Page 43 of Starting Over with Her Billionaire Boss

“That’s okay, you don’t need?—”

“I’m ready now.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “If you still want to hear it, that is—why I live alone, why I’m single.” His cheeks flushed as his decision was made.

Kinsley nodded.

He adjusted himself, his eyes settling on the fire. “About three years ago, I was engaged to marry a woman named Megan. Megan and I were together for a couple of years prior to the engagement, so it just felt like a natural next step.” He let out a slight sigh, fidgeting on the log bench. “A week before the wedding, I came home from work early, expecting to surprise her with some flowers. I thought maybe we could drive out to the countryside, enjoy the scenery?—”

“I can’t imagine you driving around the countryside with nothing to do.” She arched an eyebrow. “You’re always so busy, always doing something,” she added.

Daegan smiled. “That’s because time to think is a dangerous thing now; things were different back then. I used to love myfree time.” He paused. “When I had it,” he whispered almost as quietly as the gentle breeze.

“What changed?” Kinsley asked.

“When I got home that afternoon, I didn’t see Megan in her typical spots through the house. I went to check in the bedroom and I saw a note on the bed. It said she and my older brother Ken had been having an affair for the last year. They fell in love, she found out she was pregnant a week before—withhischild—and that she was leaving me so that they could be together.” The old anger and frustration didn’t creep up as much as it usually did—the sting wasn’t as sharp.

Kinsley turned to him, brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes. “How did she know the baby wasn’t yours?”

His voice, once a steady stream, now cracked. It could have been embarrassment—or maybe regrets of things he could have done differently. “We hadn’t had sex for months before then because of my travel schedule for work at the time. Whenever Iwashome, she told me she was on her period or just not in the mood. I never pushed to know more, she deserved any space she wanted.” He paused, allowing his fingers to trace the edges of the envelope. Megan’s love and care had become excuses and brush-offs. He felt like an ignorant fool for not seeing it sooner.

Kinsley leaned her head on his shoulder, bringing him back to the moment. A far better one than the past that sought to imprison him.

“Her note didn’t clarify anything,” Daegan continued, “but it made me feel weak enough that I was glad I was already on the bed. That was until I realized they had probably screwed on that same bed dozens of times while I was gone for work.”

His fingers trembled as he pulled out the letter Megan had left him that fateful day. He had it long since memorized, read it over a thousand times. Yet somehow looking at it—reading her words in her own handwriting—made it cut through himlike a knife. The letter had become worn over time—the creases became memorized by the paper itself. A small tear in the corner from the night Kinsley had left, when Daegan had lost his temper. Yet somehow it still held him in a bind. One that he was finally, at long last, ready to break.

All because of this woman who walked into my office for a job interview.

He handed the note to Kinsley.

“After three years, you still have it?” she asked. “Why?”

“I’ve asked myself that same question hundreds of times, Kins.” He paused, inhaling the clean country air. “I imagine the answer lies somewhere between anger, resentment, regret, and a couple of layers of grief. I’m sure the loose ends and lack of any sense of closure don’t help, either.”

Kinsley leaned closer as she handed the letter back. “Did they ever explain anything to you?”

He dropped his gaze, viewing Megan’s handwriting one last time. A panic set in—could he really do it? What kind of person would he be on the other side? “None at all,” he confessed, folding it back up. “Ken was already married with three kids. His wife got the same sort of ridiculous note. Her only communications after that came from my brother’s divorce attorney. Seeing that woman cry over the man she loved—and the family he had broken—made me realize I dodged a bullet.”

Kinsley leaned her head on his shoulder, bringing him back to the moment. “That’s pretty shitty,” she said softly, her voice filled with empathy.

“I just couldn’t believe Megan was pregnant with my brother’s child. Their affair—it was a betrayal within betrayal.” Daegan still struggled to make sense of it three years later.It would never make sense.His hands clenched the letter, the thin paper crumpling as he swallowed those feelings down.

Kinsley sat silently, her gaze focused on the blaze of the fire.

“It shouldn’t have surprised me,” he continued, putting the letter back into the envelope. “Ken was always jealous of me, especially when Dad wanted to hand the business over to me and not him. Ken wasn’t the responsible type. I was, believe it or not. Dad originally wanted my brother Vince to run it with me, but he’s a free spirit now with no interest in the business.” Daegan paused for a moment. “I never thought Ken would do anything like this.”

“So during the entire divorce proceedings, he didn’t say one word to her?”

Daegan pulled out a folded up set of papers, slowly unfolding them. “It was never finalized.”

“Why not? That sounds like a reasonable excuse to get a divorce.”

Daegan cleared his throat before continuing. “Kins, three months after they left, they were involved in a helicopter crash.” He looked down at the papers in his hands—a printed news article detailing the accident. The fire offered just enough light to see the tale of their gruesome fate. “They didn’t make it.”

The air grew heavier than before as he handed Kinsley the tattered pages. His gaze drifted toward Kinsley as she read through what he’d given her, eyes growing wider with every turn of the papers. The silence stretched between them, filled only by the crackle of the fire.

“I’m not sure what to say,” Kinsley whispered, “other than I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“It’s been three years and I’m not sure what to say or feel, either. I’m pissed that my fiancée had an affair. I’m pissed that my older brother was the other man.” The fury he had held back began to bubble to the surface. But Daegan couldn’t let it win—not this time.

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