Chapter 35
SIX YEARS LATER
Payson
The city looks different from up here as I stand in my favorite spot in the entire penthouse.
The coffee in my hands is warm as I watch the sunrise spill over the skyline.
It catches on the glass, turning everything softer than it was before.
Six years ago…I took what I thought meant something and turned it into my bitch.
You don’t learn to live with heartbreak…
you just learn to carry it differently. The penthouse Ledgar left for me is exactly how I want it.
Warm textures against cool stone. Everything precisely as I designed, and mine.
The grounds below have changed so much in the past few years it’s hardly recognizable but in a good way.
Modern. Elegant. Clean. Luxury without breaking the bank.
The kind of place people walk into and immediately feel like someone else.
I drew my inspiration from my visit to The Stone Pearl.
It’s not a copycat by any means but has similar touches. All except the enchanting waterfall.
“Still hiding up here?” Griffith’s voice carries easily through the space before I turn to look at him.
“I’m not hiding. Never hiding,” I say, sipping my coffee. “Just quietly observing.”
He huffs a quiet laugh as he steps further inside.
Him and his wife are the only ones who have a code to get in, besides myself.
“You have been observing for twenty minutes,” he says.
I glance over my shoulder at him. He looks like Ledgar in ways that still catch me off guard.
The same sharpness in the eyes, and the same way of having to be in control.
“Jarrell’s already waiting in the conference room,” he adds. “We went over the final numbers.”
I nod. “I’ll be down in ten.”
He studies me for longer than necessary. “Do you ever sleep?” he asks.
“Occasionally.”
“You need more of it. You look like shit.” I smirk, but don’t respond to that.
Jay doesn’t ask me to explain myself anymore and he doesn’t question my decisions the way he used to.
Somewhere along the way he started trusting me as someone capable of handling the day to day of the hotel.
He slowly gave me more reign, until eventually I didn’t have to ask.
He signs the documents, Griffith backs the decisions regarding the casino, and I do the rest. The casino, now, is still tied to him, and I wanted nothing to do with him. Not anymore.
“Everything looks good,” Jay says later, glancing over the final layout revisions.
“I know.”
He gives me an amused look. “You’re confident.”
“I know I’m right.”
He laughs. “Fair enough.” It wasn’t always like this.
You could hardly pay me to be sitting here, calm, certain, not second-guessing myself a few years back.
I would have been looking to him for approval.
I don’t do that anymore. Griffith drops by more than he probably needs to, but his wife and I have been friends for years so there’s trust. And I know she secretly sends him to check on me, though neither of them will ever admit it.
Ledgar’s influence still lingers in decisions that were made long before I ever touched the place.
He’s still tied to everything. No one talks about him to me.
If anything is needed by him, Griffith handles it.
Everyone thinks I’m broken. I’m not. I’ve simply adapted.
That’s what people do. I occasionally have one-night stands.
Quick fucks to satisfy my needs. It’s easier that way.
No expectations. No strings attached. Few have tried to break my shell, none have succeeded.
There are moments, in a memory that surfaces or when my needs need to be satisfied that I long for him, but I shut it down before I think too much of it. It’s better this way.
Vivian hasn’t come around in a while, only in passing.
Enough for me to know she’s still exactly who she has always been, and enough to keep me from going near her.
Kraig… I avoid entirely which is not difficult to do.
Some people remove themselves just by not being relevant anymore.
He tried a few times to get me to come back, when him and Vivian were on the outs, but it never happened.
The thought of him, or him and I together, makes me want to vomit. And to think I almost married him.
By the time the afternoon settles in, everything is where it should be. Employees are moving swiftly and smoothly where they need to be, and guests are beginning to filter in. I walk through the lobby slowly, taking it all in. This… this is mine.
“Payson.”
I turn at the sound of my name. “What is it?”
“There’s a call for you.”
“Take a message.”
“It’s…” the new hire behind the desk hesitates. “I think you should take this. It’s urgent.” Those words really bother me.
“Who is it?”
Her eyes soften as she speaks. “The hospital. They said it’s about Mr. Reith.
” Something inside me shatters at the mention of his name combined with a hospital.
The sound of my own heartbeat is all I can hear as she hands me the phone.
A woman on the other end speaks, and everything stills.
For the first time in years, I feel my heart splitting in two.
Tears start streaming down my face as Griffith’s voice cuts in.
“Payson? What’s wrong?” I look at him as the receptionist explains who was on the line. He ushers me to his car, and all I can think as I slide inside and we start toward the hospital is I don’t know how I’ll recover from this.