31. Addison
31
ADDISON
I t was easy to delude myself into thinking this could be my new life.
Wake up. Get fucked into oblivion. Eat breakfast. Eat breakfast. Start work. Break for more sex.
Our time in Chicago had opened the door, and now we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other.
So much so that, when Warren actually had to work, I found myself daydreaming of the next time I’d get to touch him again.
It was crazy how he managed to wear me down into this needy, wanton creature, but I knew for a fact I wasn’t the only one who had changed after Chicago.
My fingers brushed the beautiful sapphire hanging on my neck.
He didn’t need to get me this gift.
He didn’t need to get me anything. I was here because he purchased my body. I was supposed to be his fuck toy, nothing else… So why did it feel like so much more?
Why didn’t he feel like the Warren I’d known all those years before?
Was Warren ever truly a monster at all?
I was back in my favorite position, behind the little desk Warren had placed in his office for me. It was a workday for him.
Well, all days were workdays for him. Today just happened to be a busy workday. And that apparently meant visitors.
I didn’t get the scope of his work. Not truly. Even after working with him for a bit, the more I knew, the more complicated it seemed.
I had only really started to understand the sheer volume of what he was doing when Maxwell and the man in glasses came back for a meeting.
“No,” I gasped, my hand coming up to cover my gaping mouth. “Trafficking?”
“Right?” Maxwell said, a slight smile pulling at his lips. “You would think the owner of a herbal supplement company would do something a bit more…”
“Drug-based or something?” I finished for him.
Maxwell was a breath of fresh air. After the whole reveal of our almost marriage, I started to open up a bit more around him when he came over. Something he said back then struck me.
He and I are the same.
I almost felt… embarrassed that he was able to come to terms with his upbringing so easily while people pulled wool over my eyes. And I let them.
I felt like he understood.
He didn’t treat me like Warren’s thing. He treated me like the person I was.
And he was funny. Sparing nothing when it came to our gossip sessions.
“There are men like him around every corner, Addi. Sometimes they’re the people you least expected,” Warren said, his eyes shifting to mine. Even the smallest look had my insides twisting with need for him.
“Seems like you’ve met all of them,” I shot back. There was a bit more bitterness in my words than I meant, my mind automatically bringing up my dad, especially since there was still a lot I didn’t know.
I caught my dad before Warren did , Maxwell had said.
His jaw ticked.
“Addison, why did you think Warren was doing this?” the guy in glasses asked. He was questioning me so openly it had my heart racing.
Warren sent him a pointed look.
“This isn’t an interrogation,” he said.
Maxwell shot the man a look as well but said nothing. When he turned back to me, I could see that he was a bit curious about my answer too.
That man. I remembered more about him now. I had seen him when he was younger, his hair shorter. Back then his glasses were round as opposed to the rectangular ones he wore now. His name was on the tip of my tongue. If only I could remember it…
“I thought Warren was a terrible person who didn’t care about anything but money,” I admitted. “How could I not when he seemed to ruin lives so easily?”
For some reason, the man’s gaze was making me feel like I had to defend myself. Even though I now knew my father was not the man I thought he was, I still had to work up the courage to actually read the articles.
A small part of me still couldn’t come to terms with it. But I would have to.
“Until you saw just how awful those men can truly be?” the man asked.
I ground my teeth at his accusation. Nick had been arrested, and his company was now Warren’s to clean up as the biggest stakeholder. Something he accomplished in a matter of days by injecting his own people into the higher positions and implementing his well-oiled takeover process.
“Don’t act like he’s doing this just out of the goodness of his heart. It’s not like Warren doesn’t benefit from this, right?” I asked, turning to him. “How much of your portfolio came from taking down people like this?”
“I don’t keep count,” Warren said, his eyes falling to his computer. Oh, he knew. That’s why he wasn’t looking at me.
“Seventy percent.”
My heart dropped as I looked at the man. He knows too much. Suddenly, I didn’t like him anymore.
“So, like… a billion?”
Silence. Warren’s eyes found mine, his eyebrows raised as if to ask, Are you insulting me?
My face heated.
I was never in on the money part. I knew a few things. Brands. Events. Certain people. But I’d never handled the financial side, even when I was working with Father.
“A couple billion?”
“Well, to be exact?—”
“Tristian,” Warren warned, glaring at the man. “She doesn’t need to know everything involving my money.”
Tristian?
“It’s not like it’s a secret that you’re rich, Warr?—”
“I thought I knew you from somewhere!” I interrupted, slamming my hand against the desk and standing. Tristian stood off to the side, his face blank and his arms crossed over his chest. “Tristian Kade. You hand-delivered the cease and desist to my house after my father killed himself.”
Warren’s lawyer.
It had been a short interaction. He showed up on our doorstep with the paperwork after I had been talking to each and every news outlet that would hear me.
I hadn’t even remembered his face because of how quickly I had shut the door on his face. But boy, did I fucking remember him now.
My emotions were raw. My entire life had been turned upside down. I’d been betrayed . And then he had the balls to come to my house to try to control what I said?
Of course I’d slammed the door in his fucking face. I’d do it again.
“That wasn’t all,” he said. “Maybe if you had paused and looked through the mountain of paperwork I handed you, you would have seen his life insurance, severance package, and an extra bereavement support in there for you as well.”
My chest puffed at his coldness. Another lie. I waited for Warren to interject, but he said nothing.
“You gave them bereavement support?” Maxwell asked, looking at Warren. “After everything?"
“We never saw that shit,” I hissed. “And what do you mean after everything ? Maybe my father wasn’t… perfect. Made some bad deals. But his death was Warren’s fault anyway.”
Even after everything that had happened between me and Warren, anger still flowed through my veins. I didn’t think it was this strong anymore until Tristian mentioned the money.
But there was something else too. An emotion I didn’t want to name and that only got stronger when Maxwell and Tristian shared a look before looking at Warren, waiting for him to speak.
The silence got heavier.
Say something.
Something to make me angry. Something to stop the crushing feeling of everything you’re insinuating from burying me alive.
It was the same one that filled me when I scrolled the internet looking at all the headlines detailing the horrible things my father did.
“It was made out to your mother,” Warren said. “She cashed it the following day. All four million of it.”
I couldn’t breathe. The world came crashing down. I lost my balance, stumbling to the side. Everyone in the room tried to reach out to me, but I held up my hand and lowered myself to the chair.
Four million? Four fucking million dollars?
The first conversation I had with my mother after Dad died was about how we were going to survive without his money. What we would have to go without. How we’d get jobs.
She cashed it and never told me?
I felt sick.
Where was that money for the past eight years? Where was it when I was working eighty hours a week? Where was it when we were running out of food and our electricity was cut off?
More importantly… Where was it now that she was in the hospital?
“He also gave you the place you’re living in. The creditors wanted to take it, but Warren made a deal with them. It’s a wonder how it has a lien. The mortgage was slashed in half, and the money he gave you should have been enough to?—”
“Tristian, I swear to god I’m taking back the bonus.”
For the first time, a small smile pulled at the man’s lips.
It sent a shiver down my spine.
We were often late because my job barely paid enough to cover the mortgage and our living expenses.
The news that my father was a criminal had been devastating, but my mother doing this behind my back… I didn’t know how much more I could take without losing my lunch.
“Are you saying… my mother had money this whole time and I never knew about it?” My voice sounded weak and vulnerable even to my ears.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I had to bite my lip to stop them from spilling over.
“Let’s give them some time, yeah?” Maxwell said and quickly shoved Tristian out of the room. The man didn’t even protest, his face remaining impassive.
I didn’t move once they were gone, but a lone tear forced itself from my eye.
“Come here, Addi.”
I didn’t want to, but I didn’t have the energy to fight him either.
Slowly, I got up and walked to where Warren was sitting. I stood there, waiting for him to say something. I couldn’t look him in the eyes for fear I’d absolutely lose it. I was holding on by the thinnest, million-year-old, dusty thread.
It had taken a beating since the auction, and instead of the rage-filled, vengeful Addi, I was turning into a pitiful mess.
I didn’t want to be like this. I want to be strong. I want to be the person who gets revenge for their loved ones. Who overcomes everything, even a man like Warren.
But in that moment, all I wanted was him. Consequences be damned, I wanted him .
With a sigh, he reached out, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me onto his lap.
The hug Warren gave me wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t as cold and desolate as his facial expressions led me to believe. It was warm and comforting as he wrapped me in his smell.
No matter how hard I tried to remind myself of what he’d done, I found myself leaning into him. Burying my head into his shoulder and finally letting the tears that I had been holding back for eight years fall.
It isn’t fair. None of it.
His arms went around me, his hands on my back, rubbing soothing circles.
I hated it.
Hated that my mom hid the money from me.
Hated that I worked so hard for nothing.
Why me? Why did all of it have to happen to me? Why couldn’t I have just continued to live on with my life?
If what Warren said were true, there were a lot of other bad people out there. They deserved this to happen to them. Not me.
Fuck me, what a childish thought.
Most of all, I hated that the only person who could provide me the comfort I needed was the one who had taken down my father.
“Why?” I mumbled against his now-soaked shirt. He should have yelled at me for messing it up with my tears and snot, but he merely pulled me closer, not letting me go.
“Why did your mom hide the money? Or why did I tear down your father’s company?”
I sniffled and pulled back to look at him through my blurry vision. No. There was so much more to it than that. Something far more important.
“Why did you help us?”
For once, it looked like I finally caught Warren off guard.
“He was my friend,” he said. “Regardless of…”
“Of what?” I asked. “What did he do that made him so bad? That made you want to tear him down and throw him out just like you do all those other assholes? He was your friend .”
I gripped his shirt. My hands were shaking, fear of what he was going to say rampaging through my being.
Yell at me. Get angry. Something.
Please stop being so gentle.
He cast his eyes downward before meeting mine again, but this time they were hardened.
“Your father was the best man I knew,” he admitted. “When my father died drunk driving when I was nine years old, he was the person I went to. He hid me in your grandmother’s house for a whole month before I was sent off to the orphanage.”
My entire body seized. The orphanage? This was something I’d never known about Warren. My dad never mentioned it either.
Warren was private about his family life; no matter who tried, they couldn’t dig up anything without being slapped with a lawsuit.
“It wasn’t until I was rehomed with my adoptive father that we met again.”
“I thought he was your real father. The media never said… I never knew…”
The donation to the orphanage made sense now. It made my heart break for younger Warren.
“For all intents and purposes, he was my real father.” Warren smiled as he reminisced and took a deep breath. “He was so important to me. By the time your father and I met again, we were both in high school, and we got close. All the way up through college and into our early careers, I was by his side. Graduation. First apartments. He was there when my first business failed. I was there for his marriage, but once he had you…”
His thumb wiped off a stray tear falling down my cheek.
“He’d changed into someone I didn’t know. Addi, I don’t want to ruin your image of your father, but he did some shady shit. Took advantage of the people in his company. Refused to pay them what they were due when they got sick or injured. Why do you think he was able to make all the money he did? And before me, even though we started at the same time? Because he was taking dangerous shortcuts?—”
“He wouldn’t. My father loved his employees?—”
“He loved you more,” he said with a frown. “He wanted the best life for you. A life where you’d grow up with no worries.”
I swallowed my words. I didn’t know what to say. Should I curse him? Should I deny it? But after what I saw with Nick… Was Warren truly lying?
“So it’s my fault?”
“Babygirl, none of it is your fault,” he said. “Not his actions, nor your mother’s. You aren’t them. They made their choices.”
I finally let go of him to wipe my tears. I fucking hated this.
“So you what? Just sold him out? He did some shitty things, but as his friend?—”
“Do you know how my adoptive father died?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“His employer had him working long, exhausting hours with hazardous materials. One day, when he finally was hurt badly enough, do you know what the insurance company said when we tried to get them to pay for his life-saving procedure?”
I didn’t like where this was going. I knew the end of the story without him even saying it.
“His employer never activated it. Took money out of his paycheck, thousands of dollars, and never activated it. He had no money, was unable to work… unable to provide for himself.” Warren’s voice was thick with grief. “I had just made enough. I was going that day to show them proof of funds and…”
“I’m sorry, Warren.” I cleared my throat. “But that has nothing to do with?—”
“Ask me where he worked, Addi.”
No.
I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear it. I looked away. His hand came to grip my chin and forced me to look at him.
“Just like you, I wanted revenge,” he said. “It took me some time, but I was patient. I wanted him to suffer the consequences of his actions. I wanted everyone to know what a shit person he was. Even if Alec was still my best friend, my father was everything to me. And he didn’t deserve what he got. He didn’t deserve to die that way.”
Betrayal hit me like a punch to my gut. I didn’t want to believe him. I wanted to yell at him.
But his eyes were red-rimmed. His grip on my chin was weakening, shaking.
“You loved my father,” I whispered.
All he could do was give me a nod.
“If I had known what he’d do, I would have found another way, Addi. Believe me.”
“Did you…” I didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to ruin the one thing I had left. But I had to. “Did you come for me? Did you come to try to corrupt his little girl as revenge?”
A frown marred his handsome face.
“I never thought he’d let you work in the company, Addi. Believe me when I said that meeting you there… I didn’t plan for it. I didn’t plan for you.”
“But you don’t regret it.”
He pursed his lips.
“I regret a lot of things in life, but meeting you? Never.” He said it like it was a vow. “You’re important, Addi. You’re important to me. You always have been.”
My eyes started to water again.
Damn him. Damn him for being like this.
I needed to know something else, so I just came out and asked him.
“Why is my father’s death date your password?”
He sighed and refused to look at me.
“Warren…”
“Because I lost my best friend that day, but it was also the day when I knew I’d lost you. I would never have you again.”
I wanted him to be bad. Wanted to hate him. I didn’t want to feel these things. Feel something so warm for him that it could be mistaken for lov?—
I opened my mouth to speak, but the door was pushed open. I swiveled to look at Tristian, who didn’t even blink at our position.
“Addison, your mother’s awake.”