21. Natasha
21
NATASHA
T rent barged into my office like a bad storm—I’m talking hurricane-force winds. I half expected thunder and lightning to follow in his wake as he threw open the door and slammed it shut again behind him, his eyes locked onto me in a full-force glare. I frowned. This wasn’t exactly the sexy, clandestine office meeting I’d been envisioning when we’d been texting earlier.
“Trent?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”
Maybe he’d gotten bad news at the board meeting. I supposed it could be the new line. If the progress had stalled or we’d run into supply chain issues, it could mean we might not have the pieces ready for High Point. That would be a major blow to the team.
But Trent was practically trembling, his fists clenched by his sides. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. I’d never seen him so worked up over anything. Clearly, this had nothing to do with furniture. But what was it about? What could have put that look in his eyes?
I was on my feet and by his side in an instant, reaching for his hand as concern coursed through me. “What is it?” I asked, my voice breathy. “What’s wrong?”
My thoughts spiraled through the worst circumstances I could come up with. Nana Dee was at the top of that list. Trent did say she’d been looking even more run-down than usual. Hailey’s party had taken a lot out of her, and there were quite a few days this past week when she didn’t even have the energy to get dressed and took all of her meals in bed. Or maybe this had something to do with Jimmy. I’d told the kid to reach out if he needed someone to talk to other than his brother, but maybe he’d spiraled so hard that he’d skipped right past reaching out for help—landing himself in serious trouble instead. I unfurled Trent’s fist, threading our fingers together. “Say something. Please. You’re worrying me.”
“ Say something ,” he sneered in return, looking down at me with such sheer loathing that I froze in my tracks, my pulse hammering in my throat.
“Trent?”
“Don’t try that innocent little act with me,” he snapped as he wrenched his hand away from mine. He stomped across the office, whirling around as he reached the desk, an accusatory finger pointed in my direction. “It’s you!”
“Please lower your voice,” I said, well aware that even with the door closed, the entire design team would be able to hear him.
“I’ll be as loud as I damn well want!” he snarled, his voice echoing around the office.
“What’s wrong?” I asked again, desperate to figure out what could possibly have changed between our flirty text exchange and now.
“You’re what’s wrong!”
A chill ran through my entire body, a cold shock of hurt that was a struggle to breathe around. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think, Natasha?”
I had no idea what was going on right now, but the venom in his tone pierced through my defenses, rooting itself in my chest. I felt the weight of tears behind my eyes. “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe try explaining yourself.”
“My mother just tried to get the board to vote to unseat me as CEO!” he seethed, running a hand through his hair, tugging on the dark strands.
“Unseat you? I don’t understand…I didn’t even realize your mother was on the board.”
“She’s not—That’s beside the point.” He waved me off. “She tried to do it using personal information about my life that she was all too happy to tell me she learned from you!”
Oh no ! The blood in my veins turned to ice. I opened my mouth, but an unintelligible string of garbage followed as I tried to tie my thoughts together. I didn’t know what to say. Twenty minutes ago, we’d been flirting up a storm. I’d spent the time since then imagining Trent leaning me over my desk, whispering delicious filth in my ear as he fucked me into oblivion. But this…
I’d worried about telling him I’d met up with his mother, but not because I thought she might twist my words, using them to hurt Trent like this. I’d genuinely felt sorry for Lara, for how badly she seemed to want to rebuild her relationship with her son.
“Tell me it’s not true,” he said. “Tell me you’ve never spoken to her.”
I couldn’t do that. It would be a lie, and I think we both knew that. I looked up at him, at his furrowed brow and narrowed eyes. My silence only made him angrier, and I could feel the rage pouring off him.
“Fuck, Natasha!” He massaged his temples. “When you asked me about my mom the other night, it never even crossed my mind that you’d…Why the hell would you be talking to her behind my back?”
“I didn’t think?—”
“No, you really didn’t,” he snapped, cutting me off.
I straightened a little. I could understand him being upset, but we weren’t going to get anywhere if he wouldn’t let me explain myself.
“Why were you telling her anything about Dee or Jimmy or the goddamn company?” he said. “I thought I made my feelings clear when it came to my parents.”
I knew he didn’t get along with them, but how was I to know their relationship was this bad? I thought I was helping—that being a bridge between them would be good for him and Lara. I’d had no idea she’d use the things I told her like this. I never would have imagined she’d be that kind of person…because he’d never told me. How did he expect me to know when he didn’t tell me these things? “Trent?—”
“Who are you to be telling her anything?” he demanded, his voice carrying.
That question hit me hardest of all. Who was I ? I was his girlfriend…wasn’t I? Or had I gotten that wrong, too? The tears at the backs of my eyes grew heavier. I’d fucked up with Lara, yes. But there hadn’t been any malice behind the decisions I’d made. They’d been a mistake—that was all. I’d been dumb and naive, and he’d gotten hurt as a result, and I was so incredibly sorry about that. But was he really going to refuse to let me explain? Was I supposed to just stand there and let him rip me to shreds? I crossed my arms, trying to hold myself together.
“I didn’t know,” I started.
“Know what?” he sneered. “That my mother would out you? That she’d tell me exactly how you sold me out? Sorry to break it to you, sweetheart, but she’s a bitch like that. You shouldn’t have trusted her—just like I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
My heart lurched against my ribs. Bile gathered in my throat. This was so much worse than I could have ever imagined.
“You know,” Trent said, shaking his head. “I didn’t want to believe it at first. I tried to imagine the information coming from anyone else. The problem is, there is no one else. Because who the hell else would know that Dee was getting worse or that Jimmy was struggling with his classes or that the line had had supply chain issues? There’s only one person in my life who could package all of that up into a weapon for my mother to use against me.”
Horror washed through me. He actually thought I’d set out to help his mother oust him as CEO. I pinched the bridge of my nose. All I’d wanted was for Trent to make peace with his family. I thought I’d been speaking to a woman who cared about her son. I thought I’d been helping smooth things over, laying the groundwork for a family to come back together. I hadn’t realized I was laying the groundwork for my own relationship with Trent to crumble like this.
“I just…After everything, I can’t believe you would sell me out like that,” Trent said, disgusted. “Was that all you were after this whole time—more money? Is that why you slept with me? Thought you’d worm your way into my wallet?”
“What?” I said, closing my eyes and shaking my head. Christ , what sort of bullshit had his mother fed him?
But even more than that, why was it so easy for him to believe? Did he really think I’d let Lara pay me off? I never took any money from her. I wasn’t that kind of person. I also wasn’t the kind of person to sleep with him because I was after a quick paycheck. I couldn’t believe he would even insinuate that. All it did was boil down all the time we’d spent together into meaningless sex. Was that all it was for him?
“You should have told me your loyalty had a price,” Trent hissed. “Then I could have just written you a check and been done with it.”
Anger surged through me, burning away the chill in my veins and the tears behind my eyes. Lara had screwed with us both. Obviously, she was a horrible human being, and it was my mistake to give her the benefit of the doubt. But Lara wasn’t forcing him to say all of this. She was responsible for the lies she’d told him, but it was all on him that he’d swallowed them whole without even hearing my side. He was the one choosing to believe the worst of me. It was like he didn’t know me at all! Like all those things I’d shared with him had meant nothing. He had walked in assuming I was guilty of…whatever the hell Lara had told him during the meeting. He wasn’t interested in untangling her lies or learning the truth. But I had to make him listen.
“Look,” I said, taking a deep breath to get a handle on my frustration. “You have to understand?—”
“Understand?” he snapped. “What the fuck do I have to understand?”
“Can you calm down for two seconds?” I gritted out between clenched teeth.
“Why should I be calm?”
“So I can explain what really happened.”
He let out a bitter, mocking laugh. “I’m pretty sure I’ve put the pieces together. All I’m missing are a few little details. Was this your plan all along, ever since I got you fired? When we met again at Dee’s and you saw your opening, is that when you dreamed up this whole revenge scheme? Fuck, you’ve been manipulating me all along, haven’t you? And I was just too stupid to see it.”
“Oh my god,” I said. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Did you or did you not talk to my mother?”
Geez , he was infuriating! “Yes, I did, but?—”
“That’s all I need to know,” Trent said, cutting me off again. “What else could you possibly have to say?”
“Well, nothing, the way you’re carrying on.”
“The way I’m carrying on?” he roared. “You have no idea what I just had to deal with up there, staring the board members in the face as my mother used the ammunition you gave her to tear down my reputation!”
I’d had enough of this. Trent obviously wasn’t in the right headspace to have a rational conversation right now, and I wasn’t going to stand here and take his abuse. “You need to leave,” I said.
He scoffed.
“Get out of my office!” I said. Louder. Bolder. “Until you can calm down.”
“This is my company!” he shot back. “You’re the one who needs to leave!”
My spine went rigid. Was he…no, he couldn’t possibly be serious, could he? I thought we needed some space from each other to cool down, but this sounded like?—
“Pack your shit and get the hell out!”
Like that . A sad little sound of disbelief escaped me. I felt like I’d been transported back into Echo’s offices as I got fired for telling the truth; back into the apartment I used to share with Fisher as we had that last fight; back into my bed when I got that middle-of-the-night call from my parents’ neighbor telling me about the house fire. Back into all the moments when the ground disappeared from underneath me, and everything I’d counted on vanished. Stupid , was all I could think. How could you be so stupid to think that wouldn’t happen here? That you’d finally found a safe place to land?
“Trent—”
“Go, Natasha! I don’t want to see you here ever again!”
“Right then,” I said, forcing myself to react. I grabbed my purse from my desk. “Consider me gone.”
I brushed by Trent on my way to the door, swinging it open and storming across the conference room. Office doors quickly shut, and I knew the team had been listening to every horrible accusation he’d thrown at me.
The humiliation burned, as did the anger over him treating me that way. And yet, some ridiculous part of me actually slowed down as I reached the hall, hoping , waiting , wanting for him to call me back. For him to admit he’d overreacted and to say that he’d let me explain—that he wanted us to work this out. But that was a fantasy.
I reached for the elevator button. Trent didn’t try to stop me, and when the elevator came, I stepped in without looking back.