by Iris Morland
Thea couldn’t regret standing up for what she’d believed in, but she could regret not having the courage to be honest from the beginning.
And most especially, she couldn’t regret falling in love with a man who’d she’d truly believed had a heart, even though he didn’t have the courage to admit it.
Two hours later, her boss Ferguson stood over her desk with a grim expression. “Thea, can I speak with you?”
Thea was tempted to say no, but it obviously wasn’t a question. Rising, she followed Ferguson into his office. When he closed the door behind her, she knew something was up.
Ferguson steepled his fingers as Thea sat down in front of him. “I just spoke with Jason. He says that you were unwilling to assist him this afternoon. I told him that I would like to hear your side of the story before I make a decision about how to move forward.”
Thea stared at her boss in astonishment. Jason had already complained about her? That son of a bitch!
“I wasn’t unwilling, I just had other work I needed to get done first,” she explained.
“Considering that I heard you talking with Nicole, I doubt that that excuse passes muster.” Ferguson sighed. “Thea, I don’t know what’s going on with you right now, but quite frankly, you’ve been neglecting your duties here. I’ve seen you take longer lunch breaks that often stretch to sixty-five or seventy minutes instead of sixty. When asked to do something, you have an excuse about how you can’t do it. Can you explain why?”
Thea’s face flamed until she was fairly certain she was going to catch on fire. She hadn’t put in her best effort, perhaps, but to get lambasted because one of the lawyers wanted her to be his own assistant and do whatever he said? That just made her angry.
“Jason isn’t my boss. I assist everyone, but I’m not his assistant. He treats me like I should be.” Thea took a deep breath as she tried to keep her voice level. “Just because I wasn’t going to jump at his commands doesn’t mean I’m a bad employee.”
“I never said that you were a bad employee. Simply that your performance as of late has been lacking. To be honest, Thea, your attitude is extremely off-putting. As an assistant, any tasks asked of you should be done with a gracious attitude. Instead, you insist on turning everything into a battle.”
With every word Ferguson said, the angrier Thea got. “I can’t believe this. I work hard. You know that. When have I ever dropped the ball on a project? Or refused to help anyone? All I ever do is help people!”
“Doing your job is one thing, but doing it with such a poor attitude? That’s another.”
Thea felt like her entire world was crumbling around her. It was ridiculous, really, considering how much she hated this job. It barely paid her bills to begin with. She’d never been respected here; she’d always been treated as if her lack of a degree made her stupid. Ferguson had never had her back, and he’d allowed his own lawyers to treat her as if she weren’t an intelligent human being.
For a moment, she heard Anthony’s voice in her head. A washed-up wannabe artist. Why was she so afraid of embracing who she truly was?
She stood up. “If that’s how you feel about me,” she said, “then I quit.”
Ferguson’s jaw dropped. He sputtered, saying that she was being dramatic and ridiculous, but Thea ignored him. She went to her desk and gathered her things. But not before she took those files from Jason. She went into his office without knocking and tossed them onto his desk.
“File these yourself, asshole,” she said.
And like that, Thea was finally free.
She was practically shaking from the adrenaline as she drove home. Her phone rang more than once, but she ignored it. She’d probably done something monumentally stupid, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care if Ferguson never gave her a reference. Who cared? She wasn’t going to live by other people’s arbitrary rules anymore.
As Thea walked the stairs up to her apartment, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw someone standing in front of her door. It was Mittens.
She turned to walk away, but Mittens said, “Wait, Thea! Let me explain.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Just ten minutes.”
She’d never heard her friend plead before. Curiosity warring with indecision, she sighed and let him inside her apartment.
“Why are you home so early?” asked Mittens.
“Why were you standing outside my door?” she countered.
“I was going to wait until you came home. I thought I’d better hedge my bets.” He looked at his phone. “Did you get to leave work early?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I quit my job today.”
His eyebrows rose. “You put in your notice?”
“Not exactly.” She sat down across from him in her living room, folding her arms across her chest. “But you didn’t come here to talk about my job, did you?”
“No, I wanted to apologize. You weren’t returning my texts or calls—”
“Why should I?”
“I know. I get it.” He winced. “I can’t say that I regret doing it, but I do regret hurting you.”
Thea rolled her eyes. “That’s not even an apology.”
“You were the one who said that we had to do whatever it took to get our message across. That the good outweighed the bad.” Right then, his face seemed haunted, and Thea realized that her friend had lost weight. He seemed almost gaunt compared to the last time she’d seen him.
“I told you that story when I was drunk.” Thea couldn’t keep the hurt from her voice. “I should never have said a word about it to you. But you took advantage of me. So, yeah, I’m hurt, and I’m still angry.”
“I get that. You have a right to be angry with me, but I’m sorry.” Mittens smiled sadly. “I’ve missed you. And I know that something more happened with you and Anthony than what you told me.”
Thea’s face screwed up, and before she’d realized it, she was crying. Mittens came around and pulled her into a tight hug. She resisted, but she’d needed someone to comfort her. Burying her face in his shoulder, she cried—for herself, for Anthony, for her job. But mostly for her broken heart that she was fairly certain would never mend.
“Aw, honey, I had no idea,” said Mittens as he rubbed her back. “That bad?”
“Worse,” moaned Thea.
He sighed. “He’s still an asshole, you know. But if you care about him this much, then he must have some redeeming quality.”
Thea wiped her eyes, her face soaked with tears. She laughed a little when she saw how wet she’d gotten Mittens’s shirt.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I can’t stop crying lately. It’s annoying.”
“I thought I was the one apologizing.”
“You were. But I’m tired of being angry. I missed you, too.” Thea sighed. “I still don’t get why you leaked that story, though. Did you really think it would make a difference?”
“It already has. Haven’t you kept up with the news? There’ve been rumblings of a major overhaul over at the company. Of course, it’s all top secret now, but…” Mittens shrugged.
“I know. It’s a mess. Everything is a mess.” She sniffled. “Why is everything so hard?”
“Oh, honey, if I knew the reason for that, I’d be richer than your lover boy.”
Mittens stayed the evening, and they talked for hours. She told him all about her fight with Anthony, who she’d told she was in love with him. How he’d believed that she’d been behind the leak. Mittens winced when she told him that.
“I didn’t think about that,” he admitted. “Shit, Thea, how can I make it up to you?”
“I don’t think you can. I mean, I could show Anthony the proof, but would he believe it? He wants to stay angry, I think. Because if he’s angry, then he doesn’t have to feel anything else.”
“Well, that’s deep. And complicated. But you can’t fix everyone, even though I know you’d like to.”
Her smile was sad now. “Even whe
n I know I’m right?”
“Even then. People have to make their own mistakes. And if he refuses to see what he had right in front of him, then he deserves everything he gets, in my opinion.” Mittens started smiling, a conspiratorial glint in his eyes. “Tell me all about how you quit your job. Did you burn down the office, too? Because if so, I support you fully.”
By the time Mittens left, it was close to midnight, but Thea wasn’t tired. She began to draw for the first time in ages, the inspiration practically flowing out of her. She drew for hours, feeling like the puzzle pieces were starting to fit together.
When the sun came up, she’d gotten close to finishing her graphic novel, the same one that Anthony had looked at.
Maybe she couldn’t convince Anthony that she loved him. Maybe she’d never get him back. She’d have to put her heart back together as best as she could.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t live her best life. She heard Henry Thatcher’s words in her head, but they no longer resonated. She wasn’t that insecure girl anymore: she was an artist who needed to share her gift with the world.
Thea started writing her query letter, not knowing if she’d ever land an agent for her work, but knowing that this was the first step to becoming the person she’d always meant to be.
23
Anthony stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows in his penthouse without seeing anything. In just a few hours, he would face his reckoning as the CEO of Bertram, Sons, and Co. He’d make his case, to persuade the board that he still had the right and the ability to run the company.
Anthony sipped his coffee. It was so hot that it burned his tongue, but he barely noticed.
He barely noticed a lot of things lately.
After the story behind his divorce, including his using company money to pay off Elise and Ryan, everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. The media had been pounding down his door, while the board had been in an uproar. Anthony had refused to talk to any of them until everyone had calmed down. He wasn’t going to beg each one to let him keep his position. So, he’d waited, crafting his plan, and banking on the fact that despite this scandal, the majority of the board still liked him.
And who would they hire to replace him? They would have a hell of time finding someone as capable and as dedicated as he was. Considering he’d been the one to build the company himself, it was unlikely anyone else would compare with his own work ethic and drive to succeed.
Despite all the arguments that Anthony should stay, he knew that he was on shaky ground. Only a fool wouldn’t recognize that.
If he lost this company once and for all, he wasn’t sure what he would do. The thought was so distasteful that he’d refused to truly consider it.
A knock sounded on his door. When Anthony opened the door, there was no one there, except for a small package on his doorstep. Frowning, he picked up the package. There was no return address on it. Was someone trying to kill him with Anthrax? It was such an amusingly morbid thought that he chuckled under his breath.
He opened the package, only to discover it was far from poison: it was a book. He began to flip through it, astonishment filling him.
No, it wasn’t just a book: it was a graphic novel, the same one he’d read a part of back at the cabin. He looked at the envelope again and saw a stamp that read Fair Haven, WA.
Why had Thea sent him her graphic novel? He was completely at a loss. Was this some kind of ploy again? If so, it was a terrible one.
Anthony had tried his hardest to stop thinking about the woman who’d betrayed him worse than his ex-wife had. Elise’s revenge had been petty; Thea’s, however, had been calculated. She had done her best to destroy the most important things in Anthony’s life: his company and his reputation.
But as the days and weeks had passed, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how she’d pleaded her case at his office. Last week, he’d finally capitulated to his own insatiable need to know the truth that he’d contacted the journalist who’d written the story about his divorce. The journalist had confirmed that Milton Haverford III had sent him the story, not Thea Younger. In the journalist’s mind, Thea had had nothing to do with it.
Thea had been telling the truth, at least on that piece. That realization had begun to chip away at the simmering rage inside Anthony. And even worse, it made him wonder: had she been telling the truth when she’d told him she loved him?
Sitting down on the couch, Anthony opened the graphic novel’s cover to find a note written inside on the first page. He recognized the looping script immediately.
Dear Anthony,
I hope you’re well. I wanted to send you this because I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I’m no longer willing to hide myself away.
You showed me that. Yes, you.
I hope that you’re able to live your truth, just like I am.
With love,
Thea
He started reading without even caring about the passage of time. As he read the story of two star-crossed lovers on a distant planet, he became enraptured with the story unfolding. In turns funny, heartbreaking, and brilliant, by the time Anthony reached the end about an hour later, he wanted to go back and reread it.
When he reached the last page, his breath caught in his throat when he read the characters’ dialogue.
Forgiveness isn’t weakness, the female main character said, her expression both sad and hopeful. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful things on earth.
And love? her lover asked.
You have to be able to forgive to truly love anyone. Because none of us are perfect.
He could hear Thea’s voice in his head as he read those lines. He read them over and over, and it was like the blinders were slowly being lifted from his vision. The anger he’d been holding on to—against Elise, against Ryan, against Thea—began to crumble and disappear. He could feel the burden lifting from his shoulders with stunning ease.
“I love her,” he said, and the words both stunned and comforted him. He’d always known that he loved Thea—maybe he’d known since the moment he’d first seen her that night in the cabin. But he’d pushed the feeling down so far that he’d refused to recognize that it existed. He’d preferred to revel in his anger and bitterness, because it had felt like something he could control.
You couldn’t control love, and that was the most terrifying thing of all.
Anthony flipped to the last page, where he once again saw Thea’s looping script. All it said this time was, I meant what I said.
Hadn’t Thea been terrified to show anyone her artwork, as well? But here she was, sending it to him. It was such a huge gesture of trust that it took his breath away. He didn’t deserve it—not really. He’d been a huge asshole to her, refusing to hear her out.
She’d made mistakes, but so had he. He’d thought that she’d plotted everything in some attempt to take him and his company down. Yet that was only partially true. She’d fought for what she thought was right in one instance, and in the other, it hadn’t been her truly at fault for his own story leaking.
He read the last page of her graphic novel over and over. He knew what he needed to do now. It was such a strange, but freeing, sensation. Maybe he could actually show Thea that he had a heart after all.
His phone rang. He distantly registered that Cara was calling. Glancing at his watch, he grabbed his coat and briefcase before heading to the meeting that would decide his fate for the rest of his life.
But now, he had Thea’s love to give him strength. After this, he would convince her once and for all that he loved her, too. He’d never stop fighting to win her back. Out of everything in his entire life, this was now the most important battle he would ever fight—for the heart of the woman he loved.
“What I want to know is,” said Bruce Weaver with a sneer in his voice, “how did this even get to the press in the first place?”
“That’s not really our main concern,” said Stan. He shot a glance at Anthony, who sat silently
before what was basically his own jury. “I want to know why Anthony thought it prudent to use company funds to pay off his ex-wife and her—” Stan blushed a little before stuttering, “Her lover.”
“Leave my son out of this,” said Bruce. “He would never take money from the company like that.”
“Your son, might I remind you, was caught sleeping with my wife in my bed.” Anthony raised an eyebrow. “Ask him yourself if you’d like. I doubt he’d deny it.”
Bruce spluttered, but one of the board members touched his arm. Bruce sat back down, although Anthony was fairly certain that given half a chance, he’d wring Anthony’s neck.
“I don’t care about the specifics of the story,” said Stan, “but this involves the company. That’s why we’re here—not to gossip about people’s personal lives.”
“Yes, tell us, Anthony: why did you give money to your ex-wife without the board’s permission? Let alone go against the rules you signed off on when you were made CEO.” Bruce sat back in his chair, his anger changing to satisfaction in the blink of an eye.
Anthony thought of Thea’s graphic novel, which was hidden in his office. He heard her voice in his head, and it gave him the courage to be honest for once in his life. Because he was tired of living a lie, and he was tired of holding on to something that had brought him nothing good. Oh, the money was good, of course. He wouldn’t deny that. But money didn’t buy happiness. It sure as hell hadn’t repaired the tatters of his broken marriage, and it had only given him an excuse to keep apart from the world at large.
“I’ll tell you why I paid off Elise and Ryan both,” began Anthony. He stood up, slowly taking in each man on his board, each one who had a stake in the outcome of this company that Anthony had built himself. He understood why they wanted to protect it; in a way, he wanted that, too.
“I paid them off because I was angry, and I was ashamed that they’d betrayed me like that. I didn’t want anyone else to know about it. That’s the truth. So I paid them off and made them sign an ironclad NDA that only myself, those two, and my lawyer were aware of. The money included company stock, mostly, which was what Ryan demanded in order to sign the NDA.”