The Pretend Girlfriend (A Billionaire Love Story #1)(44)

Why did some people have to do that? Gwen wondered. They interrupt others, cutting people off mid-sentence as though their thoughts and opinions were the most important things in the world, like it was a privilege to hear them go on and on about whatever.

It was a wonder that Aiden even made it to adulthood, overshadowed by a man like Henry.

"You don't know your son at all," she said, crossing her arms. Her feet started to hurt from just standing there, still sore from their cute-shoes torture from the previous night. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing that, though.

But that just earned her a small, tight smile.

"I know him better than he knows himself. And certainly better than you do. So that's why I am going to make this easy for both of you."

Henry put his fingertips on a leather bound clipboard on his desk and slid it across, closer to her. "Inside, you'll find another contract. It nullifies the current one you have with my son. There is also a... severance package I think you'll find more than generous. Just sign it, and all this goes away."

Gwen didn't know what to say.

Henry did, apparently. "He doesn't love you. And he certainly doesn't like you. You're just a tool to him. When he wears you out, he'll just toss you aside anyway. You are no good for him, so stop fooling yourself. You'll be doing yourself, Aiden, and this company a favor by cutting this little act short here and now."

Gwen approached the desk. She opened the clipboard. Sure enough, there was a new contract in there. Just like with the one Aiden gave her, this one started with a non-disclosure agreement.

Henry Manning reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and took out an expensive pen. He removed the cap and slid it across the desk, leaving it beside the clipboard.

Gwen thought about these last few days with Aiden. About how he continually rejected her, how he seemed to show just enough affection and promise to keep her well within his grasp, about the way it hurt to not know if he felt the same way at all towards her.

"It's the right thing to do. For Aiden," Henry said.

Gwen picked up the pen.





Chapter 16


Gwen couldn't believe this. She leaned against the back corner of the elevator, watching the numbers count down towards the ground floor.

A small tremble (well, it started small) started in her knees and made its way upwards, ending with a prickling sensation in her scalp. She gripped the brushed steel rails, the metal getting warm beneath her fingers.

Did I do the right thing? Gwen wondered. Really though, looking back on it, she knew it was the right thing.

You couldn't let a guy like Henry Manning get his own way all the time.

And it had just been oh so satisfying to toss that heavy, expensive pen back across his desk. She'd actually managed to startle him a little with that, as much as a guy like that could feel something like startlement.

"Just remember this later on," Henry told her, picking the pen up and tucking it back into his jacket.

"Later on when?" Gwen said, drunk with her small victory over him.

"When things get difficult. Please see yourself out," he said. Then he went over to the window and looked out over the Manhattan skyline, which still blazed with the early morning light.

That had miffed her a little, but she took his silence for pouting and left. His secretary said something about a car as she stormed past, but Gwen didn't want to hear it.

And that led her to the current moment, feeling the smooth, almost silent descent of the elevator that would be packed full of suit-wearing business people in a few hour's time.

She wasn't sure why she'd done it. She had a feeling, an inkling, but certainty eluded her. Part of it was just to try and get another one-up over Henry, of course. But some small portion of her still thought about how much easier that money would have made her life. How much easier (or perhaps "simpler" was a better term here) her life would be without Aiden in it.

After all, he'd only really been a part of it for so brief a time. Surely, these last few days weren't enough to leave a lasting imprint?

The elevator halted at the ground floor. She'd grown so used to the motion that her stomach continued downwards for a few moments more. The doors chimed softly as they slid open, and Gwen once more found herself walking through the cavernous main lobby, her footfalls echoing off the vaulted ceiling.

Outside, the breeze ruffled her hair. She took a deep breath, wondering if this was how a long-term prisoner felt when they finally stepped out into the open air as a free person. How could someone spend their whole life in a building like this one, riding the elevator up and down all day every day?

Maybe that was why Aiden never seemed to spend much time there, as far as she could tell.

At the curb waited the same black Town Car that had taken her to meet with Henry. The driver got out when he saw her and went for the door, but she got to it first. It was nice when Aiden got doors for her, but she was getting tired of never getting to open her own doors. It was good to know that she could still do so under her own power.

The driver climbed back in and soon they were off once more. Traffic had picked up a bit, but was still pretty light. Gwen thought about breakfast and her stomach growled. If the driver heard, he pretended not to notice. She started wondering what it would be like to be a driver. She bet it was lonely, sitting there while the rich and famous pretended you didn't exist, or that you were nothing more than another component of the car, an appliance to get used as needed.