Page 64 of Finding Forever

“That all sounds fine,” he told Mitch, after the man had double and triple checked the language of the contract. Cadejust wanted to get out of this suit, take a shower, and relax on the patio with a drink. Technically, he was still on vacation but the Greenleaf contract was too important to hand off to anybody else. “Go ahead and send it. My phone will be on. Text me with any emergencies, but consider me off for the rest of the night.”

His assistant’s astonishment was palpable in the silence that followed and Cade grimaced, squeezing his nape tiredly. It wasn’t like him to explicitly state that he was unavailable. He wasalwaysavailable and on call. Ready to deal with whatever cropped up… day or night, twenty-four/seven. Even more so over the last couple of years since Nox had done a runner.

“Right,” Mitch said, his voice slightly raise. “Right. Of course. No problem. I’ll handle anything minor that crops up.”

Cade bloody well hoped so, else what the fuck was he paying the guy for? To be fair, Mitch wasn’t used to Cade not overseeing everything with a magnifying glass and a fine-tooth comb. He had a reputation for being exacting, a perfectionist, and not able to fully trust his team to get the job done to his standards. In that, hedidtake after his father.

For all intents and purposes Cade was on his honeymoon but none of his team had been at all surprised that he’d been working remotely most days since his so-called wedding.

But with things the way they were with Fern he was restless, out of sorts, unable to concentrate, and now he had this goddamn headache. He needed to switch off for just a few hours and he should be good to go again.

He disconnected the call without so much as a goodbye and powered down his devices, careful to save any work in progress. He couldn’t afford to be careless right now. Lambecrete was the vital cornerstone to the new approach Hawthorne Inc was taking in becoming an environmentally sustainable company, but there were plenty of other eggs in this basket.Greenleaf—renowned for their solar engineering solutions—was to be the latest of their acquisitions.

While his father considered this a niche product to offer future clients, Cade envisioned HC&E transitioning into a wholly green company in just a few short years. His father didn’t quite agree with that vision, but Cade knew that if they could make this work, the old man would see that it was the way forward. The positive PR alone would keep them in contracts for years.

Transforming HC&E into an environmentally sustainable company had been a long-time dream of Cade’s. He’d first introduced the concept to his father about eight years ago but the old man had dismissed it out of hand. Because Cade had been too young and inexperienced, and also as the old man had so succinctly put it, “what the hell does a lawyer know about growing a company? Stick to being the company shark. That’s what we’re paying you for.”

It had stung, but as the years had progressed, and Cade had become more involved in the operational side of things, his father had started listening to him more. He knew when to be tactful, knew how to manage the old man. How to be persuasive. When to push and when to back off.

Now it was finally all within his grasp. They had Lambecrete—no matter how Abernathy fucking bleated that they didn’t. They would soon have Greenleaf. There were others… a few more vital elements to acquire and everything Cade had workedsolong for would finally come to fruition.

He couldn’t afford distractions.

Cade yanked at his tie, impatiently loosening the knot and tugging it off. He pushed up from his chair and did a few stretches before leaving his office.

It was nearly six. He hadn’t heard any movement from Fern in hours. She tended to retreat to her room in the later afternoons for a short nap, but she was usually up by now.

He groaned at the thought of Fern. Fuck, he was botching everything up with her. But he wasn’t sure how to be around her anymore. He’d felt that it was important to keep her at bay and for her to understand that he didn’t care about her anxieties, or her lack of friends, or her… her baby.

But then she’d retreated into her shell and now he wanted to pull her back out of it. Which he knew was very fucking unfair.

Especially when he liked to keep his own life clutter and chaos free. But all she had to do was be in the same room and it became all about her. About her sad past, her future ambitions, herpregnancyand her beautiful eyes, her strangely wonderful hair, her sweet, full, suckable upper lip.

Fern Lambert—noHawthorne—was the exact type of distraction Cade was seeking to avoid.

And yet… as he passed by her door he stopped, leaning closer and straining to hear any movement or sound from the room. He wondered if she had she eaten enough today. Wondered if she’d taken her vitamins, sometimes she forgot. He wondered if he’d ever get to see her smile again, or if this emotionless, ghostlike little Fern haunting his apartment was the only version of her left to him.

Aah, fuck!

He needed to stick to his guns. If he went back on the things he’d said last week, he’d only confuse her, raise expectations, and hurt her in the long run.

He glowered at the door and his hand went up to his nape again, squeezing as he attempted to will his headache away.

He was about to move on when a muffled sound coming from inside the room gave him pause.

What was that?

He heard it again, a quiet, despairing moan and his hand was on the handle before he could think twice. Another moan, this time followed by a mumblednohad him twisting the knob and opening the door. He was in the room seconds later,stumbling over a pair of small pink and white sneakers that she’d presumably kicked off right in front of her door.

The curtains were drawn against the fading sunlight and the room was gloomy, but he could still make out the small lump beneath the covers on the bed.

Another frightenednoand he was at her side in an instant. All that was visible of her was the bright fall of hair on her pillow, the rest of her was wrapped up in the thick comforter all the way up to her eyes.

She had her back to him, but then she writhed, turning enough so that he could see the agitation on her face. Her eyes were closed but she was clearly in the grips of a nightmare. A bad one.

Her breathing was coming in sharp gasps now, terrified little pants which resembled the sound someone would make if they were being hunted.

Shit.

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