Simon had reminded her of what she had missed out on during her disastrous marriage to Gary. Her boss had been so attentive. So focused on making her feel beautiful and desirable. She hadn’t experienced that in so long that she had actually started to believe she didn’t deserve it. Gary’s thoughtlessness had almost wrecked her self-esteem. A handful of nights with Simon had made her re-examine her collapsed marriage. Made her vow to never put up with settling for a man like Gary ever again.
Now, she’d never be with a man like Simon either. Not with his eyes narrowed at her, a silent accusation in them. He had just told her that their time together had been the wrong choice. As agonizing as it was to have shut the door on anything real with him, knowing that he had moved on so quickly hurt more than anything.
“You seem to have taken the board meeting well,” he said, abruptly steering the subject back to business.
“I guess.” She ignored the regret that squeezed around her heart like a vise. “But this can’t be about me and my fears. My son is going to be affected by the media attention and doing things like releasing a statement might calm things down.”
“I can’t imagine how difficult something like this will be on your family.” He paused. “If you don’t want to switch departments, what do you want to do? Do you need me to set up some kind of security for you and your family?”
As touched as she was by his offer to help, she shook her head. “That’ll just make things harder on Finn. He’s been getting counseling and making a big deal about this by adding security will stress him out. His counselor wants us to avoid extra stress.”
“I didn’t know he was in counseling.” The expression on his face softened. “Heather, I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t shown up to your house that night none of this would have happened.”
After getting kidnapped by his own father, she had done everything she could to make sure her son was okay. Taking Finn to a child psychologist seemed to help, but she hated seeing her son in any kind of pain. Hated how much the divorce was still affecting him.
Guilt ate away at her. Finn deserved better. Somehow, she had to make things right. Make things okay.
She wished she could tell Simon what she was feeling, but after the board meeting sharing her personal life with him wasn’t a good idea. He was her boss. Anything more than that would lead to further scandal.
“It’s not your fault. Gary’s probably to blame for this getting out anyway,” she finally said.
“I wouldn’t mention him to the board,” Simon said icily. She caught her breath, until he finished. “They’d only blame you even more, and I refuse to give them more ammo against you.”
“I think the first thing I can do is get in touch with Gary and figure out how much he told the media,” she said. “That way we’ll have a better chance of getting ahead of the story.”
“You sure you want to do that?” he asked. “He doesn’t seem like the most stable guy. I don’t want to get you into any trouble.”
She put her hands up, trying to reassure him. “Gary has a temper, but he isn’t a danger to me. And I’ll talk to him on the phone in my office, so I’ll be avoiding a scene.”
Her boss nodded. “You can go talk to him while I make some calls to reporters. If I squeeze hard enough someone will tell me what’s going on. Right now, Dover can’t afford bad press while the new product launch is going on. We have to contain this story. No matter what it takes.”
AS SOON AS SHE WAS done working out a strategy with Simon, she went straight to her small office.
Gary was at work, but if she was lucky maybe she’d be able to catch him on a coffee break. Heather took a seat at her desk, grabbed her phone, and called her ex-husband.
Her heart hammered harder and harder with each ring. She had been flippant about Gary’s temper to ease Simon’s concerns, but arguing with her ex-husband had always been a stressful experience.
“Hey, Heather,” he said, answering the phone like they were old friends. He only spoke like that when he wanted something.
“Did you talk to the press about me and Simon?” There was no point in beating around the bush. He’d only get suspicious if she didn’t just come out and say it.