Page 60 of Don't Break My Heart
“Miss Sedgwick, I have a Miss Stryker in reception. She won’t leave unless you see her,” she says, her voice hushed as she stares back at me, all wide-eyed. She nods then she disconnects the call. “She won’t be long, Miss Stryker.”
“Thank you,” I snip, turning away from her and leaning into the adjoining wall while I wait. My stomach is churning like crazy. I might look intimidating as hell and all put together on the outside, but inside I’m dying. From the research I have done, she’s the only blood relative I still have, and I don’t know where that leaves us. But I need to see for myself that it’s true, that she is who she says she is. I have no fucking clue what I’m going to say when I see her. All I know is I can’t keep pretending my life before I came to Ravens Hollow didn’t exist. It’s a part of me.
I hear her before I bother looking down the hall to actually see her. Her heels click along the linoleum, a sense of power to her stride. I push off the wall and straighten my posture, my eyes locking with hers.
She raises a perfectly manicured brow in my direction. “Right this way.” She shows me down a corridor and into a room that has to be her office. It’s neat and tidy, not a thing out of place. Much like her. She’s perfectly put together, a powder-blue blouse under a dark gray blazer and pencil skirt. Her hair is neatly pinned into a low bun at the back of her head, and her make-up is minimal but professional. She’s a stunning woman, but there is a harshness to her. A chill in the depths of her stare that would intimidate most. “Have a seat, Ava.”
I roll my lips. “Don’t call me that.” I run my eyes over the chair opposite her desk. “I’ll stand, this won’t take long.”
“Suit yourself.” She closes her door and moves into the room, sipping from a coffee mug. “To what do I owe the pleasure this afternoon?”
I glare at her, scrutinizing every detail of her features. She’s beautiful, but the two of us look nothing alike at all. She does, however, look like the hundreds of images of my birth father that I have studied. I couldn’t deny she is his sister if I wanted to.
“I was wondering how long it would take you,” she says.
“Take me to what?”
“To come looking for what you’re owed.”
My body stiffens. “Are you fucking kidding me? I don’t want anything from you.”
“Why are you here then?” Her piercing gaze runs over me.
My heart kicks up a beat, all of a sudden not sure. Fucking Ricky putting ideas in my head. “No fucking clue.” I go to open the door and get the hell out of here, but she anticipates me and stops me, a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s perfectly natural for you to be curious about where you came from. You were abducted as a small child. Your entire life has been a lie. I would be curious if I was you.”
Her words come over me like poison, seeping through my skin in a way that leaves me feeling sick. “I’m not curious,” I snip back, crossing one arm over the other protectively. I don’t like the way she is looking at me like she fucking knows me. She doesn’t know anything. “And I wasn’t abducted, my birth mother gave me to Katrina to protect me.”
“Do you really believe that, knowing all you do about the Stryker family?”
What the fuck is that supposed to mean? “Yes, because I grew up with her and I know she didn’t have a hurtful, deceitful bone in herbody. She took care of me like her own, and she did it because she knew I had no family to go back to.”
“You had me,” she snarls as if I’m personally attacking her right now.
Her anger makes me take a step back from her. “You’re a few years older than me, what would you have done to take care of a child?” I shake my head wondering what the hell she has to be angry about here.
Her eyes lock with mine. “You could have lived with me and my parents. You’re family, we would have taken care of you.”
“You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Your brother made a deal with the devil. There was nothing anyone could have done to protect me from that.”
I see it in the depths of her gaze, she knows it’s true. She knows exactly what he did to me. A life sentence owned by the Morettis.
“What do you want?” she asks.
I stare back at her. Why the fuck does she think I want anything from her? I don’t even really know why I came here today. I guess I just needed to see her, to see the truth. “Give Reef his job back.” I don’t know where the request comes from, but she’s the only one who can help him now. Why not fucking try?
“What?” She stares at me blankly. “You must know I can’t do anything of the sort. He might have been one of my best detectives, but Reef knowingly helped a criminal organization and kept vital information from the other members of his team. I have had to suspend him and launch a full investigation into exactly what he was doing.”
My glare turns icy. “He did everything to protect me. He shouldn’t be punished for trying to do the right thing.”
She huffs out a laugh. “He’s a big boy, he knew what he was involving himself in chasing after you. He let his feelings for you cloud his judgment. I can’t afford to have that kind of weakness on my team.”
“You see it as a weakness, that’s interesting coming from you.”
Her brow shoots up. “What is that supposed to mean?” she snaps.
I shrug. “Only that I think you should be very careful who you associate yourself with.” She had to fucking know her sleeping with Jagger wouldn’t stay hidden forever. And right now, I couldn’t be more grateful my big brother couldn’t keep it in his pants, it gives me the leverage to hopefully help Reef.
