Right on cue, the color leached from Emily’s face. “Then you know how much I—”
“I do. But please don’t do something you’ll regret for the rest of your life, Emily. Once you go down that path, there’s no—”
“I don’t need another adult preaching me.” Tears filled her blue gaze. “All I want is to see my parents.”
Olivia clutched the girl’s hand, memories she didn’t want to remember swarming her, the helpless, stifling feeling that had been a constant companion. Every decision made for her, every choice taken out of her hands, from something as trivial as dancing classes that she’d hated, to something as important as what she remembered about her own mother.
Every nerve in her wanted to help Emily escape. Because, Alexander would never give his mother another chance. Instead, she forced herself to concentrate on how much she had regretted her own actions when it had been too late.
“I understand, I really do. But there’s a fundamental difference between you and me.” She struggled to speak through the lump in her throat. “Your brother might be an arrogant, controlling ass but he loves you. I’ve no doubt about that.
“If I had had someone who truly loved me like that, I like to think my life would have turned out differently.” Olivia smiled through the tears clogging up her vision, at the void opening up inside her. Her heart wept for the teenager she had been, for the girl who had never had the chance. “That I wouldn’t have made a mess out of it like I have. And you do. I’m not asking you to let Alexander walk all over you, but don’t do something that will ruin your life to get back at him.”
She moved to the seat next to Emily and huddled toward her. She had no idea if anything she had said made sense to the younger girl, but Liv was damned if she let Alexander browbeat her into not caring. Especially in the coming days, knowing what Alexander had planned for her, Emily was going to need a friend. “Tell you what. How about anytime you need to blow steam, or have an I-hate-Alexander-King session, you call me?”
A smile split Emily’s mouth, and Olivia swallowed. She looked beyond Emily to Alexander, the pregnant silence from him sending a shiver up her spine. Their gazes met and held, her chest hurting with each breath she pulled in.
“Believe it or not, I’m the founding member of that club,” she said, wondering when, if ever, her heart would learn.
* * *
Olivia thanked the receptionist on the ground floor of King Towers and walked toward the seating area, the tap-tap of her high-heeled boots an echo in her ears. She checked her reflection in the gleaming coffeepot as she poured herself a cup. A neat French plait held her unruly hair back. A white dress shirt added the touch of professionalism she needed to add to her unconventional long skirt and leather boots.
Her stomach a jumble of knots, she smoothed the nonexistent creases out of her black skirt. After everything that had happened with Alexander, she’d almost given up. She had done that before, had let her personal life, her impulses cloud her professional judgment.
For the first time in her life, she had come fully prepared, worked her backside off to be ready. And had worked ten times harder to convince Nate that she should be allowed to pitch.
She had used every bit of logic at her disposal to achieve it. LifeStyle Inc. and by extension, King Enterprises’ flawless reputation for fair business practices, which really had been the easy part seeing that Nate was obsessed with Alexander’s immaculate reputation and business acumen, and her own efforts in the past six months to forge herself a career, how hard she had worked on the presentation, how she was the one best equipped to make it a success, it had been little short of begging.
And the more she had tried to convince him, the more she had realized the truth in Alexander’s words. She had been too ready to give in, to walk away. Only the need to prove him wrong had fueled her willpower. He must have known how his disparaging words would motivate her.
She was ushered inside a vast conference room. She connected her laptop to the screen and checked her settings. A huge rectangular table stood at the other end. She opened a bottle of water from the side table, and took a drink. She switched on the remote and her presentation appeared on the screen.
One by one, a few executives, all dressed in identical black suits, entered the room. A bead of sweat ran between her shoulder blades as she scanned each face, her stomach twisting on itself. She had worked hard to get here and she wasn’t going to let anyone derail her.