Cruel Fortune (Cruel #2)(66)

I balled my hands into fists. Fire coursing through me. Anger at the insinuation, at what I’d just learned, at the sheer horror of it all.

“You seriously misjudged me, Mr. Warren,” I spat at him.

He laughed. “I really don’t think that I did.”

“Fuck you,” I growled. “You can keep your goddamn money. I don’t need any of it. I was fine without it before, and I’ll be fine afterward, too.”





Natalie





28





I moved like a thunderstorm off of the balcony. Anger pulsed off of me like sheets of rain falling from the sky. I couldn’t even believe what had just happened. At the sheer audacity of Edward Warren. He had clearly orchestrated this thing so that he would have a moment alone with me. A moment to accuse me of trying to take his son’s money and then offering me more to get rid of me. I had never been more offended in my life.

And worse…was what Lewis had done. I wanted to scream. I’d worried that ending up with Warren was coincidental, but I’d told myself that they hadn’t been the first publisher to try to buy my book. I’d thought it had been won on its merit. Not Lewis’s interference. Turned out, I was wrong. I’d been stupid enough not to even ask him.

Lewis was pacing the living room when I stormed past him. “Natalie?”

I ignored him. I had no words for him. Not a single one.

“Natalie? Are you okay?” he called.

But I was reaching for my purse, slinging it over my shoulder. Then I threw my jacket on and marched toward the door.

Lewis rushed after me, and I heard him say, “I’m going to have to call you back.”

I got in the elevator and watched the doors close in his face. He jerked his hand in between the doors, stopping them from completely closing. Then he jumped into the elevator.

“Are you okay? Why are you leaving?” Lewis asked. His eyes were wide and wild with concern.

“Why don’t you ask your father?” I snapped and pressed the button for the bottom floor.

“My dad? Why? Did he do something?”

I glared at him. I felt like I was going to explode at any second, and I didn’t want it to be here in an elevator. I needed to get outside into the open air. Away from that cautious face. As if he hadn’t done anything wrong at all.

I faced forward again and crossed my arms without an answer.

“Shit. Natalie, talk to me. I don’t know what happened. So, I can’t fix it.”

“No, you can’t fix it,” I snarled.

The elevator opened at last, and I shouldered past him, through the lobby, and finally outside.

Lewis rushed after me. “Natalie, please talk to me. I don’t want you to just run out of here because you’re angry.”

“Too late.”

“Please,” he pleaded.

I ignored him and headed across Fifth Avenue, toward the entrance to Central Park.

“My driver is around the corner. I can take you home. Let me take you home.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

Lewis huffed but followed me across the street. “You’re just going to rush out into the night without telling me what happened? This isn’t fair, Natalie.”

“Fair?” I screeched, heedless of who was around. “You want to talk about fair, Lewis? How about you convincing the publisher to pay me seven figures? How about how you were the one who told Warren to buy my book?”

He took a step back, as if I’d slapped him. “I was…helping.”

“Don’t try to spin this,” I told him. “You can’t convince me that this was somehow good for me. I wanted to do this book on my own. I wanted my debut to have success because of my writing. I didn’t need or want a leg up. Someone else would have bought it for less money, and I would have been ecstatic. But no, you had to interfere. You had to make it about you. So, talk to me about fair.”

I whipped around and started into the park. Central Park was drained of color. The winter trees empty of leaves and loomed ominously above us as I stomped through the grounds.

“I did that. I admit it. I found out that it was you, and I wanted to help. Why is helping you a bad thing?” he asked.

“If it was such a good thing, then why did you never tell me?” I snapped.

He shrugged. “It never came up.”

“Yeah, because you never brought it up. Because you knew that I wouldn’t be happy about it.”

He reached out and grabbed the sleeve of my jacket, yanking me to a stop. “Everything that I do is for you, Natalie. Everything. Maybe this was the wrong way to go about it, but I didn’t know that you’d be upset with me for doing this. I didn’t know.”

“You knew,” I accused. “Or else I wouldn’t have heard about it from your dad when he called me a gold digger. He said that you’d already handed over a cool mil and asked how much more it’d take for me to leave you alone.”

Lewis sucked in a breath. “He didn’t?”

I laughed maniacally. “Oh, he did.”

“Fuck, Natalie, I am so sorry. I know that he’s done this in the past, but I didn’t think he’d stoop to that level with you.”

“Well, excellent. Good to know I’m the one worth stooping for,” I growled.