30. Rusell
No fucking way. Emotions rose in a surging tide that threatened to rip my legs out from under me. How had we gotten everything so wrong?
Leon and Chase continued to hurl insults at each other. I expected the secretary to intervene at any moment, but maybe she’d gotten used to this kind of noise over the years. I tunneled a hand through my hair and approached Sabrina, who eyed me like she thought I’d eat her alive.
The door behind her opened and Keith shuffled out. He took in the room with a wide-eyed expression and tucked himself in close to Sabrina. The quiet look that passed between them broke my heart. It said they were used to this, that shouting and cursing had been such a part of their lives that they expected it and had learned how not to react.
I broke away from Garrett with a warning look. “Keep calm.”
“Whatever.” He crossed his arms and watched Chase and Leon square off. They were good friends, and we’d sort this out eventually. Leon seemed to have missed Chase’s question, and I wasn’t about to remind him. Not yet. I had someone else I worried about more.
Sabrina kept an eye on me as I approached but didn’t back down or run away. Her hand settled on Keith’s shoulder and the boy looked up at her with such fierce devotion that my anger melted. “Hey. You okay?” I met Sabrina’s eyes, but the question was for them both.
Silent tears puddled in her eyes and fell in smooth tracks down her cheeks. “Fine.” Her voice cracked and she swiped at the tears with a shaking hand. “Can’t you tell I’m fantastic?” Her dark laugh caused Keith to tighten his grip on her waist, and she patted the top of his head. “We should go.” She took a step to pass me, her chin falling forward as she deflated.
I spotted the instant shame burned into her features as her gaze shot to Chase and slid away. Her steps quickened.
“Wait.” I reached out, stopping short of touching her, not knowing if she’d welcome the contact or swat me away. The world split into two sides. Sabrina and Chase. Both needed me, and my loyalties were to Chase first, but that didn’t mean I’d abandon Sabrina.
She stilled but kept her head turned away. “I understand if you want me to move out.”
I barely heard her over Leon and Chase arguing about who now owned the tech stolen from us and bought by Leon.
“You can’t prove it was yours,” Leon said.
Chase fisted his hands. “Your contract is void if I can prove it.”
I pushed aside their argument and stepped between Sabrina and everyone else. The open pathway to the door drew her attention. I wouldn’t stop her from leaving, but I hoped she’d stay. “Do you have anywhere else to go?”
Sabrina shot a look at Leon over her shoulder. Her mouth twisted into a grimace, her hair falling over her shoulders when she shook her head. “Not anymore.”
I’d thought all along that she was estranged from her family, but I never expected this. What exactly was her situation? What happened to push Sabrina into needing a place to stay? I’d been to Leon’s house many times through the years. How had I never seen Sabrina?
“Why the fuck would I send my daughter to work for you?” Leon’s voice pierced the air between us.
Sabrina flinched back like she’d been struck, bright spots of color dotting her cheeks. Her floral dress twisted around her knees where she gripped the material. “He’s never believed in me. Never thought I’d make anything of myself. I was almost homeless because of his wife, and he couldn’t be bothered to care.” An audible swallow followed by another head shake kept my attention on her. “I wanted to prove him wrong. I fucked up.” A long exhale rounded her shoulders. “I regret not telling you the truth sooner. But that’s all I regret.”
I read what I could from her face and the passion in her words. Her regret did not extend to us, to our time together.
“Wait, please. Sit tight and let me talk to them.” I held up a hand to her and walked backward until I could grab Chase. “Leon didn’t send Sabrina to spy on us.” I yanked on his arm until I had his full attention. “Stop shouting and think.”
Chase wrenched his arm from my grip, but I’d gotten his attention. Silence wrapped around us. Chase flexed his hands and tucked his tie into his jacket, buttoning it with careful precision.
“Let’s have a calm conversation about all this.” My temper firmly in check, I walked Chase to a chair and pushed him into it. I’d been a mediator between my parents and siblings first, then between Chase and other hot-headed business associates. The role came naturally after all this time. “We’re going to talk this through like adults.”
Movement from Sabrina pulled my head around as she tugged Keith down onto the couch. She gave me a tight smile that I took as approval.
Leon looked at no one except Chase. Why? Had he forgotten Sabrina was even in the room or was he so disappointed in her that he ignored her as punishment? Either way, it ignited a slow burn that curled through my veins with each heartbeat. No one should be ignored, but especially not someone as brilliant, creative, and vibrant as Sabrina. I was partial to her, no doubt there, but she possessed all the qualities of a brilliant businesswoman, and Leon refused to acknowledge that. If anything, he stifled her with his harshness. What kind of man didn’t even give his daughter his last name after her mother abandoned her? We’d all heard the story, but only today did I learn Leon’s true nature and the pettiness that he’d allowed to come between him and Sabrina.
The large pendulum clock in the corner ticked away the passing seconds. I left them all sitting there, stewing, while I considered the best approach. “We’re not leaving here today until we have everything out in the open.”
Garrett’s mouth opened, and I warned him with a look that snapped it closed. I meant everything. Even our relationship with Sabrina. One look at her and the hardness gripping my heart eased. She’d worked her way through every defense I’d built into my life, the missing piece of happiness I’d chased for years. Now that I had her, I refused to let her go. Maybe that was wrong of me, of us, considering her father was our friend. Love never understood those types of boundaries. Love conquered almost every obstacle, if people were willing to take the risk and fight for it.
Taking a moment to compose my thoughts, I shoved my emotions back into their box. “It makes no sense that Sabrina would be involved.”
Chase surged upright, only for me to push him back down again with a warning look. “She didn’t disclose her identity.”
“No.” I agreed easily enough to settle him. “But we were missing tech before she arrived, and we haven’t lost any since she started.”
“Could be a fake trail. Get us focused on one thing, while she takes it all.” Garrett’s hands locked so tight together that his knuckles cracked.
I didn’t believe that, but I had to let them get their thoughts out in a calm, rational manner so we could make progress toward our goal. They were hurt by what they considered Sabrina’s betrayal. It bothered me too, but I was willing to look past that in hopes of reaching a real conclusion. I expected Chase to come around as well. Garrett worried me the most. His temper typically burned out, but not this time. Not based on the glaring looks he kept sending Sabrina’s way.
“She came into our office with all these ideas and helped us better our company,” I reminded them.
Leon sat back in his chair, his face a mask of confusion. The man had no idea his daughter was amazing. “She never should have been there.”
“Why not?” Sabrina stood and moved to my side. Anger flashed in her eyes and she gave Chase a fuck-you look that made me smile. “I’m good, Dad. If you would have just listened to me. I wanted to work for you. I begged for a job, but you ignored me, shunted me aside, and basically told me I’d never make anything of myself. Now you have the gall to be mad because I took the initiative and made things work my way?” Her body shook, the repressed anger in her voice dropping it to a tone I’d never heard from her before. “You don’t get to treat me like that. Like I don’t matter.” She thumbed her chest. “I matter. I matter and Keith matters. And what we need matters. They gave me that.” She included all of us with a broad sweep of her hand.
Leon’s face purpled. “What does that mean?” The color deepened all the way to his hairline, where a vein pulsed. He glared at Chase. “Earlier, you asked if she told me about you. You said us. What did you mean?”
Chase’s expression cracked, a split-second of his emotions filling his eyes when he turned away and scrubbed both hands down his face. “Christ, Leon.”
“You slept with her.” Leon gripped the chair arms, his fingers digging into the soft fabric.
“We all did,” I admitted my part with pride, including Garrett because it mattered. “We didn’t know she was your daughter, but it wouldn’t have mattered.”
Sabrina sucked in a shocked breath and staggered until I rested a hand on the small of her back.
“He’s right.” Garrett’s anger shifted and retreated. He entered his protective mode with the same kind of intensity he put into every aspect of his life. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I’m sorry that it happened this way, and you found out like this. That we all found out like this, but it’s too late to take it back, and I wouldn’t even if I could.”
I’d never seen Garrett string together so many words in one breath unless fueled by anger. Seeing him driven to guard Sabrina out of love, it gave me hope for the future.
Leon’s look of disgust tightened my hand on Sabrina’s back. Her spine stiffened beneath my palm. “I knew who they were, and I did it anyway. I’m not sorry either.” The look she gave her father bordered on hatred. “You never cared what I did before. Why bother now?” With that, she turned away. “Come on, Keith. We’re going home.”
I followed her to the couch where Keith had watched everything happen. A ball of regret punched through me. That was the only thing I’d take back, that the poor kid saw all this and would have the memory living in his head for the rest of his life.
Quiet voices filtered in from Chase and Leon. The two continued the conversation, with Garrett emphasizing certain points throughout. “I don’t think it’s any of your business,” he said in response to Leon asking how many times Sabrina slept with us. “Did you ask her previous boyfriend that?”
“Is that what you’re calling yourselves, her boyfriends?” Leon sounded furious, which fueled Garrett.
His scoff carried more weight than a submarine on land. “Please tell me you’re not going to try and school us on our relationships. Not when your wife kicked Sabrina out of her own home.”
“Sabrina.” I hated the thought burrowed in the back of my mind, but something about the way she looked at us bothered me. I understood that things were stressful, but even last night when we first arrived at her house, I’d felt the change in her.
Sniffling and dashing away another stream of tears, she held Keith’s hand and started toward the door. “What?”
I let her get far enough away that no one would hear me ask, “Is there anything else you need to tell us?”
Pure, unadulterated panic snapped onto her face and jerked her to a stop.