35. Dameon
Chapter thirty-five
Dameon
“D ouble shot latte,” the waitress announces, placing the steaming cup in front of me. I flick the sugar stick, tear it open, and pour it into my coffee.
“Thank you,” I say curtly, dismissing her.
“Is there anything else I can get you?” She bats her overly long, fake lashes. Her thick, painted-on black eyebrows and splotchy fake tan make her look like she could use a good scrub in the shower. When will women learn that most men prefer natural beauty?
“I’m good, thanks,” I say.
“Well, if you change your mind…” She winks and saunters back behind the cash register.
I sip my coffee and focus on what I’m going to say. I’ve being doing a lot of soul-searching these past few weeks. It’s killed me to have no contact with Hailee. Going cold turkey and cutting her out of my life was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’m glad she respected my wishes and didn’t contact me, but it stung at the same time. I was craving a fix of my human ball of sunshine. Dr. Avery said that I needed time and distance to calm down and look at things rationally. So, I took his advice. But damn, did I miss her. Badly.
“Hey.” Hailee slides into the chair opposite me, looking beautiful as always, her face fresh and the tips of her blonde hair still wet from the shower. Her sundress is short and cute, just like her.
“Morning.”
She smiles, but there’s a hint of sadness in her eyes, which are shadowed by dark circles that suggest sleepless nights. Welcome to the club.
“How are you doing?” I ask.
“Been better.” She shrugs.
Being in her presence is bittersweet. It hurts, yet at the same, I crave more.
“Don’t I know it,” I say. I feel sorry for her, but at the same time, she brought this upon herself. She did this to us. “You wanted to talk, so here I am. What is it that you wanted to say, Hailee?”
She takes a deep breath and places her palms on the table. “I am not pregnant. You believe me, right?”
She looks into my eyes with such sincerity, how can I not believe her?
“Your stepfather was overjoyed about the news,” I tell her.
“Wait, Mark told you that?” she asks.
“He came to see me that afternoon to share the wonderful news of your pregnancy, and to fill me in on how the two of you have been scheming behind my back. I thought he was lying at first, just trying to get under my skin. But when I found that pregnancy test, well…”
“Oh my God. I can’t believe him!” She looks ready to murder someone. “I have no clue how that pregnancy test ended up there, but it’s definitely not mine, or Beth’s.”
“Okay… I believe you.”
She sighs and mumbles “thank fuck” under her breath, which makes my lips twitch.
“Can I get you anything?” the waitress interrupts, glaring at Hailee.
“I’ll have a green tea, please.”
“Hold on, can you bring her a breakfast burger too?” I add.
Hailee pitches an eyebrow.
“You look like you need it,” I explain.
When the waitress returns with her pot of tea and breakfast, she inhales it like a seagull, and my lips twist to the side to smother my smile. I’ll always care for her, no matter what. But that pregnancy test is niggling at me. If it’s not Hailee’s, someone inside my home was setting her up.
“Let me explain about that slimy bastard, Mark,” Hailee says, wiping her mouth. “There has only ever been one piece of communication between us. And I can assure you, if I ever was pregnant, he’d be the last person on earth to know. I can’t stand that prick,” she adds. “But I did betray your trust, Dameon. And I’m so, so sorry. If I could take it back, I would. All I sent him was a photo of your calendar, outlining one of your meetings. There was no scheming behind your back, no spying, no grand plan to ruin you, certainly not on my part.”
“And what did you think he would do with that information?” I ask incredulously. Mark wasn’t going to sit idly on that intel and not use it to his advantage. She must have known that.
“I don’t know! But I didn’t think it could be used to bring down two mergers. It was just one photo!”
“Show me the photo.”
“What?”
“Show me what you sent him.”
She reaches for her phone in her handbag, scrolling through the messages before handing it over. I look through their conversation as she scrambles to explain.
“When you offered me the position, I made a deal with Mark, as backup. It was stupid, I know that now, but I agreed to send him any information I could find about your company, just in case our deal didn’t work out. I didn’t know you then, not like I do now. The thought of you going back on your word is preposterous. But back then, I didn’t know that. And I had to put Beth first.”
It’s clear from their texts that their relationship isn’t what Mark made it out to be. It’s more like restrained animosity at best. I reach the photo of my calendar, spanning a two-week period from a few months back. It shows the first company merger meeting, but not the others. It’s not enough intel to sabotage two mergers, barely even one. There’s no detail about our offer, just the company name and our intention to take over. Mark would need a lot more to derail our mergers, which means he must have another source. This isn’t anywhere near as bad as I had imagined… but still. I skim through the rest of the conversation and see he was pushing for more info, which she refused.
“He threatened you,” I state after I finish reading the last text message he sent her. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have handled him.”
“I don’t know,” she says with a small shake of her head. “I guess I didn’t think I had anything to lose, now that Beth has her heart. But I was wrong, so very wrong. I ended up losing the trust of the most amazing man I’ve ever met.” Her eyes fill with tears and she tries to blink them away. “Can you forgive me for being so stupid?”
When she looks at me like that, I can’t deny her anything. I love her. Was what she did stupid? Absolutely. But she didn’t cost us billions like I thought, and she wasn’t acting out of spite or running some grand scheme or manipulation. She wasn’t sleeping with me for information. She was used by a powerful and conniving man, and she did what she thought was necessary for Beth. I can’t blame her for that.
“Of course I forgive you,” I murmur with a sad smile. Tears roll down her cheeks, and I fight the urge to lean over and wipe them away. The relief that pours off her is palpable.
“Thank you.” She scrunches her eyes shut. “When he said he would ruin me, and that I would regret it, I didn’t know this is what he had in mind.” She chuckles through a choked sob and reaches for a napkin to wipe her nose.
“It’s never what you expect,” I offer in consolation. I should know.
“So, where do we go from here?” she asks softly.
I close my eyes briefly, then meet her hopeful stare.
“I don’t know, Hailee. I forgive you; I really do. But this whole situation has hit me hard. It brought back all the crap I went through with Mia. I felt like I was back at square one, spiraling out of control. I can’t go through that again. I need some time to process everything and move on. It wouldn’t be fair to you if we just jumped back into things if I’m still holding on to what happened. I don’t want to resent you or hold a grudge. That’s not how I want us to be. I care about you too much for that. I love you, but if I can’t get past this, then I need to let you go.”
Her gasp lands like a punch to the gut, and the hurt written all over her face is clear to see. It’s like watching her heart shatter into a million pieces right before my eyes. And my heart feels just as ruined, ripped from my chest and bleeding out in her hand.
“Give me time. Can you do that for me?”
She nods. “I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to find your way back to me.” More tears spill from her eyes. Unable to resist this time, I lean over and gently cradle her head in the palm of my hands, wiping away her tears with my thumbs.
“I’ll do my best to come back to you,” I say. “I promise.”