Page 95 of Easy Reunion
His ragged sigh is just a mirror of the pieces of my heart. “What do you need me to do?” I ask him again, trying desperately to focus on something other than the fact than my world is crumbling around me.
“If you think you’re capable…” And my father goes on to talk about how he’d like me to come home. Before I got there, he’d be breaking a vow he swore to me he’d take to the grave. It would mean talking to a young man who thinks his life is over because he was abused by someone he was supposed to be able to trust.
This time there’s no controlling my response. I grab the trash can and begin hurling the breakfast I ate before I left for work inside it. And in my ear, I vaguely hear my father’s tears as the sobs he’s likely been hiding from my mother cut loose.
That’s all right. They mingle with those sliding down my face.
* * *
A few hours later,I’ve drafted up my letter of resignation after preparing notes on all of my open tasks. I asked Eli’s secretary for the last appointment of the day. Resting my hand on the door, I wish there was some other way, but didn’t I learn that doing what’s right involves sacrifice? Even if it means hurting the people you care about?
Knocking on his door, I wait for him to call out, “Come in,” before I push the door inward. Eli leans back in his chair, crossing an ankle over the opposite knee, steepling his fingers. “What can I help you with, Ry?”
I cross the large office with my hand holding the sealed envelope behind my back, suddenly as anxious as I was when my father and I walked into President Adams’s office the day after graduation. It’s as if Eli already knows what I’m about to say.
Swallowing convulsively, I stand in front of my friend, despising how my past has collided with my present. I’d give anything to change this part of my life. But even as that wayward thought sneaks in, thunder claps outside, grabbing my attention. Now I hurt even more because the floor-to-ceiling windows in Eli’s office show me the stormy skies that are like drowning in Kelsey’s eyes. Desperately, I try to figure out a way to avoid doing this, but I have no idea how long I’ll be gone. “I need to hand you this.” I pull the letter out from around my back.
Eli doesn’t react. He doesn’t even look down away from my face. “You don’t appear to be pleased by it.”
Pleased? By giving up a job I love? Knowing I’m going to end up losing the only woman I’ll ever love in the process? Not hardly. Instead of answering his question, I walk forward and lay the letter on his perfectly organized desk. His face remains implacable. “Ahmed will make an excellent replacement,” I manage to get out. My assistant general counsel has a CV almost as impressive as my own.
Eli waves his hand as if he can’t be bothered with that. “Tell me why.” The first edge of bitterness slides into a voice that’s usually a slow, cultured drawl.
“As your general counsel, it’s my duty to protect Bayou Enterprises from all known threats.”
“Since when did you become one?”
Wearily, I run my hand over my head. “I guess I’ve always been one.”
Eli surges to his feet. “Excuse me?” A few inches taller than me, and broader, his anger is usually impressive. Today, it does nothing but bounce off me. It can’t touch me.
Nothing can.
“I’ll be going home for an indeterminate amount of time.”
Eli makes his way around the desk, eyes narrowing. “And there’s something there you think can hurt us? This company?” he questions.
“I’m certain of it. If anything about what happened ever were to come out, the media coverage would…” Fuck. I didn’t mean to go there. “Just forget I said anything.”
“Not hardly,” Eli scoffs. Coming around his desk, he gestures to a chair.
I shake my head.
Silence hangs between us. “We can do this standing, but you look like you’re about to collapse.” Eli motions again to the black chair behind me.
Exhaustion, the kind I’ve only felt two other times in my life—the first after telling my father what happened to me and the second after explaining why I hurt Kelsey to President Adams—settles over my shoulders like a yoke weighed down by anvils. “You’re not going to change my mind.” I drop down into the chair behind me.
Eli nods once. “We’ll see about that by the time we’re done talking. Now”—he folds his long body into the chair facing me “—will that letter tell me you’re going to work for another company?”
“Don’t be an ass,” I grumble. I rub my hand over my forehead back and forth. When I finish, I get a glimpse of Eli’s face. He’s trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.Good luck, buddy, I think with a flicker of amusement that’s gone as quickly as it appears. “Listen, I don’t know how long I’m going to be gone. None of the reasons I’d be taking a leave of absence fall within company policy…” I begin, but Eli cuts me off.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. We’re not a bunch of assholes here, Ry. Though I’m beginning to think I might be looking at one,” he says pointedly. “We’re hardworking, demanding employers, yes. I’d also like to think we care about our employees…”
“You do.” This time it’s me who cuts him off because the guilt is killing me. There’s no way for me to win. I’m going to walk out of here having lost it all. Why wasn’t I brave enough to do something about this when I was just a kid?
My hand clenches on the arm of the chair, nails digging into the leather, when Eli murmurs, “I see.” Pushing himself to his feet, he walks over to the cabinet in his office that holds the bar. Pouring a few fingers of rich amber liquid into two tumblers, he carries them back and hands me one. I’m nauseated after I swallow a sip when Eli says, “I’ve always kept your secrets, Ry. All of them. So, why would you think I’d ever believe the crap you’re trying to hand me right now about being a threat to the company?” The knowing look he flashes me is like the shock from a defibrillator.
He knows, my mind whispers. “How?” I manage to croak out.
