Page 87 of Unfinished

I spun and walked away from him as my team all looked down at their laptops like they didn’t overhear our entire conversation. Sitting with my team, I glanced at Liam who was watching me and I was expecting arrogance, but it wasn’t there. He looked almost sad. I looked down quickly, not wanting him to see how he affected me.

He turned and left the cafe. Taking a calming breath, I stated, “We don’t have a lot of time here, so let’s start.”

After the long day, Aston and I went to our favorite pub for a cheeseburger with fries and a beer.

“You handled that beautifully today,” Aston started.

“But?”

“But he’s the love of your life and you aren’t even giving him a chance to redeem himself. Your trust is precious, yes, but you said he did everything to protect you from a stalker and from dangers that you aren’t aware of. Can you honestly say in his position with his family you wouldn’t do the same thing?”

I sighed, knowing he was right. If it were my father or Ashley, I would do whatever I needed to do to protect them. Hell, I already did by breaking up with Liam when his mother made her threats. I wasn’t willing to take the risk and trust him to handle it back then, and he understood that. Maybe the risk to me was too high for him, like it was for me.

“When are you breaking up with Derek?” Aston whispered.

“Soon. I need to give it some time. To be honest, I think this will likely end badly.” I took a drink of my beer.

“Well, get ready.”

My eyebrows pinched at Aston, then Derek slid into the booth next to me and I almost spit out my beer at his appearance.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to sound surprised and not annoyed.

“You weren’t home so I figured you were getting dinner here,” Derek tilted his head, “Long day?”

I looked at Aston. Telling Derek about everything today wasn’t something I wanted to do. He’d be pissed off, and we’d end up in an ugly fight.

“We had meetings with Trident Advertising on that new project Hannah is heading up, so we are both a bit fried,” Aston said, and I cringed because that’s exactly what I wasn’t going to tell him.

“Trident Advertising… as in the company Liam Teresi owns?” Derek asked and his jaw clenched.

Aston looked between Derek and me, “Yeah.”

“You can’t possibly think this is a coincidence, Hannah.” Derek turned to me.

“I never said I did or didn’t. They need the best. We are the best. I’m familiar with the company, so I got put on the project.” Shrugging my shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal, which it wasn’t. I took a sip of my beer.

“That asshole is after you.” Derek was getting angry but I rolled my eyes and sighed.

“No one is going to spend this much money to win some woman over. You’re overreacting.”

“I forbid you from seeing him, Hannah.” Excuse me? Who did he think he was? I slowly turned my head to him and pursed my lips.

“You forbid me?”

“I don’t want you anywhere near him. I fucking mean it,” Derek demanded low and with a slightly dangerous tone.

“Derek, this is her job. This is a career-making project that will have companies all over the world sending offers for employment when the project is over.” Aston was angry as hell and I was incredibly grateful he had my back.

Like Derek suddenly realized there was someone else here, he looked at Aston with his expression darkening. Derek’s recent behavior was concerning. When I did break up with him it needed to be in a public setting. Until then, I’d make myself busy and stay out of Derek’s way.

Chapter 39

Liam

I had one week until I saw Hannah again. She was lying to herself by pretending there was nothing left between us. This week I had to put together my plan of action for winning her back. It was taking everything within me not to go to her apartment and demand she leave Derek and be with me. He shouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to become her boyfriend to begin with, and I was kicking myself for being too lenient on him before.

“Mr. Teresi,” Vanessa’s voice came through my intercom.

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