Page 117 of Loving the CEO

"That’s insulting. You think you can buy me?" I brought my hands to my chest so quickly in anger that I almost hurt myself.

"Oh, come on. I was always going to do that, wasn't I? How exactly did you and your mom plan to open that B&B she wouldn't shut up about? With my money."

So, he was insinuating that our relationship came at a price? Lord, he didn’t even know me.

With that, I pushed him on the chest. "Fuck off, Walter. I have nothing else to say to you.” I glared at him. “No, wait, I do. You're a lying and cheating bastard. I don't know why you're here, but it's not because you have feelings for me or because you're sorry. You’re only sorry that I caught you."

His eyes turned even colder than before. "Put those fucking hands down and listen to me. You running off from the wedding like that—do you have any idea how that made me look? Every single friend and acquaintance is giving me the cold shoulder. My parents are in an uproar. They demanded that I fix this, or they’ll take me out of their will, and that’s a lot of money to lose. It would buy you a thousand B&Bs. You have no choice but to get back together with me.”

This was so insane that I actually started to laugh. He didn’t want me. He wanted his money! "Are you listening to yourself right now? You want to marry me so your friends talk to you again? So your parents are happy? So you get all the money they’ve allocated you? My God, Walter! Are you for real? Do you have any backbone whatsoever? What happened to the woman you moved in with? Marry her!"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that or bring her up. You're not half the woman she is. You’ve always been a lowlife with good looks and poor manners.”

I didn’t react to that. I kept focused.

"You're still with her?" I confirmed. Good. Then he could marry her. All I wanted to do was get the fuck away from him. And this city.

"That's none of your business. I can break it off tomorrow if it's that important to you."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I ran off from the wedding because you were cheating. Yet you thought you could convince me to take you back andstillcheat?"

Not that I had any plans to take him back, but I wanted to understand his misconstrued logic. Wantedhimto understand whathejust said.

"I figured a few months without me would teach you that life isn't as easy as you think. That my money meant more to you than me being in your bed.”

Oh. My. God.The man was disgusting!

“Walter, it’s over. I have my job. I've never depended on you. I've never cared about any of the high society things you had going on. It's not who I am. Never has been, and if you think about it for a nanosecond, you’d know it. I'm not even sure why you thought I was into it. My life is much better since you're not in it. I'm finally happy!"

My hands were flying every which way in this conversation. God, he raised my blood pressure. I just hoped I wouldn’t have an aneurysm.

"What are you talking about? No one is happy in life. We all just get on with things."

"Not me. I’m sorry you feel that way, but we are done. Please never contact me again."

"Listen to me, you bitch—”

“Don't youdaretalk to me like that." My voice dropped an octave, and I almost scared myself.

Then the door opened, and Mom stepped out.

"Walter, please leave."

He looked from me to her, and his jaw actually dropped. "Excuse me?"

"I can't believe you’d talk to my daughter like that. Or that you’d treat her like this."

A small part of me was happy that Mom was finally on my side. But another part was deeply sad. This meant she’d never believed me when I told her Walter wasn't treating me well. She had to hear it from him, in this way.

"You lured me and my daughter here with lies. Did I hear that right? And you’re still seeing that woman?"

"With all due respect, that's none of your business."

"Then I will take after my daughter and ask you to leave."

"Why are you two wasting my time?” he snapped. “You should have cleared this up before we got here."

I scoffed. "You thought my mom would bring me on a platter and drop me at your feet?"

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