Page 54 of Rejected Broken Mate

"Seriously, what's gotten into you?" Lucas asked, leaning into my view.

"Lucas, leave him," Owen said. "I was serious. I'm in no mood today. Neither will Ayden be after last night."

"What happened last night?" Cayden asked, turning around.

I drowned them out, my teeth grinding together. And then I heard her heels on the stairs. She came up the stairs. She looked tired as she avoided everyone heading into her office. She was on the phone as she moved, nodding her head.

"Looks like Laura's in," Cayden said.

I pulled myself out of my chair, heading for her office. I felt my heart beating in my ears, and I felt extremely hot.

"I can certainly get the numbers to you by this afternoon," she said, sitting at her office and placing her purse on her desk. "Yes, I will be in all day today.

I shut her door behind me, and her eyes snapped up. She turned a little white and covered the phone with her other hand. "I'm on the phone. Can you come back?"

"I’m not coming back later," I growled. “We are talking now.”

Her eyes widened, and then she scowled at me. "Get out of my office."

"No, we need to talk." I took a couple of steps toward her desk. "And I'm not leaving until we do."

"And you think barging in here making demands is going to convince me to chat with you?" she snapped back.

I frowned, understanding her point. I took a deep breath and tried to soften my words. I had tried calling her, but she never answered. She wasn’t giving me much of a choice but to bring it up now. I would have rather spoken about it outside of work, but she was tying my hands. "Please, I waited all weekend to talk with you. So, can we please talk?”

She rolled her eyes and turned. "Hey, Julia, I'm going to need to call you back."

She ended the call and turned back to me, crossing her arms. "You are ridiculous. That was extremely rude of you!"

"No, I think that's you."

Her eyebrows went up. "Excuse me?"

"Telling him that I abandoned you? Even that's extremely low for you."

Her eyes narrowed as she seated herself in her chair. She exhaled sharply, shaking her head. "First off, I didn't tell him that. He came up with that all on his own."

"Kids don't come up with shit like that."

She laughed. "Oh, because you would know, right? You've raised a kid, so you know everything about that."

I curled my hands into fists. "You must have told him something. So, what did you tell him?”

"I've told him nothing," she said, leaning back in her chair. "Michael knew nothing about you or what happened between us. I never spoke a single word about you."

I sharply laughed. "And you wonder why he thinks I abandoned you. Why didn’t you tell him anything?”

Her eyebrows went up. "I'm sorry. Should I have told him how you brutally broke things off because you were suddenly tired of me? Would that have made you feel better? You shattered my world, so you don't get to be angry at me for how I pieced everything back together."

I leaned forward. "Did you do this just so you can hurt me? You pissed I ended things? So you decided to make him think I didn’t care? That I wanted no part in his life?"

She looked like I slapped her. She swung up. "I did what I had to do to protect my child! Because you were an arrogant misogynistic douchebag who only thought of himself! So excuse me for making sure I protected my son from that!"

"Our son!" I yelled, correcting her. You should have told me! You should have told him about me! You're the reason he won't even look at me now."

"Really Miles!? You were already running, tired of me. A child was not going to change that! If anything, you would probably still be a huge dick."

I slammed my hands onto the desk. "You robbed me of so much, Laura, and you don't even feel bad about it."

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