Page 79 of Desperate Measures

I reread the text twice and cursed out loud.

So informal.

So devoid of emotion.

This didn’t sound like her, but it was what I deserved.

Shit.

I had forgotten all about the party and the invite her cousin made. Michaela was right, I’ve been avoiding her all week.

After that ridiculous scene in front of her father with the reporters, what else could I do?

Some asshole got pictures of me working late with Clarissa fucking Chen and tried to make it into a big thing.

I didn’t know how they got the photos since our cameras were supposed to be fucking secure. But I spent an entire day proving to Adrik Volkov that I wasn’t cheating on his daughter.

Fucker would have had me unalived if he hadn’t believed me.

He knew it. I knew it. So there was no point in beating around the bush.

So, I supposed it was a good sign I wasn’t fish food at the bottom of the Hudson right about now.

Not that he talked to his daughter on my behalf. But the fact was, I never cheated on Michaela. And I never would.

I just wasn’t prepared for her declaration. And I fucked up. Ignoring her like that. Making her think I wanted someone other than her.

Like that was possible. I just didn’t expect her to love me.

Love? What the fuck did I know about love?

A man like me couldn’t afford to let love soften him. I could not be sidetracked now when I was so close to finding a way to seize total control of the lithium mine in Gansu from Chen. So that I could make my dream for ODI come true.

But maybe that dream was second now to this new one I had. This new one filled with a wife who loved me. Who I loved back with everything I had.

No, I didn’t deserve her love.

But I had it, and I was going to keep it.

Chapter 29-Michaela

Ididn’t often drive myself places, but I owned a car, a cherry red Range Rover, and I knew how to drive.

Besides, I needed the space to clear my head and the time to really organize my thoughts. I had to think this thing through logically.

I wished Shelly was coming, but she had important doctor stuff to do, and well, I was being a baby about this, anyway.

I’d been on the phone with my mother when the story broke about the billionaire heiress who’d been duped into marriage and was being played the fool by her husband.

She sent Dad right over, of course, since the building was blocked off by reporters all wanting a piece of me. I couldn’t handle that alone.

Being born with money meant you had to put up with certain invasions to your privacy and attacks on your moral character.

It wasn’t fair. And yes it happened to folks without money, too.

But from my point of view, it happened to people like me just a little bit more. Like we could afford the slander and vile insults so we might as well take them.

And no, I wasn’t crying poor little rich girl. But it still stung.

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