Then the door opened again and Bill and Valerie waltzed in, both on their phones. They’d finally showed up. The management of all the companies presenting today had been invited to attend.
Valerie’s smile at me tightened the knot in my stomach. Her happiness always came at someone else’s expense.
Kathleen stood in front of her chair, but didn’t take her seat. “While there was some consensus about bringing on a new provider to handle bigger events for us this year, the roster is full.”
She directed her gaze at us. “Leo and Zara, we won’t be bringing you on for more events. Let’s move on to the rest of the presentations.”
Everyone else went back to what they were doing, unaware we’d been tossed into chummed water.
Kathleen leaned over toward us, bracing her hands on the table. “You two should be ashamed of yourselves,” she hissed. “Pretending to be together. That’s low, and I don’t abide liars. You can leave.”
I sat in my seat, doubly stunned. Frozen like I’d been welded in place.
We’d lost. Our lie had blown up in our faces at the worst possible moment. How had she found out? Had Valerie remembered our last confrontation and told Kathleen? But that didn’t make sense. If so, she’d lost her dad tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I looked down at the glinting ring on my finger and wanted to launch it across the room. All our work. All my work was gone. Leo had erased it, shredding it and flinging me in front of the wolves from Easton.
I sat beside him, every fiber of my being wanting to fling my chair back and rush from the room as Oren & Co. walked through their presentation.
Why would he do this? How had he done this? He hadn’t completed this presentation in one night on his own. He’d sabotaged me. We’d worked together for a week nearly non-stop when we hadn’t been falling into bed together—this presentation wasn’t a slapped-together job. I squeezed my forehead. What had I been thinking, trusting him?
Kathleen cleared her throat. “Thank you everyone for your attention this morning.” She tidied her stack of papers. “Everyone else, we’ll start the tour of the grounds in ten minutes. We’ll meet you outside of the Barnes Room.”
Kathleen left the room.
Leo shot up out of his seat and rushed after her before the door could close.
How long had he been working on this behind my back? Had it been his plan the entire time? How long had he known about the acquisition? I glared at his retreating figure through the closing door.
42
Zara
I sat in my seat with my copy of the presentation gripped in my hand.
Leo’s hands flexed on the arms of the chair beside me. His gaze was trained on Kathleen and he jerked forward in his seat.
I could almost laugh. His big plan had failed. The words floated on the page as the crushing ache in my chest stifled each breath. If only his failure hadn’t tanked my chances of holding the pieces of my life together.
My spot on the end of the table with the full morning glare of the sun shining on me should’ve felt hopeful. A new day with a new beginning. Instead, I felt like I’d been transported to the surface of the sun. Blood whooshed through my veins, thumping out the erratic heartbeat that had started the second the words had left his mouth.
I’d drive to tell Tyler tonight. I squeezed my eyes shut. He’d be crushed. That devastating disappointment that only came from the people closest to you letting you down. I clutched at my chest, the ache growing, burning, searing me.
I’d trusted Leo with not only my future, but Tyler’s.
“Zara.” Leo’s voice assaulted my ears like drumming on a metal trashcan. The crowd leaving the room was thick and heavy with excited conversation. Their acquisition would mean even more expansion. Even more money. Maybe there was something else I could do. I could sell the furniture. As quickly as that flashed into my head I dismissed it. I’d rather sleep in an empty apartment than know that I owed anything. I’d have to find another way to pay for it. I’d hung everything on the hope of winning this job.
Every beautiful piece of furniture was going back to Leo. I’d slept on the floor before. Besides, it would be less to deal with when I was evicted. Maybe I could crash with Stella for a bit. That would give me more time to set up a payment plan and figure something out for Tyler. I could donate plasma. And maybe my eggs to make extra cash.
Pushing my chair away from the table, spots danced in front of my face. Was this what it felt like just before you passed out? The door to the conference room opened again. Everything was drowned out by the desperation filling my veins.
Leo broke through the haze of doom I was trapped in. “Zara.” But I couldn’t be the least bit relieved. My rescuer had turned into my villain.
“What did you do?”
“I had to call the guys in after you left. Hunter gave me a tip, so I redid the whole thing. I was up until 5am working on it with them.”
“You let him handle this?” Bill’s glower drilled into me. Valerie stood behind him with her arms crossed, wearing a smug look of satisfaction that turned my stomach and fanned the flames of embarrassment glowing like a beacon in my chest. “You said you had this handled, Zara.”
“I told you, Daddy. She wasn’t up to it.” Her snide voice was nails driven into my eardrums.
“It seems you were right.” Bill’s disapproving tone barely scratched the surface of the groundswell of emotions eating away at me. “This is unacceptable, especially since this could’ve led to a partnership with the Waverly Group.” Bill seethed, keeping the simmering rant low enough for my ears only. “You’re fired.”
No crying. Breathe. A shortness of breath threatened to collapse my lungs. Valerie had said far worse to me, but that didn’t hurt nearly as much as Leo’s hammering the final nail into my coffin with his words.
The certainty in my future. My job. Leo. All of it had all been set alight, and I was standing outside the raging inferno, trying to decide whether to throw myself on the blaze next.
I wanted to slam my hands over my ears and run screaming from the room. All the times he’d whispered his sweet words, ones I’d always felt were only for other women, in my ear at night. His hands trailing along my side, tickling my skin. Had it been worth it? Had it been worth letting him into my bed and my heart?
Tunnel vision took over. All the sounds in the room dulled and morphed into Charlie Brown adult speak.
One final sneer from Valerie and Bill and they were gone. My heart thumped against my ribs and my stomach threatened to revolt. I’d need to keep whatever I’d eaten down since it would be some time before I’d have a full plate again.
“Zara.” Leo stood beside me.
I stared at him, almost unable to place his face in the fog in my brain. My body wasn’t my own. My arms and legs wouldn’t move. The plan I’d just made with a fragment of a glimmer of hope had died. Now I had zero months and no chance of keeping Tyler in school and my head above water.
Leo cupped his arm around my elbow and walked me toward the exit. I stumbled and he wrapped his arm around my waist, guiding me out of the room.
He led me to the stairwell, pressing the exit bar and letting it close behind us. There was a temperature drop the second we stepped over the threshold and it snapped me out of my stupor. The weight what had built up in the last three-and-a-half minutes crashed into me like a time-lapse video slammed into my face.