Page 59 of Ruthless Heir

Marriage to Portia and the Fairchilds getting their greedy bastard hands on what I don’t want them to have.

I have four days—including today—to figure this out.

I straighten, grab the coffee and take a swig. It’s no longer as hot as I would like, so it tastes bitter.

I set it back down deciding not to have it, and Harper returns to my mind.

She’s going to want an answer about the job.

She’s not as qualified as I would like but she knows enough for the assistant post, which she would essentially perform alongside Layla. She also has one thing that no one else who has applied for the position has—my trust.

That answer she gave in her rendition of an interview was exactly what I would have wanted her to tell the press. She gave that answer because she knew I’d be okay with it.

So as it stands she’s perfect for the position. But now that I know she affects me it might not be the best idea to spend even more time with her. It’s hard enough having her in the house.

More importantly, I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize my friendship with Josh.

I’ve always known that the one thing that would break us is if I crossed the line with his sister.

He’s been more like a father to her than a brother even though their eight-years age difference isn’t that significant.

Several incidents in the past made it clear Josh would be furious if I ever touched his sister. The most significant was when he gave me that warning, after he caught me looking at her as she got out of the pool at their old house.

She was seventeen, and I was twenty-five, so I knew I had no right.

He told me his sister could do better than a womanizer like me. But the worse thing he did was remind me of my bad breakup with Natalia, my high school ex.

He brought her up because she spiraled into drugs after I broke up with her. Then she killed herself eight months later on the same night she saw me with someone else at a party.

I never stopped blaming myself for her death, and neither did people like Josh.

He thought of me as the perpetual playboy who was biding time before the marriage contract kicked in. So, I understood why he warned me away from Harper, but he specifically said he didn’t want me to hurt her like I hurt Natalia.

Those words cut deep because I often wondered if Natalia would still be alive if I hadn’t gotten involved with her.

What Josh never knew was I always saw Harper as off-limits. She was his sister, and the one girl I knew I couldn’t pursue without destroying myself. The marriage contract stood as a barrier between us, even the night she tried to throw herself at me.

Now, there’s no contract. Only the sting of Josh’s warning haunting me.

“You really are here,” comes Layla’s voice from the door.

I look up and see her leaning against the doorframe, smiling back at me. The warmth in her eyes pulls me back from the dark memories of the past.

Dressed in a Aerosmith T-shirt and a pair of jeans, she looks quite the opposite to her usual professional business wear.

“What are you doing here?” I give her a little smile, although I feel mentally exhausted.

“Just catching up on some work for an hour or so. Luna and I are going to spend some time together later. It’s our mom’s birthday. Well, itwas.” The sadness of grief fills her eyes.

Last year she and Luna went through one hell of an ordeal finding out the truth about how their mother died. In the same breath, they also discovered that their father wasn’t the man they thought he was.

It was the type of dark and gritty story you’d see in a horror movie. Sometimes I wonder how Layla can be so positive and strong given what she’s been through. It’s admirable.

“You shouldn’t be here, Layla. I would have understood if you needed more time to do your work.”

She walks in, pulls up a chair, and sits in front of me. “I know, but I imagined coming here on Monday and having all that work from last week flowing into the usual Monday morning load. Admittedly I also needed a distraction. This day is always hard. But this year it’s harder because we know what really happened to my mother.”

Not many people can make me feel sympathy, but she does. “Are you okay?”

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