Epilogue
ASHER
Atext from an unknown number pings on my phone.
An offer to purchase Greenspan will be delivered to your board next week and it would be in your best interest to accept it. Akio Kobayashi will never walk again and it would be a shame if you or your pretty little girlfriend came to share that same fate.
Who the fuck is this?
No answer comes, and I can tell by the way the message lights up in a different color on my phone that my text wasn’t delivered.
I take a screenshot of the exchange and send it to Sterling.
He’s the only one who can figure this out.
Goddammit, as if I don’t have enough to worry about with Ella.
As if I need more reasons to keep walls between us.
This is the entire problem with our situation.
I want to give her all of me, but I can’t control what that comes along with.
I can’t deny the risk. And until I get to the bottom of whatever the fuck is going on with Greenspan, I can’t give her what she wants.
Because if being with me is a danger, then that’s something I can’t tolerate.
I want her back, and I want everything to go back to how it was before that fucking article came between us.
I need her, not just for the PR, but because it feels like I can’t breathe without her.
But as much as it guts me, I can’t promise her a future, not unless I can take out this threat.
My life as it is with the paparazzi and the stalkers and constant need for security is bad enough, but I can live with those.
I can’t live with this. This threat is too much.
I won’t risk something happening to her like what happened to me, and to my grandfather, twenty-five years ago.
I need to convince her to accept what I can offer.
Because Ella and I are not over, but I need her to understand that I won’t continue to put her in this position if the threats keep coming.
I’m a selfish bastard but even I won’t keep her captive in my life if it puts her life in danger.
She and I aren’t over.
But how long can I hold on to her if I can’t keep her safe?