apter 73
I’m left alone in the dark with my conscience. It’s lonely here.
“And this here.” I point to the whiteboard. “Is…” I click my fingers as I try to remember. “Fuck, what is it, his name has escaped me.” “John?” Alessio cuts in.
“Yeah.” I clench my jaw, fuck… “John will be looking after the…” “Program?” Alessio cuts me off.
The board members glance at each other and I want to sink through the floor.
Can we break for five minutes?” Alessio interrupts me. “I need to take a very important call”
“Of course, meet back here in fifteen,” I tell everyone. I march out of the boardroom and into my office. I wash my face in my bathroom and feel someone standing beside me. I glance up to see Alessio leaning on the doorjamb.
“You all right, man?”
“Yep.” I dry my face and walk past him back into my office.
“The story about Ariana today in the newspaper has rattled you?”
“You mean the picture of me and her getting off my jet, holding hands, with the headline ‘Ferrara and Ariana reunite on romantic getaway“?”
He winces. “Pretty much.”
“I just need to get through this meeting before I can even think about that dumpster fire.”
“Have you spoken to Violet?”
“No, I zonked myself out last night and fell asleep. I’ll call her tonight.”
“Go home,” he says. “You’re not on your game, and you’re doing more harm than good in there.”
Fuck.
“I’m going to tell them you have a migraine and take over the meeting.”
My eyes search his. “I won’t go home, but if you could take over the meeting, I’d be grateful. I’m
sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He pulls me into a hug. “That’s why you have a brother, to catch you when you fall.”
Chapter 73
“Thanks.” I hug him a little longer than normal. “You okay?” He frowns.
I nod. “Yep, tough week.”
At five pm, I walk out of the Ferrara building to a crowd of photographers.
“Mr. Ferrara, is the wedding back on?” Security pushes me through the crowd.
“Ariana and you make a beautiful couple. Can you tell us about your romantic getaway?” someone se calls. I’m bundled into the back of the car and we pull out into the traffic, we whiz through the streets of New York and I glance at my phone to see five missed calls from Elias, Violet’s security guard.
I frown and dial his number. “Hello, Mr. Ferrara,” he says nervously.
“What?”
“Just letting you know that Violet had lunch again with Jack Spalding today.”
Adrenaline surges through my system and my eyes flicker red. “Is that so.”
♡(1)
