The Billionaire's Gamble

“You can’t,” he says quietly. “You can’t fight this. It’s impossible.”

He turns and walks away and doesn’t come back. I hear the door to the penthouse open and shut, and the silence in his wake is loud. He was telling me that I can’t do a thing, but why did it feel like he wasn’t talking to me? And why did he leave?

I go to sleep in Nolan’s bed. He doesn’t come back until the middle of the night, crawling softly under the blankets. He pulls me against him, and I pretend that I’m not awake. I feel the kiss he places against my hair, and there’s a strange glow in my stomach from the way he’s cradling me. But even with this, I feel there’s a distance between us now. Something that wasn’t there before, and it all has to do with why he left.

18

Dani

Nolan is gone before I wake up. There’s no note from him telling me when he’ll be back or if he’s made plans for us today. I send him a text but he doesn’t respond. There’s a cold feeling in my gut, and I’m worried that something is really wrong.

Kelly comes out of her room around noon, and she looks like death. “Hey,” she says.

“Hi. How are you feeling?”

She rolls her eyes. “Super.”

“Got your attitude back I see.” I give her a teasing smile.

She ignores me, going to make coffee.

“Can I ask you something?” Now that the situation has presented itself, I can ask her something I’ve wanted to ask her for years.

“Sure.”

“I know that Jacob leaving is hard. But have you really been happy?”

She leans against the counter in a way that’s so familiar, but it’s odd to see it in Nolan’s kitchen. “Yeah,” she says, “I was happy. Maybe not the happiest, but it’s hard to say that you’re unhappy when you’ve never known anything else.”

“Well—”

“I know how you feel about him.” She holds out a hand. “I know that he wasn’t the best husband, and I know we had issues, but we’re married. We’ve been married for seven years. Even if it’s the worst marriage in the world, you don’t end it without some kind of pain. Your life is literally being ripped in two.”

She hands me a cup of coffee and I accept it. “I understand. But will you promise me something?”

“Maybe.”

“Promise me that you’ll try to find what really makes you happy.”

Kelly gives me a sad smile. “I’ll do my best.” She hands me her phone. “Jacob sent me a copy of the paperwork. I thought it was just to rub it in my face, but I guess since my name is also on the house he wants to cover his legal bases.”

I take it and tap on the attachment in the email. Immediately my whole body goes cold. “This is who bought the house?”

“Yeah, why?”

The paperwork says Platinum Enterprises, but in tiny letters just below that are the words ‘a subsidiary of Coldwater Bank.’ And there in the corner of the page is the curving C logo I’ve become familiar with the past few days. “Nothing,” I say. “I just thought I recognized the name of the company, that’s all.” I feel sick. Did Nolan do this? Did he know? I might throw up.

She takes a sip of her coffee, and I give her the phone back.

“Do you think you’ll be okay here for a little while? I told Sage I’d run by the office and have lunch with her.”

“Sure,” Kelly says. “I’m sure I’ll find something to do.”

“Thanks,” I say, reaching out and touching her hand. “I’ll be back soon.”

I’m practically sprinting into the Coldwater Bank building, moving so fast that Derek is having a hard time keeping up. I pound the elevator button, pressing it multiple times even though I know that’s not going to do me any good. The elevator ride to the top floor feels like the longest of my life. I have to know. I have to know if he knew that his company was buying Angelica and said nothing. If he did this, then Nolan Coldwater isn’t the person I thought he was.

I power walk down the hallway. Sage sees me, and she tells me to stop, tries to get up in time to stop me, but I’m faster. I burst past the doors to Nolan’s office and find myself face to face with the Silver Lions. I look around and Nolan is nowhere to be found. Fine, if he’s not here, I can tell these bastards what I really think about them and the way they’ve preyed on my family. “You all make me sick,” I say. “You think you can just buy anything you want, with no consequences whatsoever? Maybe you can, but that doesn’t mean you’re not total bastards for doing it.”