Chapter Twenty-One

Caitlyn had spent her week buried in paperwork, but at least the sky hadn’t fallen. She’d had some uncomfortable conversations with the FDA, and her pride had certainty taken a beating, but nothing worse had come for them.

At least, it hadn’t before her VP slammed into her office.

“Have you seen this?” he asked, tossing the paper down on her desk.

“What is it?” But she knew even as she picked up the opened page what she’d see.

Brooks Corp Set to Hand Out Poison.

“That’s dramatic,” she said, the headline all she could see.

“The article is even worse. It’s utterly damning, with very little of our side presented. They left out anything that would have given this a positive spin.”

“Can we go after the paper for libel?”

“Already made the call and learned some interesting information when I did.”

“Tell me.” She tossed the paper onto her desk.

“The tipoff came from a very specific source.”

Ice spread through her. “Who?”

“Reid Enterprises.”

The air left her in a rush.

“Irene Reid apparently pushed them to publish. She wanted them to…”

Jeremy kept talking, but all she heard was a buzzing in her ears. Damien had done this to her? How had he found out?

And how long had he known?

She’d slept in his arms last night. He would have known then that her world was about to come crashing down on her this morning. And what had he done?

Nothing.

The bastard.

“I need to go,” she said, standing so abruptly Jeremy stumbled back.

“Go? We need you. This is a disaster.”

“One that you can handle for an hour while I go confront the orchestrator of our nightmare.”

“You can’t just barge in on Damien Reid.”

“Watch me.” Grabbing her purse and the damning article, she strode for the door. “Put pressure on the paper to either print a retraction or a correction. Then get the PR team together and start them on a press release we’ll put out this afternoon. Let’s get as much ahead of the onslaught coming for us as we can.”

She thundered from her office, a woman on a mission. The only thought in her mind was to nurture her anger and avoid the despair clawing at the edges of her consciousness. If she let it in, if she acknowledged just how badly he’d wounded her, she’d never get through the meeting that was coming.

Everything’s over.

She couldn’t be with someone who’d done this to her. He’d lied to her face then done what he’d always threatened.

Crushed her.

If Brooks Corp survived the scandal, it would come out of this a different company. And she’d come out of it a very different CEO. One who’d learned her lesson about mixing business with pleasure.

A car was waiting for her when she hit the street. Care of Jeremy, no doubt.

It took next to no time traveling the distance to Reid Enterprises. Once there she made a beeline for Damien’s office. She knew where it was, and she didn’t give a damn about the secretary that ran after her, trying to deny her entrance.

“Back off,” she said to the woman before slamming into Damien’s office.

He glanced up at her from his desk, a welcoming smile starting on his face.

“How dare you,” she snarled. “You lied to me, you scheming bastard.”

The smile was wiped clean. “What’s happened?”

“Like you don’t know.” She strode to his desk while he waved the hovering secretary away. “Going to pretend you didn’t do this?” she asked, throwing the paper at him.

Damien caught the flurry of pages and inspected them. When his gaze landed on the Brooks article, he stiffened, his hands crinkling the thin paper.

“I didn’t do this,” he said, jerking his head up. “Caitlyn, this wasn’t me.”

She laughed, a hollow sound. “We called the paper. Irene was behind this.”

An artic expression chilled his eyes. “My mother set this in motion.”

“And I’m going to bet every last dollar I have that she told you what she was up to.”

He slashed a hand through the air. “I shut it down. I swear to you.”

“So you did know,” she said. “And you didn’t tell me.”

“Please—”

She stepped back when he reached for her, freezing him in place.

“We both knew the deal. The companies come first. Can’t say you didn’t warn me.” Her hands fisted by her sides. “How did you find out?”

He sighed. “My mother found out from a mole she had at the lab, but that’s not how I knew.”

“How then?”

His expression was tortured. “I saw the file at your house.”

The betrayal blindsided her. For a blessed moment, the words might as well have been in Greek for all she understood them. But when they finally computed, there was no stopping the heartbreaking pain that swept through her.

He’d used her. Lied to her. She’d welcomed him into her home, and he’d used the intimacy to his advantage.

“What else did you learn?” she demanded. “What other secrets did you steal from me while I was stupid enough to think I actually mattered to you?”

“Stop it,” he said, jumping forward to catch her arm. “I know you’re upset, but let’s take a minute here.”

“I don’t need a minute,” she said as she tore her arm from his grip. “I need you out of my life.”

His expression shuttered. “You’re damning me for something my mother did.”

“Family is family. If Irene did this, she was acting in your name.”

“I found the file, Caitlyn. I knew the trouble you were in before my mother came to me, and what did I do? Nothing.”

“You let someone else do your dirty work. You don’t get good-guy points for that.”

“When my mother came and told me about the impending scandal she was going to cause, I had a choice. I could have let her do it with my blessing and taken down your company in the process. Instead, I told her I’d cut her off if she published.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Clearly she thought I was bluffing.” His face looked like it had been carved from granite. “I wasn’t.”

“That doesn’t help my company.”

“I know.”

She shook her head. “This will end us.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “There could be a way—”

“There isn’t,” she cut him off. “This was my mistake and I’ll pay the piper for it. Couldn’t you have just waited this out? Did you have to make yourself the instrument of my downfall?”

“I didn’t want this.”

“But it happened.” This time when the pain clawed at her, she had no defense to hold it back. Swallowing through a tight throat, she stared at the man she loved and realized this might be the last conversation they ever had. “We always knew there was only one way for this to end.”

Something close to panic lit his gaze. “Don’t.”

“I can’t be with a man who would lie to me. I can’t trust someone who would invade my privacy. I would never have done that to you. Not ever.”

“I made a mistake.”

“I know the feeling.” Her fingernails gouged into her palms as she held back the urge to launch herself at him.

“Please, give us another chance. I want so much more for us than this.”

So do I.

But those dreams had crumbled to dust under the full force of his betrayal. She’d been ready to spend the rest of her life with him.

And he’d only ever viewed her as a means to an end.

“Did you plan this, that first day when you showed up on my doorstep after the conference? We wouldn’t sell to you. Were you just biding your time until you found something in my home terrible enough to take us out of the competition?”

“No. I swear to God, I am not who you think I am. I would never do that to you.”

She scoffed. “Except you did.”

“Let me deal with my mother, and then I’ll come over tonight. We can talk.”

“Not interested,” she said, gathering her strength.

“We have to find a way through this.”

“No, we don’t. I need to do everything I can to save my company, and that has nothing to do with you.”

“What if I could help? I’ve been thinking of a solution—”

“I don’t want it,” she said. “And I don’t want you. We’re done.”

“I refuse to accept that.”

“Too bad. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s that wishing things were different doesn’t change anything.”

With a last look at the man she was going to miss for the rest of her life, she headed for the exit.

“No,” she heard him snarl seconds before he twirled her up against the door she was trying to escape out of.

“Listen to me,” he demanded. “You owe me that.”

“I owe you nothing,” she said, pushing against his hold.

“We’ve known each other for years.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“We have a relationship.”

“Had.”

“We’ve spent every night together for months.”

“A mistake.”

His lip twisted in anger. “What about the fact that I’m in love with you? Do you have a snarky comeback for that?”

No, she didn’t.

Her mind froze. She stopped trying to escape his hold. Instead she stared up at him and read nothing but sincerity on his face.

“What did you say?” she breathed.

“I love you. I have for a while now. I think you’ve been more important to me than I wanted to acknowledge for a long time. That’s why I asked for a room close to you. That’s why I couldn’t walk away from you. Why I invited you to dinner. I always wanted more than we had before the conference.”

He cupped her face. “And then we fell into bed together and I tried to convince myself I was over the idea of you. But one night wasn’t even close to enough. I’ll never be over you, Caitlyn. You’re it for me.”

“You shouldn’t be saying this.”

“Why? Because it will make it harder for you to leave me? Good.”

Fate can’t be this cruel.

Her heart cracked into even more pieces. “If this is a trick…”

He cursed. “Do you really think so little of me?”

“I don’t know what to think. That’s the problem. A week ago, I would have sworn you’d never have gone through my things. I thought at the very least you wouldn’t have resorted to such underhanded tricks to go after my company. If I can be so wrong about those things, how can I trust my feelings?” She took a step back. “I have to rely on facts, and the fact is, you betrayed me.”

“Don’t do this.”

“Stay the hell out of my life, Reid. We’re over.”

She left the room with the same fury she’d entered it.

And tried to ignore the desolation on his face.