Page 134 of Bonking the Billionaire

As I’d learned who I was, I let her in, shared my pain, my struggles, my heart. But we were doomed from the start. She didn’t want Oscar Carrington, only the incomplete version, the blank slate.

As soon as she caught a glimpse of the real me, she wholeheartedly rejected what she saw.

I couldn’t follow her. I couldn’t ask her to stay.

Never give someone something to hold over you.

After everything that had happened between us, she refused to give me the benefit of the doubt, refused to believe I was honest with her when that’s exactly what I’d done from the start.

I should have known better than to trust someone so deeply. Morgan was always going to leave, she was always going to shut me out.

If you let them in, they’ll break your heart.

“Oscar?” Elsie circled into my field of vision, keeping her distance as if I were a feral beast likely to lash out. “Are you all right?”

A sound rumbled through my chest, an incomprehensible admission of anger and hurt.

“If you wish to go after Ms. Montrose, we can pick this up after,” Elsie said.

How did she know Morgan’s name? Of course Elsie knew. It was her job to know everything about me and the people who entered my circle. As soon as information came to light about where I’d been spotted while I was missing, and who I’d been with, Elsie would have drawn up a full report.

“That won’t be necessary.” There was no reason to chase Morgan and nothing to be said. She’d made her choice. It wasn’t me. As much as that decision devastated me, Jasper’s warning about the press clamoring to speak with me niggled in the back of my head. The tightness clawing at my chest worsened. “Order protection for her until the media circus settles. Have security keep their distance so as not to antagonize her.”

“Of course.”

“Have them guard her friends, too. Layana, Glitter, and the cheese man. For good measure.”

“It will be done,” Elsie said. “Chad Sledge has requested a meeting.”

“COO of Lacuna Television Network,” I said, remembering that name from the day I’d first visited the Lacuna building. It was inside the COO’s office that I’d found questionable records, the files I’d copied to my troll flash drive.

“Yes,” Elise said. “Despite the financial hold in place, Mr. Sledge greenlit a reality competition the network didn’t have funds to cover.”

Ice clawed up my spine, dulling the heat in my veins, numbing my nerves. There was nothing to be done for the wrenching black hole in my chest, but I’d take what little reprieve I could get.

This was familiar territory for me. Rejection and pain weren’t new emotions, no matter how world-shattering they felt in the moment. I knew exactly what to do with that energy. It was the same coping mechanism I’d always employed, the one that had fueled me through procuring my Bachelor's Degree, then my Master’s.

I put my head down, and I worked.

“Before I speak to Mr. Sledge or anyone else, I have financials to look over,” I told Elsie. “Records to comb. I’ll start with Lacuna.”

It was better to keep my mind occupied, better for my connection to Morgan to be severed now than to go on another moment loving her when she would never love me in return.

It was the nature of what I was at the core of my being.

With time, the pain would dull. I knew better than to expect the pain to disappear, but it would fade to the background and transform into motivation.

It was Morgan’s positivity that had me trying to see the bright side now. Knowing that this mindset shift was due to her influence? It only hurt more.

FORTY-TWO

MORGAN

My whole body burned like a wildfire. I knew if I let myself think, if I paused for even a second, I would completely crumble to ash.

There was no leaving the way I’d entered the ticklish tower, and no other exit. Or at least I didn’t see one until I spotted the window at the end of the hall. A little sticker above the frame marked it as a fire escape. Perfect, given I felt like my heart was bursting with flames.

I moved to slip my phone back into my pocket when I noticed the screen was still lit up from the phone call I’d made on my walk back from the coffee shop.

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