Chapter 2

That night was where our paths began to split.

Mila's coquettish voice piped up again.

"Fine, fine, I'll drop it. But then, Nigel, at least tell us how Selina did her striptease. That much you can do, right?"

Nigel tapped her forehead lightly.

"Don't you already know all the details?"

Mila swung his arm, wheedling. "I just want to hear it one more time. Come on, tell us!"

The other girls chimed in, giggling and coaxing.

"Nigel, tell us! We all want to hear it!"

Surrounded by a cluster of pretty young women, each simpering in her own way, Nigel put on a show of stern disapproval.

"Behave yourselves! It was nothing. Your Selina mistook a client for me, stripped down to her underwear, scared the poor man half to death. He tried to get out of the car, but she locked the doors and wouldn't let him leave. If I hadn't gotten there in time, the client's dignity wouldn't have survived..."

As his voice rose and fell through the telling, the jumbled memories I'd forced down were rewritten without mercy.

No wonder the way he looked at me after I sobered up had been so strange.

I'd asked him what was wrong, whether I'd made a fool of myself drunk, and he'd said,

"Selina, thank you for everything you've given me. I'll make it up to you someday, I promise. Once the company goes public, I'll marry you."

After that, he rarely touched me. He poured more and more of himself into work instead.

And I sank deeper into the dream he'd built for me, throwing myself into growing the company harder than ever.

All so I could become his bride that much sooner.

But the company went public, and he never said a word about marriage.

Instead, to keep Mila and the other girls entertained, he turned the ugliest moment of my life into a joke.

Nigel gave the group another order, his tone all doting indulgence.

"That's enough. Everyone treat this as a joke and keep it here. I don't want it getting out."

They agreed, still laughing. But after I went into the restroom, a few of the girls slipped in behind me.

"Hey, what do you think Nigel meant by all that today? You don't think we're about to get a new boss's lady, do you?"

"Feels like he's kicking away the ladder once he's climbed up. A secret stops being a secret the moment you say it out loud. Selina's probably not far from getting dumped..."

"Then we'd better stay on Mila's good side. As much as Nigel dotes on her, she'll be moving up fast. I heard from Mila that Nigel had those clients get Selina drunk on purpose, so the proposal tonight would fall through because she was too wasted..."

"It's almost funny, stripping again and again for Nigel and ending up with nothing! She's worse off than a plucked chicken!"

"Are you sure that proposal was meant for Selina? She looked like she had no idea about any of it!"

Their mockery drove into my heart like a dozen knives.

I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep the tears from spilling.

Because I'd asked Nigel last night whether he had a surprise for me today, and he'd told me, plainly, that he didn't.

My phone buzzed. A message came in.

【I hear you're selling all your shares. Would you sell them to me? Name your price.】

I stared at the sender, more than a little surprised.

I never expected Cliff Donaldson would want to buy the shares I held.

He was the big client I'd mistaken for Nigel, the one I'd done that whole striptease in front of.

I hesitated for two seconds, then asked,

【Why?】

【Call it compensation for the time I took advantage of you.】

【We can talk it through when you come out. I'll take you to get some air and clear your head in the meantime.】

I froze despite myself.

Cliff had been one of tonight's invited guests too. Had he just heard everything?

I asked him outright.

He only said,

【That night, I should have stopped you from drinking so much. It was my fault, and I'm the one who should make it right.】

So this was the reason his company had a better option and still decided to sign the contract with me?