Page 68 of The Billionaire's Second Chance
And it didn’t matter if she won Agent of the Year, not to him.
And it wouldn’t matter if he owned Veritech.
And I had been a fool to think otherwise.
I had made a foolish mistake fifteen years ago, and it had cost me a decade and a half of lost time with the woman I loved.
Was it already too late to fix this one?
I stood, abruptly.
“I have to go.”
“Really, Charlie?” Sebastian said.
“What? Charlie,” Ryan said, staring between James, Sebastian and me, “what’s going on?”
“I…” I said. “I have something I need to do. Ryan, I, uh–” I threw back the rest of my old fashioned, the sweetness suddenly cloying, coating my thick tongue. “Can I get a lift?”
Thank fuck for Ryan, I thought as he immediately nodded. “Yeah, I’ll call my driver. I should go, too. Maddie’s at home.”
“Thanks. James, Barrett.” I gritted my teeth, forcing the last name out from between them: “Sebastian.” Then I rushed to the door, already slipping my pointless fucking suit jacket from my shoulders. I tossed it over the host stand at the entrance. “Hold this for me,” I said. The host’s deep frown brought the first smile to my face since the cocktail party, and suddenly, my chest filled with helium, with glowing light. I feelcombustible. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I would do it, and that was all I could do. She could take it or leave it. It was as simple as that.
“Ryan,” I said as we stepped out into the night. I ran my hands through my hair. “Fuck. What time is it in London right now?”
“The middle of the night, Charlie.”
“Okay, what about Hong Kong? No, wait–Japan.”
“I don’t know, morning, I think–Charlie, what’s going on?”
“I need you at the office for like…” I said as a black car pulled up to the curb. “Tonight. Tomorrow.” Ryan tilted his head at the car and went around to the rear passenger side. I opened the curbside door, then paused, meeting his eyes over the glossy black roof. “I don’t know. You owe me one, right, man?”
“Charlie,” he said, his face serious. “Is this about Samantha?”
I nodded once, a tight jerk of my head, and he pressed his lips together.
“You don’t have to call in any favors with me, Charlie, you know that. But…” he took a deep breath. “You don’t need to tell me about what’s going on with Samantha. That’s between you two. But I have to ask, if this is about the company, I have Maddie and Flora to think of. This is their life, too.” His hand flexed on the car door, his new gold wedding ring glinting in the streetlight. I braced for his question:what’s this going to cost us? Do you really think this is a smart idea?I didn’t know, not really. But instead, when he finally spoke, his question was an easy one.
“Do you love her?”
“Yes,” I said.
He nodded. “Then let’s go.”
CHAPTER32
Samantha
“Thank you,”I said at my reflection. “It is an honor.” I dragged my boar bristle brush through my hair again, smoothing down one last stray piece before pulling it into a tight knot at the back of my head. There were faint blue circles under my eyes that the concealer I’d dug out of the bottom of my makeup bag hadn’t been able to cover, but other than that, I looked the same as always. My smile in the mirror looked tight. Uncomfortable.
Just as it always had.
I slipped on the jacket I’d picked out for the night–a deep navy blue, nearly black, with a single button–and then walked out of my empty apartment, down to the waiting taxi, across town to the–I closed my eyes, letting my head rest against the worn leather head rest of the yellow cab–the New York Public Library.
At least the banquet wasn’t to be held in the same hall as the launch gala and Ryan and Flora’s wedding. My heels clicked softly as I walked the steps up to the Trustees Room, a stuffy, overdone room that the members of the New York Literary Association probably considered tastefully academic.
Millicent O’Connor gestured me over to where she sat beside her husband at a mostly empty table. A gilt-edged card readingSamantha Scottin blocky type sat atop the place setting next to hers, the plate a white porcelain with a gold band. Around her soft, crepey neck was a familiar glittering diamond collar.
