Page 72 of Come Here and Kiss Me

“Have you spoken to him?” he asks.

“No,” I answer, and he nods in understanding.

With a deep inhale, he says, “I didn’t think you had.”

“There was a lot in the email he sent me, Miss Chambers, including information about your father. In order for me to act on it, I would have to disclose everything. I’m torn on the matter.”

I part my lips to say something in defense of him, but I’m left with more questions than anything else.

“I think you should speak to your fiancé,” he says. I almost correct him, but I don’t.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish he still was.

“I thought as much,” he says in my silence.

“Thought what?”

“That you love him the way he loves you,” he says so definitely. As if he knows when he knows nothing.

“He doesn’t love me,” I whisper, and I hate every word because the truth hurts more than all the lies I could scream. “We’re not together anymore,” I confess.

“You should talk to him,” he suggests, slipping his glasses off and folding them.

“You don’t understand,” I tell him.

“I understand more than you think,” he says easily and glances at his watch. “I have to go now, Brooklyn. I wish you well. Please speak to him before Monday. We have the weekend to decide how to handle this, and it would be helpful if Ronan was levelheaded by then.”

“I’m sure the breakup isn’t as bad as you think,” I tell him.

“It’s far more than that, and I shouldn’t be the one to tell you.”

“I’m not ready to talk to him,” I say honestly.

I hope he can understand that much.

Ro destroyed me.

He toyed with my heart and then left it to wilt.

Johnathan doesn’t say anything at all. He merely clicks on his laptop before picking up his briefcase and leaving the computer where it sits on the long table at the front of the room.

“I have to go now, and if anyone should look at my computer screen to see the email that was sent, I would have no idea. If someone were to delete it, again…” He shrugs. “Who would know?Surely not me.”

“What?” I question, mostly in disbelief.

“Please be well, Miss Chambers.And if you need me, I will be here for you.I’m so very sorry.”

His condolences are hard for me to accept, so I say nothing. I watch him leave, not quite trusting him and in slight disbelief.

Did he really resign?And what else did he send?

The door clicks shut, and the clock ticks once, then twice. It doesn’t make it to three by the time I move to the computer. Before I can think straight, I read it all.

“Oh my fucking God.”

Those are the only words that come to mind.

CHAPTER28

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