Chapter 46
STERLING
I stared down at my phone like she might suddenly give me a different answer, but all I got was a big fat lot of nothing.
Laney hadn’t returned any of my calls. She hadn’t read any of my texts after that first one.
There were no dots indicating she was typing and no second tick telling me the messages had even been delivered.
All I’d gotten was that one thumbs-up, confirmation at least that she was safe and alive, but outside of that, there had only been silence. Garvey’s words reverberated through my head again. She’s gone, sir.
I was back at the penthouse, but it felt bigger now. Colder somehow too, like the walls themselves knew she wasn’t coming back and had expelled the last of the warmth she had brought to the soulless space.
Although I knew without even checking that the house was empty, I wandered around anyway, drifting from room to room like somewhere deep down inside I was holding out hope that I might find her curled up on one of the beds.
Or fuck, hiding in a damn closet. It would’ve been better than facing the truth that she was gone.
The faint scent of her perfume lingered in the hallway. One of her earrings sat on the vanity in my bathroom like it hadn’t gotten the memo that she was leaving, but she very definitely had.
Unsurprisingly, the grumpy cat was gone too. Jack, who had been a gift from Sadie, had been the first trace of living proof that our relationship had grown from something cold and impersonal into the beginning of a real marriage. A family.
I made my way back to the living room eventually, but now that I’d confirmed beyond any doubt that she wasn’t here, I didn’t want to stay. While I might not have known exactly what she’d overheard, I didn’t want her going a minute longer than she had to believing whatever had forced her to flee.
Without even having to think about it, I knew where she’d gone. There was only one place she would go. Only one person she would trust to open the door without needing to give him a reason—and I knew all of this because I knew her .
Not just as a fucking signature on a contract or a pawn but as her . As Laney Westbrook. I knew her heart, her dreams, and her reality, and the next thing I knew, I was in my car, driving to her dad’s place.
The Jag was parked two doors down from his house, her hoodie balled up on the passenger seat.
She must’ve put it there so Jack would stay put and he’d only do that if he felt like he was near her.
Seeing it there made my chest seize, but I also hadn’t breathed properly since I’d found that she’d left my parents’ place, so the discomfort was nothing new.
As I walked up the sidewalk, the weight of it all made my limbs feel slow and heavy. I barely made it up the stairs, but before I could even knock, the front door opened.
My heart kicked into gear again, but it wasn’t Laney who stood there, silhouetted by the warm light from inside. It was Vincent, and while he didn’t look surprised to see me or even mad, the expression on his features was somehow worse.
The man simply looked done. He held my gaze silently as he stepped onto the porch, quietly pulling the door shut behind him. Only once he had checked that it had closed all the way did he turn back to me. “Go home, Sterling.”
“Vincent, it?—”
“No.” His voice cut sharply through my attempt to explain. “Whatever you’re here to say, she doesn’t need to hear it right now.”
I held his gaze, steady, torn up, but understanding his instinct to protect her. God, I felt it myself. Stronger than I ever had. “Can I just see her to make sure she’s okay?”
“She showed up at my door out of the blue with a bag and a cat, shaking like a leaf. She’s not okay and that’s on you.”
I moved closer, hoping he would see how desperate I was. “Please, Vincent. I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“But you did. What you meant doesn’t really matter then, does it? All that matters is that my little girl is in there, holding a cat instead of her husband, and she’s too upset to even speak.”
As his words sank in, I felt like I’d been hit by an out of control speedboat. I didn’t respond. What the fuck was I meant to say to that?
He shook his head, his jaw clenched tight, and his big arms crossed over his chest. “I warned you about what would happen if you did this, Sterling. You don’t get another strike.”
For the first time in my life, all I could do was stand there, helpless, hoping someone would take mercy on me. I had zero power in this situation. I was all out of moves. In business, I always had another move. A way out. A counteroffer. Something .
Here, with him, I had nothing. The first time that it really mattered, and I had fucking nothing.
“I care about her,” I said quietly. “No matter what she thinks right now, it’s the truth.”
“If it is, you’ll respect her enough to give her time. Let her come to you. If she wants to.” Without another word, he turned and went back inside, shutting the door with a firm but soft click behind him. I heard the lock snick into place a moment later.
I knew I had to leave, but I just kept standing there like a fool, staring at the scratched, well-worn wood, and wondering if she was on the other side. If she’d listened to our conversation. If she even knew I was here.
Terrifyingly, I wondered if she even cared.
Deep down though, I knew she did. I was the asshole in this situation, not her.
Worry snaked through me as I prayed for the door to open again. Are her eyes red? Is she still shaking? Does she already miss me half as much as I already miss her?
My prayers went unanswered, the door remaining so shut, it was like Vincent had sealed it that way to keep me out. I briefly considered knocking, but I couldn’t. He’d made it pretty clear that I wasn’t going to get through him.
Not tonight and possibly not ever. Not unless Laney came to me.
Eventually, God only knew how long later, I went back to the penthouse and poured a drink but didn’t touch it. Instead, I fell back into old habits, working until my fingers went numb on the keyboard.
Once I couldn’t work anymore, I headed to the gym downstairs and stayed there until the early hours of the morning. I still couldn’t sleep though, so I watched the sun rise over the skyline like it might offer me some divine revelation.
It didn’t.
I showered. I got dressed. I went to the office like the good little corporate soldier I’d always been. The day marched on like my heart and my life weren’t broken. Emails came in. Meetings proceeded.
My phone, however, remained silent. At least, silent insofar as Laney was concerned. It rang incessantly with calls from everyone else but not her.
Sitting in yet another meeting, I glanced at the watch on my wrist, drowning out Nathan’s summary of a company he’d been trying to acquire for weeks but had run into one problem after another with. The block party started in an hour, and though I knew I wasn’t welcome, I’d be there anyway.
I was going to show up for her, just like I always had, but I still didn’t know how to fix this and it was mostly because everything I’d said was true.
Our marriage had been business—until it hadn’t been that at all anymore. Until I’d realized that I’d married the woman of my dreams, the only girl I’d ever met that I couldn’t get enough of, and a best friend the likes of which I’d never had.
Everything I’d said had still been true though, even if I hadn’t said the one thing that mattered most. I hadn’t said that I loved her, but I did. Desperately and recklessly, with everything I was and ever would be.
Last night, the words had gotten stuck somewhere between my chest and my pride, and I hadn’t been able to give them to Jameson without giving them to her first. Even though he’d probably needed to hear them more than she had in that moment.
My brother thought I didn’t feel. He thought I didn’t want and hadn’t found the real thing, but somehow, I’d managed to find exactly that and I felt it all the way to my bones.
I should’ve told him that, though. I should’ve admitted that he was right and that I loved her, and sure, even that it scared the living daylights out of me.
All day long, I’d been stewing in my own self-made misery, but when Nathan looked at me after his presentation like he was waiting for me to come up with an answer, I suddenly realized that he was right. I always did have an answer.
I fixed shit. Always. And now, I needed to go and fix this. No more bulldog or Ice King. No more relentless dealmaker who didn’t do anything without an agenda that benefited no one more than him or his company in the end.
Today, I needed to be something else. I needed to be a husband. A brother. I needed to apologize to Jameson and tell Laney the truth. I needed to grow a fucking pair and admit that I hadn’t given either of them the whole story last night.
I’d gotten so wrapped in defending my position against Jameson that I hadn’t considered that he’d just needed someone to bitch at. Someone to vent to. Someone to have his goddamn back like a big brother should.
Yesterday had been a shitty day, a disaster of epic proportions, but I’d never been one to back down from a challenge and I wouldn’t start now, so I stood up in the middle of the meeting, cutting a partner off mid-sentence while he was trying to offer Nathan a solution, and walked out.
I didn’t stop to explain where I was going and I sure as hell didn’t look back. My team would scramble to solve whatever problem Nathan was facing, but they would recover. They always did.
Some things couldn’t wait and this was one of those things.
The elevator doors slid shut in front of me.
I caught a glimpse of my reflection and snorted.
For the first time in years, if not ever, I was a mess.
My tie was loose, my shirt misbuttoned, and my jacket slung over my arm.
My hair looked like I hadn’t slept and had spent all night with my hands in it, which was true, but I’d usually never be caught dead looking like this.
Strangely, I didn’t give a flying fuck. In fact, maybe it was good that I looked a mess for once in my life. Maybe it was time they all saw the cracks. Got a nice good look at the man beneath the veneer.
Because I was done playing my part. I wasn’t just the empire my ancestors had built or the name on the contracts. I was more than just the asshole who put his signature on their paychecks.
I was a man in love with his wife—and I had somewhere a lot more important to be.