Chapter 8
GAGE
During the elevator ride up to Ethan and Callie’s penthouse, I slumped against the wall as a wave of exhaustion hit me.
I’d barely slept. Tessa’s pained expression kept replaying every time I shut my eyes.
Although I was relieved that she’d never walked away from me like I’d thought for so long, I hated how much my actions had hurt her.
I forced myself upright when the elevator came to a stop. Since the doorman had called up when I arrived, Ethan waited for me when the doors slid open. “You look like hell.”
“Thanks, man.” I shook my head with a chuckle. “I can always trust you to be honest with me.”
He clapped me on the shoulder. “That’s what friends are for.”
I followed him into the kitchen, my eyes widening when I saw the brunch spread. Enough food to feed a small army covered the marble island. Pancakes, fresh fruit, eggs, pastries, bagels, hash browns, and all sorts of condiments. Including a jar of pickles.
I flashed a smile at Callie. “If I didn’t already know you were pregnant, this would give it away.”
She shrugged around a forkful of eggs, and Ethan elbowed me in the side before making his way back to sit on the stool next to her.
“Please tell me you’re not here because you missed the point of restructuring the financial division.
I’m supposed to be spending less time in the office, not bringing the CEO home with me on the weekends. ”
“I’m not here for work. This is personal.” I dropped onto a stool at the end of the island. “Although there are implications for Langford Tech.”
Ethan’s brows drew together, but Callie didn’t let him ask any of the questions I saw in his eyes.
“Eat,” she ordered, pointing at an unused plate. “You look like you haven’t slept, and my husband ordered enough food for the entire building. If you don’t help me out, I’ll have to freeze the pancakes, and the baby only likes them when they’re fresh.”
Ethan slid the plate toward me, muttering about how they could just order more whenever she had a craving for them again.
I wasn’t hungry, but I didn’t have the energy to argue. Serving myself some fruit and half a bagel, I asked, “How’s the pregnancy going?”
“Good except for wavering between being hungry or nauseous all the time.” Callie rolled her eyes. “And emotional. I cried yesterday because Ethan ate the last lemon bar. Which, in my defense, was rude.”
“I literally went out and bought you an entire new box,” Ethan pointed out with a grin.
“Doesn’t matter.” Callie lifted her chin. “I wanted that particular lemon.”
Despite everything weighing on me, my lips twitched. They were ridiculous. And so fucking happy. After everything they’d gone through, they more than earned the ease between them now.
“Is your mother still abiding by the no-contact rule?” Although I’d known Margot for years, I’d come up with several ideas to make her life hell if she was still crossing lines.
Callie snorted before Ethan could answer. “Yes, but only because he threatened her money.”
Ethan didn’t deny it. “Whatever works.”
Callie rolled her eyes and nudged him with her shoulder. “Healthy boundaries would’ve been enough for me. Your intimidation tactics were just a fun bonus.”
He slid a hand over her still-flat stomach, and a crushing realization hit me.
If I hadn’t let Vanessa wedge her way so deeply into my life, Tessa and I might’ve already been married with a baby of our own.
Or if I’d just questioned the breakup text and gone to her apartment myself instead of letting my injured pride dictate my decisions.
I had to look away before either of them saw I was barely keeping it together. The weight of what I’d lost wasn’t abstract anymore. It was staring me right in the face, in the form of my best friend’s happiness.
Callie must’ve sensed I was struggling because she set her fork down and looked between Ethan and me. “Maybe you two should talk in private.”
Ethan stood and jerked his chin toward the hallway. “Come on.”
“Sure.”
I followed him into his home office, and when the door clicked shut behind us, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Start talking.”
“It’s a lot,” I warned.
“Then start with the worst of it.”
So I told him everything that mattered, beginning with what all I suspected Vanessa had done. Ethan didn’t interrupt me, but the muscle ticking in his jaw let me know how angry he was.
When I finished, he fisted his hands at his sides. “Fucking hell, she let you think Tessa dumped you.”
“I know.” I paced in front of his desk. “How the hell am I supposed to work with her now? The divorce bullshit was one thing, but knowing she sabotaged my life to force a marriage is a different level of fucked up.”
“You’ll need to be careful.” He leaned against the closed door. “You can’t just fire her when her father co-founded Langford Tech with yours. If you want Vanessa gone, you need something airtight that Rupert can’t easily refute or bury.”
I hated that he was right. “So I just keep pretending I don’t want to strangle her for how much she hurt Tessa?”
“Only publicly.” Ethan shrugged. “Behind the scenes, you quietly hire an investigator. Someone who can dig into her phone records, her financials, and her assistant’s activities from back then. The works. Vanessa isn’t a master criminal. There’s bound to be a trail somewhere.”
“Then I’ll just need to figure out a way to find it.” I felt slightly better now that there was something I could do. “But firing her still won’t be enough. I don’t know how to fix any of this with Tessa, or if I even can. But I can’t let her think I’m not willing to fight for us.”
Ethan asked the one question I’d hoped to avoid. “Do you have a plan? Because you’re gonna need one.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and mumbled, “Still working on it.”
“Be ready to grovel for a damn long time.”
My friend’s warning echoed in my head all day. I hadn’t gotten very far with my plan, but I’d decided on a first step. I didn’t think it counted as groveling, though. Just something I should’ve done three years ago.
When I pulled up in front of Hale & Honey, the bakery’s windows were dimmed.
The CLOSED sign was already flipped in the door, but I could see Tessa inside at the counter.
I’d timed my arrival for only a few minutes after closing in the hope that I’d catch her by herself, and it looked like I was in luck.
I gently rapped my knuckles against the door, and her gaze snapped up to meet mine. She didn’t look away as she rounded the counter and crossed to the front. I hated how guarded her eyes were, but I had earned her wariness.
She unlocked the door but only opened it a few inches. “Why are you here?”
I reached into the inner pocket of my jacket and pulled out the neatly folded, knitted cashmere I’d kept all this time. Tessa gasped when she saw her mother’s scarf.
I held it out with both hands. “I found this on the hook behind my entryway closet door about a week after everything went to hell.”
“I thought you’d forgotten to put it in the box when…you know.”
Unfortunately, I knew too well what she’d assumed now that I’d found out she hadn’t walked away from me. “And I thought you forgot to take it with you. I could never bring myself to get rid of something that was the only piece of you I had left.”
Her expression wavered for a moment, but then her walls slammed back into place.
She drew in a shaky breath and opened the door just enough to take the scarf from my hands. “This doesn’t fix anything.”
“I didn’t think it would,” I murmured around the lump in my throat. “It’s just that I should’ve returned it a long time ago because I know how much losing your mom hurt you. I’m finally doing the right thing.”
She pressed the scarf to her chest as the silence stretched between us. There was so much more I wanted to say, but I needed to think of what Tessa needed first.
“I hope you have a nice night.” It was the safest thing I could say when every instinct in me was begging to stay.
Turning and walking away was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. But as she shut and locked the door behind me, I reminded myself that at least the groveling had begun. I’d made one small step in the right direction and only had about a thousand more to go.