Page 67 of Ruin Me

“Ife, I would never betray something you’ve told me in confidence. I never have and never will.” I reached my hand out to her but she slapped it down.

“How do I know that?” She shook her head, her disillusionment and hurt sliced through me. “I don’t know anything anymore.” She turned her back and walked deeper into the house, not stopping until she reached the kitchen. “If you’ve said what you had to say, you can leave now.” She pulled open the fridge and took a bottle of cola before slamming the door and leaning against the stainless steel surface.

I stood before her, bloodied from her accusations and hurt feelings, wanting to discard my pain to help her through hers. “I haven’t, actually, but you’re not ready to hear me out so I’ll leave. Before I do, there was a topic I wanted to ask you about.”

Ife slammed her bottle onto the island countertop in front of her, and froth spilled over the mouth onto her hand. She snagged a towel to wipe the moisture dry.

“Not related to my relationship with your father. I promise.” Her silent glare compelled me to continue. “I came here because you asked me to help rehab your father’s image. Although Carol exposed herself as the murderer, there are shareholders of your dad’s company trying to unseat him. I think someone will reach out to you. We need to know if they’re the mastermind or who they’re working with. Will you join me to expose them?”

Ife grabbed her drink and pushed past me, a calculating look overcoming her features. I’d seen that look too many times to let it go. When her brows furrowed in this way while she chewed her lip, nothing good came of it. Too many times, I wasn’t able to talk her down from a scheme destined to get her in hot water. And too many times I sat beside her when shit flew everywhere, hitting us in the face with consequences and regrets.

This time felt different. This time she shut me out.

I followed, earnest in my desire to protect Kent. “Ife, you know the sacrifices he made for the company. It would kill him if the people plotting his demise succeeded. I know it would mean the world to him if you overlooked our recent strife for his sake.”

We entered the formal living room Oye used only for special occasions. White Queen Ann furnishings sat on a Persian rug while delicate porcelain figurines stared in their frozen pose. The room was the least welcoming in the house. Ife sat on the sofa, stretched an arm across the seat back, and sipped from her bottle.

“How do you know someone will reach out to me?” Ife asked, crossing her legs and idly dangling her foot up and down.

Her interest, though mildly expressed, gave me all the encouragement I needed.

“There’s someone who knows you and your father aren’t on good terms right now. There’s a chance he’ll use the discord between you to either get your shares or your vote.”

“Oh? How’d the gossip mill become privy to my fight with my father?” Ife tilted her head.

“If you think I spread the rumor, you’re wrong. Hal saw how you left the penthouse.”

“Hal’s worked as the company’s lawyer for years. He knows how to keep a secret, so why would he say anything?”

I swallowed and dipped my head, unable to maintain our stare. “Your father and he had a disagreement about me that landed Hal in the hospital.”

“So you haven’t just come between me and my father. You’re also causing him issues at work.”

“Doesn’t your father deserve love?”

“Not from you.”

“I get it, Ife. You don’t approve.” I held all my pleading inside. The many ways I wanted to beg her to forgive me and let me back inside her circle, however, I wasn’t here for me, I reminded myself. “Now can we get back to ensuring your dad remains the CEO and president of Luxe Locations?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, pain and anger mixed together and adding a sheen to the warm brown eyes that once beheld me with compassion and love. “Hal already approached me.”

“He did? What did he say?” I sat beside her, my knee bent on the sofa facing her.

Ife glared at how close I came to almost touching her, then she shrugged off the mild disgust and rose to sit in a side chair. “He said he had a way to make my father see reason. Then he offered to buy my shares.”

Dread filled me as I asked, “You didn’t sell them to him, did you?”

She sneered at me and rolled her eyes. “I told him I’d think about it.”

“Thank you, Ife. You have no idea how much?—”

“I don’t need your thanks. And I didn’t agree for my father’s sake. I’m still mulling over how siding with him benefits me.”

“But… If you do this your father will never understand. He’ll feel so betrayed?—”

“Maybe then he’ll understand what the sentiment feels like.”

I rose from the couch and kneeled at her feet. “Please, Ife. He could survive many things, but not a betrayal from his daughter.”

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