Page 99 of Reluctantly His

Fuck.

It turned out I wasn’t the only one who knew how to strike at a vulnerability.

CHAPTER 35

CHARLOTTE

My father was meeting with Reid.

I wasn’t just nervous. I was terrified at what my father was going to tell him.

Would he bribe Reid with some exorbitant sum to leave me alone?

Every single moment my mind was filled with scenarios of Reid walking in to tell me it was over.

That my father had paid him some ridiculous amount of money to never see me again.

Or worse, what if my father bribed him, and he left without even saying goodbye?

Every time I thought about what my life would look like if Reid left me, my face would get hot. It became hard to breathe, and my heart rate monitor blared, making the nurse have to rush in to make sure I wasn’t suddenly dying.

I didn’t want to believe Reid would do that, but when you took someone working class and waved a check with a lot of zeros in front of them, it had to be tempting.

Or what if my father told him things that weren’t true?

What if my father told Reid that he couldn’t make me happy and that he couldn’t provide for me?

What if he managed to convince Reid that I would never be anything more than a spoiled heiress?

“Girl, what are you doing?” The nurse came in again, rolling her eyes as she punched a few buttons on the machine next to my bed to make it stop beeping. “Are you borrowing trouble? It looks like you’re borrowing trouble.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I admitted, forcing myself to take long, slow breaths and calm down.

“It means you are worrying about something that you have no control over, that hasn’t even happened yet. You look like you were sitting there with nothing better to do, so you’re running through scenarios in your head of the horrible things that might happen. You are borrowing trouble from a reality that may not even exist.”

“That’s exactly what I was doing.” I gave her what I hoped was a sheepish smile.

“Well, stop that. I got other people to look after. I can’t keep coming in here every couple of minutes.” Her words were stern, but she offered a sweet smile to let me know she wasn’t really angry.

“Is she okay?” A deep voice came from the doorway, and the machine started beeping again.

“No,” the nurse snapped at Reid. “Something has this poor little girl stressed, and I’m positive it has to do with you. So fix it before I have to come in here again.”

She stormed out of the room, mumbling something about rounds.

“Look, I know what my father said to you. Well, I don’t know, but I can make an educated guess, and before you make up your mind, I need you to hear me out,” I said as I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the mattress.

“Charlotte—” Reid rushed to the bed and eased me back.

“No, let me talk. I need to get this out. I need you to hear me. Can you promise me that you’ll listen before you say anything and that you’ll let me say my piece?”

“I’ll listen, but only if you stay in bed.”

“I don’t want to stay in bed. I’ve stayed in bed for days. I need to move, and the doctor said I needed to get up and walk, so let me just walk around my room.”

I was only half-lying. The doctors did say they wanted me up and walking around, but not for another two or three days. There was just too much nervous energy for me to sit still.

It was as if I had been sitting still my entire life, and I was sick of it.

---