10. Genevieve
Chapter ten
Genevieve
Exiting the conference room, I calmed my racing heart as best as I could. It wasn’t effective, but that wasn’t my main goal. I just needed to get Eugene and leave. Being in this building, in the same space as Reid, I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t bear him.
Approaching Raymond’s office, I knocked once and stepped inside. Eugene was asleep on the couch, his small body curled toward the wall, one fist still wrapped around his favorite toy car.
My heart clenched.
Raymond looked up from his desk. He didn’t smile or pry just yet. He only let out a tired sigh. “He fell asleep about fifteen minutes ago.”
I crossed the room slowly, heels silent on the carpet, eyes fixed on my son.
I knelt beside him, brushing the hair from his damp forehead, fingers trembling more than I wanted them to.
His lashes lay dark against flushed cheeks, his chest rising and falling, the same soft rhythm I used to fall asleep to.
Behind me, Raymond’s voice came quiet. “Are you all right?”
From his tone he already knew the answer. “Gonna head home,” I murmured. “It’s been a long day.”
Raymond leaned back, exhaling. The weight of everything was finally settling on him. “Reid sure knows how to stir a pot.”
“He shouldn’t be here,” I said, still watching Eugene’s chest rise and fall. “He’s dangerous. You know that.”
“I know, Gen.”
“He’s not here to fix anything. He has his own agenda, his own plan to ruin everything. He’s going to tear it all down. This company, this family. He’s not trying to help.”
“I know—”
“So why don’t you put a stop to this?” I snapped, sharper than I meant to, as my eyes met his. “Why bring him here if you know he has no good intentions? Why… why him in the first place?”
Raymond went quiet. His jaw worked, tensing, his hands folding slow over his desk.
When he finally spoke, his voice was worn out and exhausted. “Because Gregory’s not built for this. You’ve seen it. He’s barely holding it together as is. His ego can’t take another failure, and his pride won’t let him step down.” He rubbed his temples. The lines around his eyes looked deeper now.
“I thought I had more time. To ease the board, find another solution. But then Jamie—” He paused, shaking his head. “Jamie’s started going to the hospital more.”
“But that doesn’t—”
“They found another mass last week.”
My breath hitched. Another mass? She was still getting sicker? I was just with her… Eugene and I had just gone to visit her, and she seemed fine. She didn’t tell me things were worse.
“She didn’t want you to worry,” he said, practically reading my mind, and I shook my head, the worry already building in my gut.
“How bad is it?” I muttered.
“The doctors don’t know yet.”
I could feel that meant it was probably worse than we’d hope for.
“Gen, I had no other choice. Reid… he came with answers. A strategy. Structure the board and the investors could believe in.”
He had no choice… And of course Reid walked in and filled every role Gregory couldn’t. But I didn’t have the strength to argue anymore. Not with Raymond, my new reality or even with myself.
So I only nodded, saying nothing more. Because what more could even be said at this point?
Gathering Eugene’s tired body into my arms, I exited Raymond’s office, ready to disappear. Before I made it to the elevator, the doors adjacent to it slid open with a soft ding.
I didn’t think much of it… until I saw him.
Gregory stepped out, his shirt slightly untucked, his tie loosened, but the grin on his face… it was full, bright and effortless—the kind of smile I’d stopped seeing over the last year or two. The laugh that followed, carrying through the halls, however, wasn’t his.
It belonged to a woman.
She stepped out behind him, heels clicking, hair glossy and pinned back in a way that felt deliberate. She seemed like the kind of woman who knew how she wanted to be seen, unlike how I felt in this moment.
Her hand lingered too long on his arm. Her voice was too soft, almost rehearsed.
And he let her.
My feet stalled just for a second. He never looked like that with me. Not when I waited up late for him or when I lied for him. Not even when I defended him to his father, to his brother, to the world, to myself.
I’d spent years playing the role. I carried the weight of his failures as if they were mine. Easing them. Defending them. Forgiving them. I’d watched him spiral. Sat at his side through sleepless nights and mounting disappointments. Still… he never smiled like that for me.
And now I stood there holding our son while he gave that version of himself… lighter, freer, to someone who hadn’t deserved it. Who didn’t even earn it. Not like I had.
Her eyes flicked to mine, and for the briefest moment, her expression faltered.
Not surprise or guilt. It looked more like recognition.
She saw me… it was almost like she even knew me.
I mean, granted, I was the daughter-in-law of the founder of the company and the fiancée to the man standing beside her, but I hadn’t recognized her.
Her gaze didn’t linger as she looked back at Gregory, another giggle surfacing from her lips. Then the two of them turned, heading toward the conference room down the hall.
He still hadn’t seen me. Not even a glance. For some reason though, I didn’t feel heartbroken. Not exactly. I felt… off-balance. Like the wires weren’t connecting right and something wasn’t computing in my mind.
This wasn’t the Gregory I held together.
Wasn’t the man I spent years steadying at home, pretending his collapse wasn’t swallowing us both… not the same one I sat beside during all those empty nights, defending when no one else would.
I built that man. I helped him hold his head above water when all he could do was sink. I made sure he didn’t drown.
And now here he was… smiling like he’d never needed saving in the first place.
Laughing with a woman who hadn’t seen the man that slept beside me, the version of him that fell apart.
This didn’t feel like jealousy… or even betrayal. I was mostly… confused. I didn’t know what to think.
Suddenly, there was a presence behind me. I didn’t have to turn to know who it was.
“A woman on your fiancé’s arm, making him laugh while the board chews him alive, while I take his seat at the head table? She must be special.”
Reid’s voice came amused, almost casual, like we were observing a performance together.
Maybe we were. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how broken everything felt, how it felt like things were crumbling before me.
“Of course you’d say something like that,” I muttered, adjusting Eugene in my arms and starting for the elevator.
To no one’s surprise, he followed.
“You’re still making excuses for him?”
“I’m not—” I snapped, before I caught myself. “It’s an office. They work together. He’s allowed to smile with a coworker.”
Reid let out a breath that was almost a laugh, but it wasn’t genuine.
“Is he? After everything you’ve done for him?
All those years playing the perfect fiancée to a man who couldn’t even keep his promises, let alone a company?
” He leaned closer. “You deserve at least a glimpse of that smile… Maybe even a thank-you.”
I stared straight ahead, jaw locked.
“You’re not angry enough,” he added, voice dipping lower, more brutal.
The words followed me down the hall, sinking deeper than they should have.
Because he was right, I wasn’t angry. I was something worse: numb, waiting for something to make me feel again.
“You don’t know what I am,” I hissed, jamming my finger onto the elevator button.
“That’s what makes this sad. You’re still defending him.”
The elevator dinged. I stepped inside without looking at him, feeling his eyes watching my every movement.
He didn’t follow. He didn’t have to. We’d be seen together again soon enough. Boardrooms. Meetings. Whatever he deemed necessary to force me closer to him and drive me crazy. I watched the doors close, his dangerous eyes locked onto mine until the last second.
The public needed continuity. And Reid—
He needed control. And he was going to take it from me. Forcing me to be beside the man I betrayed. Smiling for the cameras. Smiling for the lie that the Newman family was going to be saved.
You’re not angry enough.
The words curled inside my chest. Unfortunately, they were true. I stared at myself in the reflection until the breath in my lungs stuttered.
I wasn’t angry or heartbroken.
I was tired.
Of performing. Of defending. Pretending this life was something I’d chosen willingly. Even if it was a life I chose to stay and build.
My fingers curled around Eugene’s back. My nose found his hair, breathing in the comfort I didn’t deserve.
His scent of baby shampoo. Warm skin. A faint trace of sweat that warmed me from inside.
My little boy…
Reid didn’t understand why I had to pretend. No one would ever understand.