Page 23 of Tempt

More than some had, she pointed out.

So I handed over the keys to my home and my cars, and left the courthouse with my brother and sister-in-law.

Grace drove. Luke and I walked over from our lawyers’ office. We walk silently to the parking garage where she parked.

“I’ll find a place to stay,” I say when we stop next to her car.

“Good,” Luke barks.

Grace rolls her eyes at him. “He can stay with us as long as he needs to.”

Luke shoots me a look that says it’s over his dead body. If I had anywhere else to go, I’d leave right now. Give him space. He doesn’t want me around. I’ve fucked everything up.

I open my mouth and nothing comes out.

I don’t have anywhere to really go. That was bravado, and it turns out, I don’t have any more of that to draw on.

Grace shakes her head. “You are staying with us. That’s final.”

Luke jerks his head back in the direction of Bay Street. “I’m going to the office. Someone has to start planning our next steps.”

And it’s not going to be the guy who’s legally not allowed anywhere near the office. Fuck.

She shrugs. “Will you be home for dinner?”

“Yeah.” He frowns. “I’ll try.”

She unlocks the Jeep and gestures for me to get in as he disappears into the stairwell.

I don’t blame him for being mad. I’m not the only one who lost a lot of money today. All of our joint assets disappeared in the judge’s sentencing. What assets he has left are Grace’s, from her nascent art career.

She’s done well for herself—really well.

It’s still nothing compared to what we had.

Shoring up client accounts will consume his week now.Fuck.

We’re blessed with light traffic, and it doesn’t take that long to get to their loft. It still has that new home smell. They sold their house in Forest Hill as soon as I was charged, back when Luke was speaking to me.

Back when he would spend any money to clear my name, until he realized there was no clearing of anything.

I was guilty of insider trading, guilty of gambling with every penny I could get my hands on.

He had sold the house he wanted to build a family in, moved into a soulless factory space as he called it, all for nought. His fuck-up of a brother had ruined everything.

Grace liked their new place, though.

That was some small silver lining. It was walking distance to her studio at the Waterfront Centre, close to the galleries and artsy shops she liked.

What did it fucking matter where Luke lived, anyway? He didn’t do anything other than work.

Jealous.

Yes, I am. That was me, too, and now I have nothing. I don’t have a loft, a beautiful wife, or a job.

I have a spare room with a view of a high-rise building and nothing but time on my hands to contemplate what a fuck-up I am.

“Do you want to talk?” Grace asks when we walk into the loft.

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