One Bossy Offer (125)

“Preposterous!” Simone screeches. For a second, I think she’ll hurl my phone across the dog park. “How did you pull it off? We had them on lock.”

I hold back a smile as the livestream goes on with Wickes taking the mic.

“Being a parent with a sick husband meant I had to be mom, dad, and sole provider at times. I couldn’t move up into management because I would never have time for my child. I’ve done well enough to keep us going all these years, but only just. Now, my brilliant daughter wants to be a doctor. She was accepted to two fine medical schools and deserves an opportunity to go. I couldn’t pay for that and keep up a house and medical bills not covered by insurance, but incredibly, she got a scholarship with Rising Stars.”

Simone’s face wrenches like she knows what’s coming next.

Goddamn, I’m enjoying this.

Ava draws another breath and says, “A scholarship Simone Niehaus threatened to pull if I didn’t make terrible, deceitful allegations against Royal Cromwell. I’m just sorry I let her bully me into playing along. I want to be clear—not one of the advances ever happened. Miss Niehaus also told me she’d have me blacklisted from every national news outlet, but she didn’t have to go that far. All she had to do was threaten my daughter’s dreams. But my Michelle is a better person than me. When she found out the truth, she told me it was okay—she insisted I do the right thing—and together, we worked out a backup plan. We knew what had to be done. That’s why I’m up here with Jillian. The Cromwells don’t deserve your scorn, but maybe I do.”

They stand back from the mic then, opening the floor for questions from the gaggle of reporters assembled.

I finally turn to look at Simone. She’s so colorless her face looks like a mushroom stretched over bone.

“How? How could you do this—this butchery—to me after everything I offered? After I did the heavy lifting to make you richer and better? After what we had, Miles?” Her eyes are black stars about to go nova. “I swear to fucking God, I’ll slit your throat in broad daylight, you little idiot.”

I snort, holding back a smile.

“For such a tall, bitter, miserable bitch, you’re not very scary. You’ve taken the only two things that ever mattered to me. Letting me bleed out in the park would be a kindness, as long as it’s not in front of little Jackie and her poodle over there.”

I point a thumb to a girl with her dog off to the side.

“So dramatic!” she hisses. “What have I taken from you?”

“My mother and—fuck, you already know. You robbed my father of the last years he was able to remember her, to love her, the only goddamned thing he ever wanted in life.”

I stand and spit at the ground, right next to her feet.

I’m dead set on keeping it together, but every man has limits.

“Disgusting.” She rolls her eyes. “Again with the victim act. How was I supposed to know she’d have a heart attack that night? I’m not psychic. We were on the verge of something beautiful, Miles, and I couldn’t risk distractions. I did not kill your mother.”

“No. You stranded her to die,” I growl, venom coursing through my veins.

“Oh, please.” She pinches her eyes shut, glaring with utter contempt. “And the girl—you did that yourself. You can’t possibly blame me. Jesus, she looked at you like you were a king. She would have believed anything you told her. Let me guess, you just couldn’t be honest about your feelings, could you?”

My jaw tightens.

“See? Same old Miles. I may have added a little twist of pressure, but you drove her away, Mr. Man,” she whispers bitterly.

“Doesn’t matter,” I snap, hating that it does and abhorring that she’s right. “The fact is, you’re done. Right here and now. You have no power over me or anyone else, Simone.”

She doesn’t say anything as she stands, this frozen wraith almost as tall as I am.

Still, the arrogant curl of her lip makes it clear she doesn’t believe she’s lost.

“Back down. Face the music,” I say slowly. “After that conference, it’s going to move like lightning. You’ll spend your days in meetings with lawyers, trying to avoid criminal charges. You’ll certainly be removed from Pacific-Resolute by the board. You can’t deny it.”

Her face screws up as she shakes her head—fuck, is she actually choking back a sob?—but she stretches her arm out, her hand flying toward my face in a blur.

She must pay her nail tech a fortune to keep her fingers sharpened into those bright claws.

I narrowly miss losing an eye and duck back, lunging for her wrist again just before she slaps me.

“Now, you’re being ridiculous. Stop throwing a tantrum before someone gets hurt, Simone. It can’t help you.”

She throws herself against me, slapping my shoulders hard and reeling back again.

It’s like wrestling a damn deer.

Only deer hooves would bruise less than her bony elbow stabbing me in the side until I’m able to pin her arms, tumbling her to the ground.

My eardrums are bleeding as she breaks into a screaming fit.

“Help! Help, help me—assault!” she bellows. “He’s hurting me!”

A few distant bystanders in the park are watching now. Thankfully, the closest ones don’t intervene. They saw who struck first.