She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. He looked away, his jaw clenched. “If you’re done, I’d like to speak now.” Elena scoffed, wiping away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “Go ahead.” Her father met her gaze again, his eyes dark and intense. “Do you remember what I told you all those years ago, when you decided to walk away?” Elena swallowed, her hands fisting at her sides. She remembered every single word. “I told you that you weren’t good enough for our family, that you didn’t deserve to carry our name. I told you that you were a disappointment, that you were selfish and ungrateful. I told you that you were nothing but a disgrace, that you would never amount to anything.” Elena flinched, her heart clenching in her chest. All those bitter memories slashed through her once again. “And I meant every single word. I meant every single word I said to you because I knew that it was the truth. I knew that you weren’t good enough. I knew that

There were times when Elena knew what she wanted, why she wanted and how. Times when she was in control of her own destiny, of her present, and future. Times when she was aware of how her actions could affect everything.Those times, however, weren’t the ones she lived at the moment, at the point her heart raced so much that her whole body seemed to vibrate. She walked as if what she was about to do was either the best thing that could ever happen or the worst.“Are you sure about this?” Simon asked, as he stood on the driveway, looking up at her, his eyes filled with nothing but want and curiosity and so much more that she had barely started to understand.“What? Are you getting cold feet now, Simon?” She turned and teased, but she knew what he really was talking about, what he really wanted her to be sure about. Elena wished she had the luxury to think this over, to second-guess herself, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to. She was done questioning and doubting her decisions, espec

“You can’t hide this from her forever, Simon,” Diana said, as she sat next to him in his car, leafing through some sort of kids magazine. Simon was positively aware that the words uttered by the older woman were nothing but the truth. There were at least a dozen things he had kept from Elena. Not because he was ashamed of them, but because he was assured that once she learned about them, she would never even bat an eye at him. And that, believe it or not, was downright unacceptable. After getting so close to that woman—after touching her, feeling her, and breathing her in every way imaginable—there was no way he would put the bullet to his own feet. He would rather keep her away from all the fucked up mess that he was a part of than reveal to her and lose her forever. Just the thought of disbelief in her eyes made his chest clench. No. He wouldn’t make the mistake of being honest. Honesty was for the fools. “I can,” he grunted, looking out the window and doing his best to keep h

“Madam, the board meeting is about to start in five,” Betty Adams reminded Elena once again, as she stood at her office door, looking more impatient than Elena herself.Elena looked up from the papers strewed about on her desk and nodded. “Yes, of course. Let’s go.” She said and moved away from the papers that had eaten most of her previous day and this morning. It was finally that time of the year when she had to inform the board members about her decision and the future of her business.“Do you have everything ready? She asked Betty Adams, as she reached for her blazer hanging on the chair and slipped into it. “Did you give everyone their copies?”Betty Adams nodded, walking along beside her, her strides brisk as they entered the elevator and rode to the top floor where the conference room was.“I made sure they all had copies,” she said, flipping through the pages in the binder in her arms, as Elena gave her a curious look, “and I gave everyone some time to look at the reports befo

After dropping Elena to her room and making sure she had everything she needed so she could rest for a few hours, Simon came downstairs and went straight to her study. Before going to bed, he asked her if he could use it for a while, that he needed to take care of some of his business matters while she slept. Elena had not hesitated. She had asked her butler to lead Simon to the study without a second thought. God, it hurt so much to see her so worried, strained and so damn troubled. If only he could take all her troubles away and give her the peace she desperately needed. But he could not. Not right now. And not because he did not want to—or did not have the strong desire to help her out—but because the men he depended on and paid millions to keep him one step ahead of everyone and everything had started to disappoint him gravely. “Cecelia McDowell is dead,” the words came out of his mouth as if he was chewing on rocks, as if he couldn’t swallow, as if he wanted to punch the hell