Page 69 of A Million Times, Yes
“Explain what’s going on right now.”
She silently stared, breathing deeper than when she ran. “Twenty-one years ago, my mother and I were kicked out of our apartment. A place that, unlike all the others we’d lived in, actually felt like a home. The reason we had to leave was because a company came in and bought the building to convert it into luxury condos. We were given almost no time to move out and had to leave ninety-nine percent of our belongings behind. That place, that tiny one-bedroom, was like a palace to me. It gave me a kind of safety I’d never felt before. A safety I never felt again until college.” She leaned her head back against the glass. “Every time something happened in my life, I always asked myself, Would it have happened ifI was back living there? Would I have been protected there? Would I have been happier there? Because once we left”—her eyes filled with tears—“everything went to hell.”
“Maya . . .”
She shook her head. “Do you know who bought that building, Jordan? Who took away our home?”
As soon as she asked the question, the answer was there.
In her eyes.
In my head.
“Worthington Enterprises.” My voice was so soft, I didn’t recognize it.
She caught the first tear before it fell. “Your father forced us out. He’s the reason I lost everything. And why? To make money.”
Goddamn it, this hurt.
I reached for her, but she sidestepped me.
“Maya—”
“I have blamed your family for as long as I can remember. I’ve resented them. I’ve hated everything they stood for. And now”—her voice pitched as she held in a sob—“I’m looking at one of the executives, and I’m trying my hardest not to blame you for being a Worthington.” She wiped away the next stream of drips. “Even though I have all this love for you in my heart, I can’t change who you are and where you came from, and that kills me.”
I pushed my shoulder into the cold glass, grinding it into the hardness to stop myself from hauling her into my arms. To ground myself from the fucking reality I was staring at.
To punish myself for the pain that was gazing back at me.
“What do I do?” I tried to clear the vulnerability out of my throat but couldn’t. “How the hell do I fix this?”
“You can’t erase that part of my life. You can’t change those memories.” She wiped her mouth. “You can’t make me forget how many times I uttered your last name in vain. It was hundreds, Jordan. Maybe thousands. And it wasn’t just my family that was hurt. It was all the unfortunate people inour building. Like Mrs. Reynolds, who lived beside us, who would slip candy bars through the lip under our door to make sure I had something to eat because she knew my mom was broke. And my friend Andrea, who lived two floors above me, who was finally living in a home that was free of her dad, who used to beat the shit out of her and her mom. I lost them all when we had to move.” Her lips started to quiver. “Do you have any idea how many families were displaced because the Worthingtons wanted to make more money?”
“What about your dad? He didn’t take you in when all this happened?”
I assumed he hadn’t been part of the main picture, considering she’d never spoken about him. But maybe he had a secondary role and they’d drifted apart, or he’d passed away.
“My dad? You mean the man who got my mother pregnant?” Her shoulders lifted. “I have no idea who that man is, and neither does she.”
This was getting worse by the second.
“Maya, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be. I don’t miss something I never had, and the thought of him never crosses my mind. But do I miss that apartment and the life I dreamed of while I lay within those warm walls? Yes. I miss that, and I ache for the little girl who lost everything.”
My head fell back.
My eyes closed.
My heart pounded so fast, it felt as though my skin would rip open.
I knew her reasoning went deep, but I hadn’t expected this.
“There has to be a way.” I opened my eyes. “There has to be something I can do.”
Her hands went into her pockets. “I honestly don’t know.”
I took a deep breath, knowing every word that came out of my mouth from this point forward mattered more than most. “I want you, Maya. I want you in my arms. I want you in my life. I don’t want to lose you. Not over something that’s out of my control.” I gently banged the back of my hand against the window. “I can’t change who I am. I can’ttake away what my father did. I can’t make you fall for a Worthington if you’ve spent your whole life hating them—but fuck, I want you to. All I want ... is you to fall for me.”
