Page 84 of Hate Notes

"Miss Hartwell?"

I turned to find Daniel, Orion's assistant, hovering nervously. "He's here. In the lobby. He's asking to speak with you before?—"

"Thank you, Daniel." I straightened my emerald dress—the same one I'd worn the night Orion and I first kissed. I considered continuing to avoid him. I had managed it so far, ignoring every attempted phone call, text, and email. I hadn’t even let myself read them. I didn’t want anything to shake my confidence in what I was about to do.

But now? Now things were already in place, and there was no stopping this.

I also found my anger and disgust over what Orion wanted to do cooling rapidly ever since I found out he threw the documents away.He had changed.Yes, he made a mistake, but he changed. That had to mean something.

“Okay,” I said after a long pause. "Tell him I'll meet him by the east entrance."

I found Orion pacing near the ornate doorway, looking devastating in a perfectly tailored black suit. He stopped when he saw me, something raw and vulnerable crossing his face.

"Ember—"

I held up a hand. "Whatever you're planning to say, I already know. About the property transfer documents. About your original plans for the factories."

His jaw tightened. "How?"

"Does it matter? What matters is that you changed your mind. That you threw those documents away weeks ago, before I even confronted you with my own lies."

"I should have told you myself." He took a step closer.

"Yes, you should have,” I said plainly. “But maybe we both needed to face our mistakes separately before we could fix them together." I pulled something from my folder—a notecard with the Hate Notes logo. "I was planning to read this to you after everything was over, but since you’re here…”

Orion noticed the card with a mixture of anxiety and amusement. A ghost of a smile touched his lips as he watched me take a breath and prepare to read him one last hate note.

Dear Mr. Foster,

You're an idiot. But so am I. Maybe we deserve each other.

With complicated feelings, Ember

I lifted my eyes to him nervously, unsure of what to expect. Orion pulled a card from his own pocket, but this one looked like an ordinary notecard. He held it up so I couldn’t see what was written.

“Believe it or not,” he said. “I had my own hate note for you, as well.”

“You didn’t…” I breathed.

He cleared his throat and began to read.

Dear Miss Hartwell,

I planned to destroy something beautiful because I thought profit mattered more than people. You made me realize I was wrong. I'm sorry for what I planned to do, that I kept it from you, and that I made the mistake of letting you walk away from my mom’s apartment with those feelings of guilt. I’m especially sorry that you had to walk in the rain.

With regret (and other feelings I'm not equipped to express), Orion

I laughed, then realized I was crying a little too. “The rain part wasreallysad,” I said, sniffing.

Orion pulled me in tightly, running a hand down my hair. “I know. Remmy told me it cost me a lot of ‘points’. She said if it hadn’t rained, I wouldn’t have been in such deep trouble.”

“Your sister is wise,” I said, wiping at my eyes and trying not to get makeup on his nice suit.

I let him hold me for a long while until I knew I had to step back. I could hear voices from the ballroom, and I needed to get this thing going if it was going to happen.

As Orion stepped back, I caught sight of the notecard in his hand and snatched it from him with a crooked smile.

“Hey!” I said. “This is blank.”

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