Page 30 of Reckless Love

Twelve

CHAPTER 12

The room tilted as I struggled to breathe. “This sounds…”

“Crazy?” Wick let out a mirthless laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Trust me, I’m well aware. The word stalker comes to mind, but you have to know I would never hurt you, Sia.”

“You took my grandfather’s company,” I accused.

He gave a curt nod. “I did.”

“You ruined the lives of people who worked for him for decades!” Tears stung my eyes as I thought of how I’d felt signing away the last piece of Papa’s legacy a few weeks earlier. The way my heart broke as I realized his dream was as gone as the man himself.

His eyes widened. “No, baby, I didn’t. Everything is as your grandfather left it. All the employees, all the offices, except for the debts. Those I paid off.”

I froze. “You did? Why?”

“Because it’s yours,” he replied, like the answer was obvious.

“Mine?” I gasped.

He nodded. “All of the paperwork has been drawn up, and as soon as you're ready, I’ll sign it over to you.”

“But why would you do that?” It just didn’t make sense. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Wick had bought my grandfather’s company and planned to just give it to me.

He looked like I’d punched him in the balls. “Baby, I always planned on it being yours. It's part of your family’s legacy, and I knew how much it meant to you. When I saw it was going under, I made sure it would be safe.”

My shoulders slumped. “Wick, I don’t understand.” I was practically begging now, tears clogging my throat as I desperately tried to make all of the puzzle pieces fit into a complete picture.

He took a deep breath. “Can we please sit down and talk about this? I’m fucking up this entire explanation.”

I nodded, feeling numb as Wick took me by the hand and led me back to the sofa. He sat, but instead of letting me sit beside him, he pulled me onto his lap. I landed awkwardly, a hand splayed against his hard chest as I started to try and move to my own seat.

“Stay.” The single word was a plea and a command. The familiar look of the cool, calculating man I thought I knew was almost obliterated by the vulnerability haunting his dark gaze.

Utterly entranced at the chink in his armor, I found myself melting against him.

He pressed an absent, tender kiss to my temple. “The night I saw you at the party changed everything. I ran every possible scenario to make you see how perfect we were for each other.”

“You knew that just from looking at a girl crying on the floor?” I shot him an incredulous look.

“When you’re already broken, it’s easy to see other broken things,” he admitted. “I grew up in a poor neighborhood.”

I knew all of that already. The unbelievable story of a guy who had all the odds stacked against him, but used his insanely high IQ to launch himself into a level of wealth and power that most people could only dream of. It had been all over papers and gossip rags.

“My father took off when my mother was still pregnant with me,” he went on, “and my mom did her best, working two jobs to keep a roof over our heads. She passed away in a drive by shooting at the diner while pulling a double. I was sixteen.”

My heart ached for the boy who’d grown up alone. I’d at least had Nana and Papa. Even their staff had showered me with affection and praise.

“ I’d already finished high school early and was offered a full academic scholarship to Princeton, so I was able to avoid going into the foster system,” Wick went on, dragging his knuckles up my arm. “I applied for emancipation and never looked back.”

“I read that you made your first million investing in a gaming app or something?” I frowned, trying to remember.

His brows lifted, a smile teasing his lips. “You checking up on me?”

I felt my cheeks heat. “Maybe? But there was a lot of stuff. I wasn’t sure how much was true.”

“It was three million, and yes, I was in my junior year at Princeton when it happened,” he confessed.

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