Page 111 of Broken

I nod.

“You know none of this surprises me even a single bit.” Ashley shakes her head, her button nose wrinkled in disgust, but it’s her older sister I’m more concerned about.

My girl wears her heart on her sleeve, and a full range of emotions plays over her face. Anger. Shock. Betrayal. Her eyelashes flutter, wet with unshed tears. Her fork clatters to the table, and she flees the dining room.

Elijah, Ashley, and I exchange concerned looks.

“I’ll go check on her,” Ashley says.

I shake my head, already pushing back my chair. “Finish your dessert. I’ll go.”

Ashley considers me for a second, seeming to wrestle with the idea of letting me comfort her sister, but she nods her agreement after a few seconds.

I find Mel in her room, sitting on the edge of her bed and staring into space. The door is open, but I knock on it anyway. Her head snaps up, and she swats at her cheeks.

“All I ever seem to do lately is cry,” she says with a harsh laugh. “You must be getting fed up with seeing me constantly sniveling by now.”

I sit on the bed beside her and bump my shoulder against hers. “I wish you wouldn’t be so damn hard on yourself, corazón.”

Sniffing, she shakes her head.

“I know it hurts, but I figured you both should know.”

She presses her lips together and takes a deep breath through her nose. “Seems like the truth always hurts the most, right?”

I tuck her dark hair behind her ear. “Not always.”

She turns and looks at me, her moss-green eyes glistening. “No, you’re right. Lies hurt much more. Especially when those lies have become so ingrained in your consciousness that they’re a part of you. They shape the person you are, affecting every decision you make.”

I take her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together.

“He made me believe that my dad’s death was my fault. I was thirteen years old, and he convinced me that it was my fault.” A heaving sob wracks her body.

I squeeze her hand tighter, resisting the urge to offer to kill him and bury his body somewhere he’ll never be found. I’ll leave that for another day. Instead, I let her pour out the hurt festering inside her.

“He held it over my head every day of my life. It was why I could never cut ties with him. Why I agreed to all of his ridiculous schemes. Every decision I’ve made since that day hasbeen influenced by the belief that my father was killed because of me.”

She scrubs at her cheek with her free hand, and her gaze hardens. “I hate him, Nathan. I fuckinghatehim!”

Yeah, me too. “You never have to see him again, Mel. You can cut all ties with him, your mother too, if that’s what you want. Or you can fuck with them both by taking everything they have. Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll make it happen.”

The way she looks at me makes my heart beat faster and my dick twitch in my pants. “You really would, wouldn’t you?” Her face softens in a faint smile.

I’d do fucking anything for you.“You only have to say the word.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to them. I don’t need that on my conscience. Besides, karma will get them in the end. But I do want to cut ties. I want my name removed from everything to do with Edison Holdings. Can that be done? So I never have to have anything to do with either of them again?”

I frown. Edison Holdings is her father’s legacy, and just because Bryce has spent the last seventeen years bleeding the company dry, that doesn’t mean it’s irredeemable. “You sure? Because I can have Bryce removed as CEO, and we could appoint an interim—”

“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m tired, Nathan. I just want to walk away. From everything.”

Even me?That thought makes me stall for breath, but I don’t voice it. What if she said yes? “Then I’ll make that happen.”

Her eyes shine, and she lets out a sigh. “Thank you for being such a good man.”

She leans into me, and I wrap my arms around her, resting my lips on her hair.A good man.I’ve never considered myself one of those before. Ruthless in business and in my personal life, I’ve never cared what anyone thought of me, and that has servedme well all these years. So why the fuck does her calling me that make me want to do everything in my power to prove her right?

Chapter

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