Page 79 of My Forbidden Boss

Lira’s eyes fill with tears. “Oh sweetheart. We would have found a way.”

I should have found a way. The situation never should have come to this.

Why didn’t I ask her? Why didn’t I sit with her and get this secret out?

Because I was too intent on getting her into my bed. Too intent on making her do what I wanted.

Just like every other piece of scum who preys on the vulnerable.

I was supposed to protect her from the world, and I didn’t.

Adeline’s face folds. A tear leaks from the corner of her eye but she flicks it away, angry it had the audacity to fall. “I can’t earn enough for us to eat sometimes, let alone find somewhere else to live.”

The entrails of my regret lay in a bloody heap at my feet. It takes everything I have not to take her into my arms, hold her close and tell the universe to fuck right off because she’s mine. I’ll take care of her now. She doesn’t have to fight any more, but I’m not sure she’ll let me. Not when I told her to leave. Not when I doubted this woman could have done what she did without a damn good reason. My hands clench on my thighs as I kneel, knowing I’ve treated her the way she expects the world to treat her.

“It was never up to you, sweetheart,” her mother says. She tries to shuffle to the edge of the sofa and fails again, her withered legs useless and I wonder if she’s always been disabled like this. I wonder how much Adeline has done for a mother in her position. “Why didn’t you talk to me? Why didn’t you tell me what Max cornered you into doing?”

“And say what? He didn’t help you after the accident. He wouldn’t help us now just because I asked him. The only chance I had was to accept his offer when he asked it of me. At least that gave me leverage. Something we never had before,” Adeline says. Another tear falls, but this time she doesn’t bother wiping it away. It rolls down her pale cheek and into her hair, wetting the blonde strands at her jaw.

“We would have found a way,” Lira says, but the words are hollow platitudes. One glance at their hovel and I know they’ve never found a way. No one chooses to live like this.

“The development gave no planning for relocation,” I say, because Adeline is right. They wouldn’t have found a way, and Adeline’s motivation snaps into crystal clarity. Adeline was desperate. Bourke used it against his own daughter, against her circumstances which he did nothing about. Bile rises in my throat turning my mouth sour.

“Bourke is despicable,” I seethe.

Lira’s gaze turns to me. “And what do you have to do with whatever mess Bourke has brought into our lives?”

“He’s come to press charges.” Her raspy voice is flat-lined. There’s no spark of emotion. Only certainty.

Her mother gasps. Her hand flutters to her chest and I speak before the poor woman has a heart attack. “I’m not going to press charges.”

“You should, because I did what Max wanted. I sent him information about Blue Sky. I did it behind your back despite us…even when we were…” Her voice cracks on the last word.

“Why didn’t you tell me, love? Why did you let it go this far?” Rage replaces blood in my body. Rage that Bourke came between us. Rage that she didn’t tell me about her circumstances.

Rage that she felt she couldn’t.

Her cheeks turn pink as she flushes. “And then what, David? Are you going to snap your fingers and make all of this go away?” I don’t understand her anger. Why doesn’t she see what I can do for her?

“Yes. I would. I will,” I say. I’ll move planets for her.

She rises. Goes to her mother and holds her hand. She notches her chin and watches me as I stand. “I’m not a charity case. I don’t want your pity.”

I reel on my feet as the world rolls on its axis. She knows I can help her and yet she doesn’t accept.

Is that how I see her? Is that how she feels? Denial flows from my tongue. “I never would. I don’t.”

“Yes. You would have. You do.” She’s adamant. Sure. She gestures at our surroundings with the flick of her hand, her movement sharp. “One whiff of poverty and I can guarantee you would have wondered what else was I after and now you see the truth, that’s all you’ll ever see when you look at me. The poor girl. The girl who has nothing. The girl who can’t give you anything because I have nothing to give and everything to gain.”

“Adeline. Love. No.” Empty platitudes she doesn’t believe.

She stands like a statue weathering a storm, but when she speaks her voice is quiet. “You do, and I don’t blame you. That’s what I know. That’s what you know.”

In that moment, she’s years beyond her age. The certainty in her eyes kills me. “It’s not like that.”

Not with her. Never with her.

Her full lips tremble as her world-weary gaze holds mine. I can’t let go. It reels me in and I gladly follow that line knowing it means I face my death. “You already have.”

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