Chapter 20
Gabe
The city continued its motion below my office, people going through their days oblivious to the raw ache in my chest and the mess of emotion seeing Tori had stirred.
For years I had planned for the day I could find her without the threatening shadow of my father.
Waited for our takeover to come to fruition so I could find her again.
I had known she would hate me, argued there was a strong possibility she had moved on.
Still, hope had driven me. But of all the scenarios I had imagined, this had never been one.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around her accusations, and the idea that she’d thought I left her for another woman was one I’d never imagined. It scraped over that ache, gouging it so it was as unbearable as it had been when I’d first left her.
I glanced over at the folders on my desk. The second interview had been miserable, but after Tori, the man stood no chance. Her resume was impeccable, even if she had ten years less experience than he did. I also knew that despite our past, she would be the perfect fit for the company.
Scraping my hand through my hair, I grabbed her folder and headed to Liv’s office.
She put her finger in the air as she finished up a call.
Looking around her office, I realized how bland it was, just like mine.
No family pictures, no special moments. Just a piece of expensive art and windows overlooking the city.
Sterile and cold, just like we’d both become.
“How did the interviews go?” she asked when she finished the call.
“Spot on with the red flag guy.”
“See, I know how to pick them out.”
I dropped the folder on her desk. “I need you to meet with her.”
Eyes rolling, she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “I don’t do interviews by myself.”
“The hell you don’t. Put her on your schedule and meet with her. I want your opinion.”
“I gave you my opinion.”
“Damn it, Liv. Meet with her.”
Her hazel eyes flicked up from her desk, irritation reflected in them. “You’re awfully on edge today.”
I didn’t answer, crossing my arms and waiting for her to agree. Huffing, she flipped through her calendar. “Fine. I have time at three tomorrow.”
“Thank you. I’ll have Tina reach out to her.”
As I turned to leave, she said, “Is this about your run-in yesterday?”
My step halted long enough for her to read the answer.
“You need to move on, Gabe. Like I did.”
I peered over my shoulder at her. “Did you? Because I don’t think you did, just like I never will.”
The truth of my words stung her as much as it did me.
A reminder of what we’d both given up in our pursuit of revenge.
I’d been willing to give it all up until the shadow of my father had destroyed everything.
And here I was wishing there had been some other way because, if given the chance, I would have done it differently.
I would have made the life I wanted with the woman who still owned my heart and the child we would have raised together.
But it was too late, and now I made my life with nothing but loneliness, scotch, and more money than I’d ever spend in a lifetime.
I didn’t know what I was doing standing outside Tori’s door again.
Or why I hadn’t let Tina tell her about the interview with Liv.
A need to explain my reasoning, to convince her to take the job I knew I would offer her, ruled my decision.
My reasons for wanting to give her the job were selfish.
I wanted her there, to see her every day even if she couldn’t be mine.
I knew it would be torment, but I deserved it for everything I’d done to her.
And then there was our son. A boy I didn’t know but wanted to because I had seen myself in his eyes the last time I’d seen him.
The younger version of me, before the abuse and trauma had infected my life.
The door opened, and Tori’s smile faltered. “I knew I should have checked out earlier. I thought I made it clear this morning was goodbye. It’s more than you gave me.”
The jab stung, and my hard exterior cracked some. But then, Tori had a way of fracturing it, just like she had when I fell for her. She had brought out the man I wanted to be. Not the one driven with revenge, hard and cold.
“May I come in?”
“Asking this time? So polite. I guess I know how you got my room number. Perks of being the owner?”
“Something like that.” I waited for her to open the door further, and for a moment, I didn’t think she would.
“Mommy, can I take my cars on the trip?”
Tori turned her attention to the voice. Our son’s voice. A tingling sensation formed in my gut.
“Just one. Pack the others up.”
“You’re packing?” I said, walking into the opening she’d unintentionally given me when she’d moved from the door.
“Hi!” If anything could have soothed the turmoil in me, that tiny voice could.
“Hi there.”
Tori looked between us, her eyes growing sad before she said, “Reid, that’s enough for tonight. Go brush your teeth and put your pajamas on. I’ll be in to tuck you in soon.”
“Can I look at my book while I wait?”
She stooped in front of him and brushed his hair from his face, and my heart swelled. This is what I’d missed. What I’d given up, and that hurt more than anything. Giving him a kiss on the head, she answered, “Of course you can.”
“Yay! Bye, mister.”
He ran off, closing the door behind him and leaving us alone again. I dragged my eyes from where he’d run to and met Tori’s.
“We’re checking out in the morning.”
“No.” I blurted the word before even thinking.
Head cocked, she put her hands on her hips. “No? You don’t have any say in what I do. You gave that up when you left me two months before our wedding.”
She turned her back on me and folded a small blanket with sports cars on it.
“Stay. Please. You have another interview tomorrow with Olivia.”
Her gaze snapped to me. “Olivia…your sister? The sister you don’t get along with and who lives out west somewhere? Oh, how the lies are coming back to bite you.”
I rubbed my temple, knowing I’d done this to myself. “I had no choice but to lie.”
“You had a choice, and you chose to lie. Just like you chose to leave me. Was anything we had real?” Her brows scrunched, eyes turning a rich navy as they pleaded for me to say there was.
“Us. We were real. My feelings for you were real, and everything we had together was real. I never lied to you about any of it.”
“Yet you did. I don’t know who you are, Gabe. William. God, I don’t even know what to call you.”
“Gabe. I hate William. It’s my father’s name, and he insisted I use it, but my mother called me Gabe, as does anyone I care about.”
Her features softened, but the divide between us was so large I didn’t know how to cross it. Or if I had any right to ask to cross it.
“Stay. Liv doesn’t know who you are. She never knew your name or anything about you other than that I love you…loved.” But the admission had slipped before I could stop it.
I saw the subtle transition in her eyes, the way they jumped when it had come out. Right before they hardened again.
“You didn’t tell her about me? Of course, you didn’t because I was just some fling to keep you occupied. Biding your time with me. Playing house until you grew bored and moved back to your affluent life. Why would I expect you to have told her about me?”
She threw the blanket onto the couch and ran her hands through her hair.
“I don’t think I can do this, Gabe. It took me so long to free myself of you, and even then…
you left a stain. And it’s hard enough every time I look at Reid.
I see you in him. In his eyes, his hair, the looks that cross his face, his gestures.
He’s so much like you that it’s like this knife that continues to plunge into me and reopen the stitching on my wounds. ”
And the walls around my heart continued to crumble, the pain like electrical shocks.
“To even consider working alongside you. I…I can’t.”
Taking a page out of my father’s playbook, I said, “You left Bradman for a reason. Unexpected and unexplained. I think you need this job, Tori.”
She stepped back, her eyes wide, before she recovered. “I don’t need a handout from you.”
“Damn it, it’s not a handout, which is why I want Liv to interview you. She’s an unbiased third party, so there will be no question about the decision. You’re qualified and the best candidate for the job. If Liv agrees, it’s yours, but it won’t be my decision. It will be hers.”
Dusty blue eyes stared back at me before they looked away. The urge to close the distance between us and tip her chin to force her eyes back to me had me palming my neck and dropping my head.
“Just stay, Tori.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Three o’clock. I’ll have a car here for you at two-forty.”
Not knowing what else to do, I walked away. As my hand reached the door handle, I heard, “Did you ever love me?”
Gripping the handle, I answered, “I’ve always loved you, luna mia.” The emotion threatened to tear me to pieces, so I left, not turning back as the sound of her inhale penetrated the silence.
A knock on my office door followed its opening to reveal Liv peeking in.
I’d stayed locked in my office during the time Tori was talking with her, surprised that she’d changed her mind and accepted the second interview.
When I’d left her suite, my confidence had been low, and I’d spent the night tossing and turning until I gave up at three thirty and went to the gym to release the tension.
“She’s good. Intelligent, sharp, detail-focused, confident. I wouldn’t bother interviewing anyone else. What is this? The sixth candidate you’ve interviewed?”
I sat back in my seat, putting my hands behind my head. “Yeah, but none seemed like the right fit.”
My father and I had been at each other’s throats over the last six months, and knowing what was coming, I’d accepted the demotion he’d thrown at me as punishment for questioning him.
As if stripping me of my title would make him feel better about his failing company.
He’d ensured I was the one interviewing, and while I’d only found one candidate who seemed like he might work, my father had vetoed the suggestion.
Liv believed he was planning to hand the role back to me after he made me suffer, and that was his reason for turning the candidate down.
It had given me the chance to have Tina vet candidates for the day I would take him down and take over the company. And I supposed it was good that we’d already told the man I’d considered that he hadn’t gotten the position because fate had put Tori back in my life.
“Hire her,” Liv said. “I’m leaving. I have a manicure scheduled at four-thirty.”
“I can’t be the one to offer the position to her.”
She scrunched her eyes. “Then have Tina call her, but it makes more sense for you considering the position level. It’s not like you’re hiring her to manage the hotel. This is your CFO.”
Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on the desk. “That’s why you need to be the one to call and tell her.”
“I’m not in charge of this company. You are.”
“It’s her, Liv.”
More scrunching. “Who?”
“The woman I left in Florida. Tori was her name. You know her as Victoria Hent.”
It took a lot to shock my sister, but her mouth gaped, and she almost tumbled as she came over to my desk.
“I didn’t know until I reviewed the files the night before the interview. That’s why I wanted you to interview her. An impartial decision.”
“She’s the one?”
“Yes.” I didn’t want to tell her about Reid. My son. It left me in twisted knots of regret every time I thought about him.
“Why would you even think about hiring her? Are you mad?”
“No. She needs the position, and she’s the most qualified for it. You even said so yourself.”
“But to work with her after all this time. Why would she even consider it after seeing you yesterday?”
She sat in the chair, studying me intently.
“I think there’s something behind her leaving Bradman.”
Brow furrowing, she said, “Like what?”
“I don’t know, but she left in a hurry just when she had the company financials turned around. Why not stay and enjoy the calm?”
“She said she needed another challenge.”
“Maybe.” And it sounded like something Tori would do.
Sighing, she looked at her nails. “You’re making me late for my appointment.”
“I know. Call her in the morning and offer her the job. Full package with private shares, the suite at the hotel, and all the other perks that come with the position. She’ll accept if someone other than me makes the offer.”
“That should tell you something. If you’re doing this as some kind of self-punishment, don’t. You’ve punished yourself enough.”
But I hadn’t. Especially now that I knew we had a son. No amount of punishment could ever be enough for leaving her pregnant and alone to raise him. For leaving him without a father.
“I haven’t, and I’ll be fine. Just make the call. Tell her to start on Monday.”
She rose and smoothed her skirt out. “That’s the day we meet with the board.”
“Then it will be an excellent introduction to how I plan on operating this company now that it’s in my control.”