Page 62 of One Night in Paris

“I know. I saw it.” I tried to keep the frustration from sounding in my tone, but it was difficult. She had agreed to all of this, and now she was trying to blame me. I understood that she was upset about her mom, but I couldn’t do much about that now. “How was I supposed to know the extent he would go to? We did talk about photoshop.”

“I thought you were talking about giving me a wart or a big ass! I didn’t know they could make the pictures look that different!” she shot back.

“It’s photoshop. They can do anything they want to!” Did the woman not know what photoshop was, or was she just so upset, she wasn’t making sense now?

“All I know is that my mother has just left her therapy session so shaken up that I had to help her to bed and get a family friend to come and stay with her so that I could speak to you about this. I never wanted any of this for her!” Her tears fell faster the longer she yelled at me. “I just wanted to have enough money to help her!”

“Is that the only reason you took the job, Harper? To help your mom?” Maybe it was a rude question to ask when she was already upset, and it was mostly my fault, but at the moment, she made it sound like I was just an afterthought, and I hated that.

“No amount of money is worth this!” she shouted at me. “Fucking you or anyone else isn’t worth seeing my mother soshaken up and crying after she just went through yet another physical battle to save her life. You have no fucking idea what it’s like to be us, Logan! You have everything handed to you on a silver platter. I have nothing I haven’t worked my ass off for. And for the most part, I still have nothing! But the one thing I do have is a mother who loves me and would do anything for me. She’s the most important thing in the world to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect her!”

Trying my best to keep my voice calm, I corrected a few things. “I do understand, Harper. Unlike Trevor, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I built this company myself. Granted, I come from an upper middle-class background, but I wasn’t rich growing up. I didn’t have connections or any of the things people with successful companies often have. No, all I had was my drive to succeed and a strong work ethic. Much like you. So I do get it.”

“But you also had a family that loves you and can support you, Logan. She’s all I have in the world! The only one who cares about me!” Harper’s face was contorted with anger and hurt as she shouted the words at me that slashed through me like a knife in my heart.

Unable to speak for a moment, I simply stared back at her. When I finally regained the ability to formulate words, I asked her, “Is that what you really think? You don’t understand how much I care about you?”

Breathing heavily, Harper stared at me for a long time before she said, “Logan, if you really cared about me, you would’ve used some of that money, power, and influence you’ve accumulated over the years to make this go away. But you didn’t. Now, I’m the one who has to suffer the consequences. Just me and my mom—the way that’s always been. This article doesn’t make you look bad. Hell, it makes you look like a fucking stud. As usual,two people have sex, and the woman is a slut while the man is a superhero.”

“I can’t do anything about the way the world interprets sexual relationships, Harper, but I will see what I can do about fixing this.” I didn’t know what else to say. Still stunned by her harsh words about me not caring for her, I was left to stare at her like a child who’d lost his favorite teddy bear.

Shaking her head, Harper swiped at a rogue tear that tumbled from her eye. “I can’t keep doing this, Logan. I’m done. Mom can’t keep being dragged through the mud, and neither can I.”

“What are you saying?” My heart stopped beating as I waited for her reply, knowing that the pain was about to intensify.

“I’m saying that it’s over, Logan. Whatever the hell this was that we had, it’s expired. I appreciate everything you tried to do for me, but I should’ve listened to my instinct when I heard that voice in the back of my head saying it could never work between people like us. We live in two different worlds. No matter how hard I try to fit in with you, I’m always going to be the little poor girl trying to fuck her way to the top.”

“Harper…” Nothing else would come out of my mouth. I wanted to grab her arm and plead with her, to beg her not to do something like this. I needed her—not just at work but in my life. In my arms.

At the same time, I couldn’t ask her to continue to put her life in upheaval over me. She was right. It wasn’t good for her mother’s health, and it was clearly taking a toll on her as well. Who was I to try to promise her that things would be different in the future? This was the state of my public life, and nothing about that was going to change anytime soon.

“Goodbye, Logan.” With that, Harper walked to the door, ripped it open, and walked away—without turning back.

I watched her. My door stayed open, so I stepped forward and watched her walk to the elevator, watched her press the button, watched her climb inside. Watched her disappear.

Not only did my heart feel like a giant rock sitting idly in my chest, but my gut ached like someone had shoved a steel-tipped boot right into my stomach. All of the things I’d wanted to say to her tumbled around in my mind—a dryer on high tossing about random items miscellaneously, few of them actually registering as they swirled by over and over again.

I had to let her go, though. Forcing her to stay with me, trying to convince her that I’d find another way to make this right, none of that was a good idea. I would think of something to make sure that this went away, but for now, my hands were tied.

Once Harper was gone, I went back inside my apartment and shut the door, locking it. Sinking down onto the couch, I held my head in my hands. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried about anything, but every time a flicker of Harper’s face crossed in front of my mind’s eye, it felt like a tear wanted to slip down my cheek.

Going back over our conversation in my mind, I tried to think of what I might’ve been able to say to her to change the outcome of the situation, but I wasn’t able to come up with anything. At the end of the day, Harper was right that we came from two different worlds. I was used to seeing my picture in the tabloids, or at least knowing it was there, and she wasn’t. Asking her to adapt, to step into my fucked-up world, wasn’t right. At the end of the day, her mother did mean more to her than anything else, and I had to respect that.

If it meant letting her go, I’d have to find a way to do just that. It would absolutely suck, but I could handle the pain if the agony meant Harper got what she needed, what she deserved.

With a heavy heart, I released a big sigh and let my mind settle on something else—how was I going to get even with fucking Dave?

34

HARPER

“Are you sure you’re happy with your decision, honey?” my mom asked for the hundredth time. Clearly, she was very concerned about my relationship with Logan and how I’d told him off after those asshole photographers had surprised us at the coffee shop. “You seemed so happy when you were dating Logan.”

Sucking in a deep breath through my teeth, I considered how to respond to that. Mom was right—being with Logan did make me happy. But dating him just didn’t work for me. We came from two different worlds. I could never get used to all of the attention, mostly negative, I would get every time I was seen in public with him, especially if I planned on continuing to work for him.

“Mom, I’m fine,” I assured her. “Let’s not worry about it right now. You need to get through your chemo appointment, and then we can talk about it later.”

Mom waved a hand at me. “Sweetie, there’s always going to be another therapy appointment to worry about or something else to make you think I’m not capable of talking at the moment.At the end of the day, you’re my daughter, and you are more important to me than anything else.”

---