Page 22 of Off Limits Silver Fox

“Would you all please excuse us?” I demand from the team.

I look in Hailey’s direction. Her face is ashen. It takes everything in me not to call her back and apologize. But for what exactly?

When Linda and I are finally alone in the office, I allow my simmering anger to rise like a boiling cauldron, threatening to spill.

“Need I remind you, Linda, that you’re my ex-wife?” I throw at her with a savage bite.

“That doesn’t give your new bedmate the right to speak to me rudely and keep me from seeing you.” She thrusts her chin out at me.

“New bedmate?” I fight to control my temper. “Don’t you ever barge into my office like that again. Jackie’s job is to keep people like you out. People who have no business being here at my workplace.”

Her face reddens instantly. “But of course, go ahead and call me inconsequential. After all, you’ve always chosen your business over your family.”

I lean back in my chair and regard her with icy eyes. “Was that the excuse you gave yourself when you started poisoning our daughter’s mind against me?”

Color drains from her face, and I smile with satisfaction. Aside from her constant nagging, her turning my daughter against me was the final straw that broke the camel’s back in the miserable seven years of marriage.

“Anyway, I didn’t come here to banter with you.” She sits on the sofa and crosses her long legs, which used to drive me insane, but now leave me as cold as a cucumber.

“Amber can’t spend the weekend with you,” she blurts with a noncommittal shrug.

“What?” My eyes narrow to slits.

“She’s sick.”

My brows shoot up. “She was fine when I spoke to her this morning and was looking forward to spending the weekend with me.”

Staring at her manicured hands, she remarks, “That’s because she came home with the flu. It’s all over the school. You can call the principal to ask her. I wanted to call you to inform you, but Amber specifically asked me to come here to make it less hurtful for you.” Her mouth curls into a pout. “I don’t know why she’s being thoughtful of your feelings, seeing that you’re always busy and don’t really care about her.”

Not believing her, I pick up my cell phone and dial my daughter’s number. I grit my teeth with frustration when it’s unreachable. I know Linda must have made her switch it off.

Anger gnaws at my nerves at yet another ploy from my ex-wife to keep my daughter from me.

“Linda, I know what you’re doing, and it won’t work. Someday, Amber will realize how manipulative you are. She will realize that you kept her from her father.”

Linda’s face turns ghastly white, and she clicks her tongue in disgust. “That’s rich coming from you. Who missed her plays, her recitals, and her volleyball games? Who missed her presentation about technological innovations by the Payne industries? God knows I don’t understand why she wants to be like you, considering the absent father you’ve been. With her brains, she could be a world-renowned neurosurgeon, but she’s hell-bent on following in your footsteps. Watching her fascination with computers and tech stuff sickens me!”

I have no comeback for her. She hits me where I hurt most, reminding me of the past when I missed every important event in my little girl’s life, too busy trying to build an empire. I always arrived late or only after the event was already over. Nothing I bought for Amber as an apology ever made up for my absences.

What broke her heart the most was when her mom and I split up. I had tried my best to keep the marriage going and ignore Linda’s nagging and manipulations, but I couldn’t bear it anymore. I didn’t want Amber to grow up in an environment where her parents hated each other. I had put Amber first, while her mother manipulated her into thinking I was having an affair with an employee, hence the reason for not being more available, and for seeking a divorce.

One more reason to keep the affair with Hailey a secret.

“Please talk to her when she gets better, Gareth. She has other options. She mustn’t follow in your footsteps. I fear she might get disappointed when you don’t give her the necessary attention she needs to make it in the tech world. I’m just saying. Please think about it.” She gracefully rises to her feet. “I’ve passed on her message,” she throws at me before she saunters out of the office.

I place my elbows on the table and rake my fingers through my hair. I release a low groan of exasperation. How in the world was I so blinded to have married such a manipulative woman? With a little desperation, I think about my next line of action to get to Amber. Going to court again would only hurt her.

A few minutes later, the door opens quietly after a brief knock, and Hailey enters the office. I let out a sigh of relief as I had thought it was Linda, back to rile me further.

“Hailey, I—”

“I don’t mean to interrupt. I’m only here to pick up my purse,” she answers in a tone dripping with ice.

A thick frown covers my face when she avoids looking in my direction. I’m in no mood for more drama, so I let her go without trying to explain. Explain what, anyway? Do I really owe her an explanation?

In frustration, I push back my chair and walk across my office to gaze out of the glass window. The sight of Union Square Park, which usually brings me joy, only serves to annoy me because I’d planned a trip to Central Park with Amber that weekend.

Regret fills me, thinking about the many choices and decisions I made in the past, which are coming back to haunt me now. I slide my hands into my trouser pockets. A grimace crosses my face as I wonder what Amber would think of me sleeping with my employee seventeen years younger than me. I dare say she would not be pleased. She would most likely believe every lie her mother ever told her about me. Perhaps, for my daughter’s sake, I should end the affair with Hailey. My heart cringes at the thought, but Amber is the most important person in my life right now.

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