Page 202 of My Ruthless Opponent

I am anxious as hell to face him. I don’t know what I’ll say or how I am going to apologize, but I am not going to let this chance go to waste.

She listens to him talk and hangs up. She lifts her eyes to me. “He is busy and asked me to take it from you.”

A sudden pain twists in my chest at her words.

Archer refused to see me. I numbly reach for the envelope from my purse and hand it to her.

I lost my only chance to talk to him.

My shoulders sag as I walk to the elevators. When I am on my floor, I keep my head down and walk to my office.

Rounding the desk, I rest my purse on the desk and sit on my chair for the last time.

For the whole week, I tried to make peace with the idea of quitting my dream job for the second time in my life. Yet here I am with my eyes burning with tears at the idea of saying goodbye to this office.

Propping my elbows on the desk I rub my temples, fighting my tears.

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.

I frown and reach for my purse. Pulling out my vibrating burner phone, I don’t bother reading the name as I use this phone only to contact my PI.

“Ms. Lockwood.” His deep voice comes through the phone before I could talk. He gets straight to the point. “Baron Proctor is in police custody.”

I stagger to my feet. “What?”

“Yes. According to the tip I received, Baron was brought to the NYPD this morning by two men. He said he came to surrender himself for his fraud in your father’s company. They are interrogating him as we talk.”

My head begins to spin. “I don’t understand. Why would he surrender now?”

After disappearing for more than a year, his surrendering himself out of the blue doesn’t sit well with me.

“Remember I told you about the group of men that were holding Baron in a warehouse against his will?”

“Yes, you’ve already told me that the man they work for is from LA.”

“After investigating the matter closely, I have the name of the person.”

“All right, but I don’t care about him. I just want to know what’s happening with Baron—”

“Raleigh Jackson.”

I freeze.

“He works with you. The money transaction between him and this group’s leader goes back to almost three weeks ago. That means he had them on Baron for three weeks.”

Three weeks?

Raleigh?

My Raleigh?

How is this possible? I told him about Baron only a day before our wedding when we were on our way back from the day out. How can he hire a group of people to find Baron?

“Are you sure about this man being Raleigh Jackson?”

“Positive. Did you tell him about Baron?”

In a daze, I reply, “I did, but…”

---