Page 43 of Overnight Inheritance

The lady doth protest too much.

The words rang in his mind like a slap in the face. Had she been stringing him along, holding him at arm’s length this entire time? Playing with him? Maybe not to get her hands on Laurence Sheridan’s property, but he could suddenly clearly see that there was a huge imbalance in their relationship. He’d opened himself to her, prioritized her over everyone, let Alfie get to know her, even told Ashley about her. In return, she still wasn’t on his team. She’d been able to just cut him out of something this huge and see no problem in her priorities.

He’d thought that, for the first time in his life, someone had seen the real him; he’d have someone he could support who would love and support him back. Maybe that had been an unrealistic fantasy, but the little boy whose mother had left him with a monster of a father had clearly been too desperate for things to work out with Mae. So desperate that he’d read the situation—and her—all wrong.

“You inspired the whole plan,” Mae said, her eyes wary now. “When we were talking about what I want to do and I said I wanted to make the world a better place and you said I should go for it.” She threw out a hand. “Well, that’s what this is.”

His ears buzzed. Even aside from the personal element, there were layers to the corporate angle of this situation that he needed to address, and he had no idea where to even start.

“You idiot!” his father bellowed at Mae. “You have no idea what you’ve—”

Seb turned to his father and snarled, “You heard Sarah. You have no ground to stand on in attacking Mae. She’s one hundred times the person you are, you pitiful excuse for a human being.”

His father straightened to his full height, seeming to swell to the size of a much larger man. Seb had seen the same move countless times in his life, and it suddenly struck him that he was done. Done with his father, done with this company, done with everything.

Done.

There was no way he was going to stand side by side with his father against Mae. In fact, he didn’t want to be on the same side as his father at all. His father had never been on his team. The only team Seb had was with Alfie.

He held up a hand. “Before you say anything, listen, because you may as well save your breath. I’m out. I’ll hand over the projects I’m in the middle of to the team, and then I’m walking out that door. And once I’ve gone, I don’t ever want to see you again.”

His father’s face was scarlet, his breath audible. “You can’t walk out!” he yelled. “This company is our family legacy.”

“I don’t want it,” Seb said and slid his hands into his pockets.

“If you leave,” his father said, his face turning ugly, “I’ll disinherit you. Cut you and that crying baby of yours out of my will entirely.”

“Great.” The relief he suddenly felt was dizzying. “Then at least we’re clear about that.”

His father stepped toward him with a raised arm, his eyes bulging, face so red it was starting to look purple. “You ungrateful—”

Sarah jumped between them. “Christopher!”

His gaze slid down to Sarah’s, and he drew in an unsteady breath. “Sarah,” he said, his voice cracking on her name, “you—”

“There isnothingyou could say that I want to hear. It’s time you left.” She swung her arm and pointed at the door.

His father shot a baffled look around the room. “But this is my—”

“Out,” she said, and with only another moment’s hesitation, he left.

After he went through the door, no one moved or said anything for a long moment. Seb was reeling. He’d just crashed and burned his career, and given up the company he’d planned on leaving Alfie one day. His father appeared to still be in love with Sarah, and Mae’s family hated Seb more than ever.

Worst of all, Mae had undermined him, and he’d realized their entire relationship had been one-sided. He glanced down, half expecting flames to burst through the floors.

Sarah blew out a breath. “I think we should get going.” She headed for the door, then paused, with a hand on the doorjamb. “Good luck, Sebastian.”

“Yeah, I have places to be,” Heath said and followed his aunt.

“Sebastian,” Mae said softly from his side. “I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t look at her. He knew that if he saw her, he’d fall at her feet and accept any crumbs of attention that she was willing to throw his way, and he couldn’t live like that.

“I know,” he said through a tight jaw, forcing a smile. “Look, I have a lot to do here. I need to tie things up and hand projects over, say goodbye to the staff, and a million other things.”

“Do you want me to go?”

His heart screamedno, but following his heart for the first time in his life had led to this mess. He’d always tried to keep his heart protected—only Alfie had really breached its defenses. Then along came a brunette with an Australian accent and an infectiously positive attitude to life and, without hesitation, he’d handed her his still-beating heart and thrown a grenade into his life.

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