Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
I want so badly for it to be a good sign.
We need to talk. We need to stop ignoring the writing on the wall and pretending we can live in this bubble for the rest of our lives. Because we can’t. Our relationship will have complications, especially under the circumstances, and we need to work them out.
I need to stop punishing Luke for other people’s sins.
Hopefully, he will forgive me for my knee-jerk reaction. He didn’t deserve to be placed in the same basket as my dad and Tom.
I make a second cup of coffee and sit at the table with my phone. It finally powers on after charging all night. The pings begin immediately. I want to turn it back off, but I have to pull myself back to the land of the living. To the land of reality.
My inbox is a sea of unread messages. The sheer volume makes me anxious, but I’m determined to go through them. It’s the only way to know what’s going on in my business—especially now that I don’t have a business manager.
I take a sip of my coffee when my phone rings. I touch the screen to decline it, but my finger slips against the green one first.
Fuck.
“Hello?” I say, tapping the speakerphone.
Please be a wrong number.
“Are you finally going to answer your damn phone?” My dad’s voice freezes me in place. It’s hostile. Ice-cold. Furious. “What the hell are you doing, Laina?”
“I’ll get your attorneys to work, but you’ll need to touch base with them before they’ll do too much. And no one will be alerted until you give the signal.”
Surely, Anjelica didn’t tell him my plans …
“I just got off the fucking phone with my attorney, and do you know what he said?” Dad booms. “He said that you were firing me as your business manager?”
Oh fuck.
I don’t know how to respond, and I don’t know what to say. I thought I had time to put together a response before he found out.
“Is that true?” He laughs hatefully. “Are you going to try to pretend to be a big girl and take care of every facet of your business—the one that I built from the ground up? You don’t have a fucking clue where to start. And do you think anyone is going to do business with you after you just humiliated yourself with that farce of a wedding?”
Today is your lucky day.
I already know someone who wants to work with me. And I’ve heard from two good men, men I respect, that my actions showed bravery and wisdom.
“Maybe if you would’ve learned how to talk to me with the slightest bit of respect, we could’ve worked something out,” I say. “But you sealed the deal when you played golf with Tom, and he gave that asshole statement about us still getting married. What the hell was that?”
“That was called keeping you from destroying your life.”
“No, Dad, I think that was called covering your own ass.”
“I’m trying to keep your options open, Laina. It’s taken everything I can manage to get Tom even to consider talking to you again after you humiliated him in front of the whole world.”
I laugh. “Why would you do that? I don’t want to talk to him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s not your problem anymore. You’re not on my payroll, and it sure as hell isn’t like you act like my father.”
“Do not talk to me that way.”
I spring to my feet. “No, how about you don’t talk to me this way. How about you don’t talk to me at all. Your loyalties lie elsewhere, and that’s fine. But keep them over there.”
“You can’t just fire me. I built that damn company.”
“That’s funny. The papers to terminate your employment are already in the works.”
I can feel his anger pulsing through the telephone. “Listen to me, you ungrateful, entitled little bitch. I’ve put too much time and energy and money into this thing for you to drop me off on the side of the road like I’m disposable.”
Ungrateful, entitled little bitch? That’s how my father sees me?
Oh, fuck that.
“Do you want to know what’s hilarious?” I pace the floor. “It’s hilarious that you think that I owe you anything. You’ve taken from me in every way. Financially. Emotionally. You’ve stolen my energy and almost worked me to death. You’ve depleted me in every way so you can get ahead in life. This happens to people every day, and most people aren’t in a position to do something about it. But I am. Kick rocks, asshole.”
“You realize that your business was built by me, right?”
“How? Because without me, there is no business. I write the music. I record the songs. I sell the albums, and I sell out the stadiums and sell the merch. So my business was built by me. Whatever you’ve taken from me—”