An Invincible Summer (Wyndham Beach #1)(59)
“Well, you did,” he said. “You screwed up big-time.”
“You did indeed.” Maggie nodded toward the door.
Amber wet her lips, apparently readying a plea. “Mrs. Flynn, if I could explain . . .”
“You may not. Out, now, or I will call building security to escort you down to HR. I would think you’d rather walk out of here and make your way to the office on your own, but it’s your choice.”
Her eyes flickered from Zach to Maggie and back to Zach. “I’ll see you at home,” she told him as she left.
“But maybe not for a while.” Maggie walked behind her to close the door.
“Mag . . . Mrs. Flynn . . . ,” Zach began.
“Please don’t. Just listen.” Maggie fought to keep her voice level, but it was a battle. “You’re going to need to look for a job. You should probably start today.”
“I can’t be fired for falling in love with someone,” he protested. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. It just . . . happened.”
“Right.” She nodded slowly. “The heart wants what the heart wants, and all that.”
He nodded, perhaps for a tiny moment thinking she understood.
“Well, Zach, I’ll tell you what my heart wants.” Maggie leaned a hip against his desk. “My heart wants my daughter to be happy. My heart wants her heart to have not been broken by you. My heart wants her life to be sane again.”
“I never meant to hurt her. And you can’t blame me for what Amber did. I swear I had nothing to do with that. I never would have let her hack into Grace’s computer.” He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple moving nervously above the knot of his tie. “Please, believe me. I’m not responsible for what Amber did.”
“I don’t hold you directly responsible for Amber ruining Grace’s career. But I do blame you for ruining her life.” Maggie was not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing all the ways his actions had affected Grace.
“I didn’t think she’d take the divorce as hard as she did.” He slumped in his chair, looking both confused and defeated.
Maggie laughed. “Really? Tell me how you thought she might take it.” She slipped into her Mama Bear persona and pinned him to his chair with her gaze. “Come on, Zach, we both know you never thought about how she’d feel when her husband of ten years openly cheated on her in her own home. And make no mistake, Flynn Law is her home. But wait, make that almost ten years, and keep that thought in mind because it will be relevant in a minute. You didn’t care how she felt, Zach.” God, she even hated saying his name. “Once you realized this firm had not fallen into your lap—and thank God it hadn’t—there was no longer any reason for you to pretend to be in love with her. No reason to hang around if there wasn’t going to be a big payoff.”
“I didn’t think it would hit her so hard. And I didn’t think she’d act like a lovestruck kid who couldn’t let go, whiny and pathet—” The look on Maggie’s face told him he’d gone too far.
“I’ll tell you what I think. I think you had Amber in your sights for a while before my husband died. I think you stayed with Grace because you thought once he was gone, she would inherit the firm, and by ‘she’ you thought ‘you.’ That had been Art’s plan all along, by the way, that the firm would someday be Grace’s. That someday she would be the face of Flynn Law. But toward the end of his life, some little alarm began to ring. Something told him not to trust you. You, his brilliant protégé, the young man who showed so much potential. The man who wooed and married our daughter not for love, but for his own gain. You, who betrayed not only Grace, but the man who’d believed in you, who’d loved you like a son. Who welcomed you into his family and his business.” She had to stop and cover her eyes. Zach’s betrayal of her family—not only Grace, but Art as well—had been one of the most painful truths she’d had to face.
Maggie swallowed hard before continuing.
“So at the last minute, he left the firm in my hands to do whatever I thought best. And what I think is best is for you to be gone. You could wait until George calls you in, but I think you should be a man and leave on your own before Amber’s shit hits the fan.”
He flinched. Had she ever cursed in front of him before?
“Make some calls.” She straightened up. “You should want to get out in front of this whole Amber-hacking-into-Grace’s-computer story. Some people might suspect you put her up to it. A lot of them will believe that you did.”
“That would be a lie. You’re not going to tell people that . . .”
“Of course not. I won’t have to. They’ll come up with that on their own. There’ll always be people who will want to believe the worst, whether it’s true or not. It’s a good lesson to learn, Zach. One worth remembering.”
She started toward the door, then snapped her fingers. “Oh—and about that ten-year thing. You and Grace never made it to your tenth anniversary. Which would have been in seventeen days.”
“So?”
“So while Art was beginning to get bad vibes about you, he still wasn’t sure if he was really picking up on something, or if the meds he was on were messing with his head. So he had a clause added to his will to the effect that if you and Grace were still married on your tenth anniversary, the firm would belong to you both. Equally.” She opened the door and, without turning around, whispered, “Looks like you blew it.”