Page 107 of The Bossy One

When she lowered her hands, I saw what she’d been trying to cover. She was crying.

I felt those tears like a punch to the gut. I wanted to fall to my knees and kiss each drop away. At the same time, I wanted to yell at her that she wasn’t the only one in pain.

“I wasn’t talking about the conversation, Declan,” Olivia said, swiping furiously at her tears with the palm of her hand. “I was talking about the relationship.”

I stopped breathing. She didn’t notice.

“I can’t do this if you’re determined to be the worst version of yourself,” she said.

Something in me snapped. “Well, I don’t want to be with someone who only wants me when I’m doing exactly what she wants. I deserve more than that.”

Olivia looked down at the floor. I could feel her withdrawing into herself. Going some place I couldn’t reach her.

I hated it. “Olivia, wait…”

She looked up, her eyes clear and certain. “I think we both deserve more, Declan. We can’t give each other what we want. It’s done. It has been for a while, I just couldn’t admit it.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I knew she’d be angry about the mansion. I just didn’t think she could walk away so easily.

But of course she could walk away. This was what Olivia fuckingdid. She’d made a life of living in the present and fleeing as soon as that present got hard.

“At least we’ve only got ten more days together,” Olivia said, in a hollow imitation of a joke. “Once Sinead arrives, you’ll never see me again.”

“Why wait?” I said bitterly. “Mum and I can handle Catie for ten days. We don’t need you.”

She looked alarmed. “Declan, we promised Catie we wouldn’t do this. We promised I’d stay, even if we fought—”

“I don’t give a shit what I promised!” I said. The reality that she was leaving hurt so bad I wanted to double over and brace myself on something for support. But I’d be damned if I let her see me fall apart. I’d be damned if I’d let her spend the next ten days being lovely and professional andherwhile I crumbled in front of her. “Do you really think it’s better for Catie to watch the adults she loves seethe at each other for ten days?”

Olivia grimaced. “We can keep it professional—”

“Ican’t,” I said. “Not with you. Never with you.”

She looked somewhere between touched and alarmed.

Humiliation crawled up the back of my neck. I turned away. “Pack your stuff and say goodbye to Catie. I’ll buy your ticket and call you a taxi.

The silence between us grew thick.

Then Olivia turned away and did what she was told.

* * *

The house was quiet after Olivia left. Catie didn’t want to talk to me. Instead she lay curled up in her room, watching cartoons on my tablet. She emerged once to get a snack, defiantly meeting my eyes as she grabbed five cookies and took them back to her room.

I didn’t have the heart to scold her. I felt numb.

Olivia had left. She’d finally fucking left.

I’d poured myself a glass of whiskey, but it sat on the kitchen table next to me untouched.

I told myself it would have felt like this sooner or later. Olivia was always going to leave. This changed nothing but the timing—and I was right to end it now. I could hardly betray my principles, could I? Promise I wouldn’t raze the mansion, just for another week of bliss in her arms?

I pressed my fist to my hand and breathed. This was the real reason I’d needed her out of the house. Because I could already feel myself crumbling. I could already feel myself wanting to go to her room, and open the door, and coax her into believing this was one more crack we could patch over.

I should strip the sheets in her room, I decided. My staff normally handled that, but I needed to get every trace of her out of my life immediately. Eventually this numbness might wear off, and then I might do something weak like press my face to her pillow and breathe in that damn lavender scent.

I went upstairs and opened the door to her room. But Olivia had beat me too it. She’d stripped the old sheets off and scoured the room of every trace of her.

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