“Blackmail? Oh, no, I simply think it’s an interesting contradiction. Tell me, when you’re finished sleeping with Miss Morgan here, will you make her look insane like her sister? Will you drive her out of Nashville as well?”
I’m having trouble focusing. I feel like the air is being sucked out of the room. “Patton?” My voice is small. “What is he talking about?”
“I did nothing wrong.” A crack is in his voice. “Renée had issues…”
“Yes,” Jerry chuckles and keeps going. “Issues she brought to you to fix. Issues that threatened your old boys club.”
“You hypocrite.” My voice cuts through the thick tension. “You’re mad because you grabbed my ass repeatedly and Patton sent you here to avoid a lawsuit.”
Jerry’s eyes flash to me. “The hypocrite, Raquel, is your boyfriend. Why don’t you ask him what he did to your sister when his beloved Marley set his sights on her. He sent me out of town? He drove your sister to the nuthouse. Then he ruined her reputation w
ith all his CEO friends. She couldn’t get a job in Nashville if her name was Dolly Fucking Parton.”
My heart is beating out of my chest. I want to stand up and shout at Jerry to shut up and stop talking about things he doesn’t understand. Patton would never do that. Only…
Renée’s words, her strange silence when I told her I was sleeping with him. Her withdrawal. I hate him… He’s the devil… These are things my mild-mannered sister never says about anybody. Oh, God, please say it’s not true.
The nausea in my stomach tells me I’m afraid it is.
Patton’s eyes are flinty. “Clean out your desk. You’re finished here.”
“With pleasure. I got a better offer anyway—with Braden.”
Patton’s jaw flexes. “Then why…?”
Jerry leans close, spitting the words. “Because this time, you don’t get away with it.” With that, he turns on his heel and strides to the door. “Oh, and no realtors are coming. I cancelled our meeting first thing this morning. Good luck establishing your West Coast division.”
He slams the door, and silence falls over the room. It’s so silent, I can hear the second hand ticking on the clock above the door.
I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train. I’m breathing fast, trying to make sense of everything Jerry said. “Patton?” My voice breaks.
He doesn’t answer immediately. He’s silent, and his silence speaks volumes.
“Please explain what he said about my sister.”
Dark eyes rise to mine, and I see guilt in them. “I didn’t know how to have this conversation with you. I didn’t know what to say.”
“What did you do?” I’m shaking uncontrollably, but somehow my voice is level.
“I protected my friend.”
“From what?” Protective anger twists in my chest. “A young woman?”
I think about my sister and what a bright, aspiring college graduate she was. I remember her getting this job and being so excited to join corporate America. Then I remember her eighteen months later, hiding in her apartment, refusing to return to work.
“She never filed a formal complaint. She asked me to talk to him, to make him stop…” He looks at the table as if he’s replaying the scene in his mind. “I’d only been CEO a few years. I was still fighting with my dad for control. The last thing I needed was a Marley scandal.”
I feel the blood draining from my face. “He raped her?”
“No.” His eyes cut to mine, and then he blinks down like he can’t hold my gaze. “God, no. I don’t think it went that far.”
“You don’t think?” I’m on my feet, my voice growing louder.
“There were no witnesses… It was all very unclear.”
“It seems crystal clear to me. You protected your friend at the cost of breaking my sister. Then you destroyed her career.”
“Jerry exaggerated. I don’t have that kind of power.” His hand flexes on the table. “I simply let her go. That’s all. I didn’t destroy her career.”