset was ramping up again as she struggled with the dynamics she had no memory of.

He squeezed her hands. “Julia, it’s okay. I’ll explain. My father…he’s not a nice person. In fact, when we first met, I thought he was abusive to you.”

She furrowed her brow, the statement confusing her. She struggled to reconcile the statement with Grant’s behavior since she’d awoken. “Abusive? That doesn’t seem right. Maybe you picked up on the lack of romantic connection.”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “No, definitely not that.”

“He’s been nothing but supportive since I woke up.”

“Hmm, yeah, he tends to do that. But you saw how he reacted when you tried to leave the house yesterday.”

“I think that had more to do with my health than–”

“Don’t make excuses for him, Julia. I’m a doctor. There was no danger in letting you walk out that door. But he wouldn’t let you go. He’s extremely overbearing.”

Julia let the statements sink in. He’d taken her phone from her, but that seemed protective, not overbearing. Was she being shortsighted about him? Was there more to this than she knew?

“Okay,” Julia said with a shake of her head. “How? I mean…yesterday aside. What else makes you say that?”

“He’s had you followed. He’s demanded you drop everything and do what he wants. Here’s a perfect example. When you were named CEO of Harrington Global, he didn’t tell you he was doing that. Why? He didn’t want you to say no to him, so he made sure you couldn’t, and then he roped you into another year of this charade of a marriage, and all to salvage his image.”

Julia pulled her hands away from his as she tried to match the statements to the man who had dropped out of a Senate race because of her accident. She climbed from her seat, trying to match Kyle’s view of Grant with the man she’d seen.

He obviously had more information than she did. Had he really not told her when he’d named her CEO?

Kyle followed her as she stalked a few steps toward the window. His hand rubbed her shoulder. “Julia, you can ask him about any of that. I’m sure he’ll paint a different picture about how it’s nothing like what I said, but he will confirm that all of that is true.”

She sucked in a few breaths, trying to remain calm, but she felt the pressure building as she lacked the first-hand information to make a decision.

The door burst open, interrupting her thoughts. She twisted to see Grant, his jaw flexing as he spotted Kyle. “I heard you were here.”

“At Julia’s request,” Kyle said. “Ask her yourself.”

Julia flicked her gaze to Kyle before she returned it to Grant. “It’s true. I…wanted to see if he could tell me anything that would help my memory.”

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