Page 18 of One More Kiss
“I-it just slipped out,” she stuttered, drawing into a ball.
“You ruined everything! First, you couldn’t switch out that stupid girl’s birth control correctly. She would be pregnant by now if you’d done what I told you to. Now this? We’re going to lose hundreds of millions because of you.”
Tears spilled down Nicole’s face. “I did switch them! If she’s not pregnant by now, then she’s probably infertile. That, or she and Nash aren’t fucking like rabbits as you suspected.”
A chill slithered down my spine as what they were shouting about finally clicked in my head. The world around me narrowed, going dark at the edges. One minute, I was standing by the door with the other men. The next, I had my hands wrapped around Joseph’s throat as I held him against a wall.
“You sabotaged your own daughter’s birth control?” I snarled.
Sweat beaded on the bastard’s brow. “I didn’t—”
“He made me,” Nicole whined behind me. “He kept saying that if Delilah was pregnant with your baby, it wouldn’t matter if you married her or not. But I didn’t believe him when he said you were sneaking around with that little bitch. You would never be attracted to that mousy thing.”
Remembering how sick Lily had been that one morning, how tired and fragile she’d looked, I was the one who began to sweat. She was pregnant. Fuck, she was carrying my child in her belly, and she was all alone out there somewhere, thinking I didn’t love her.
None of this was how today was supposed to go.
I’d had so many plans.
I would have pretended to forget her birthday, and then this morning, I would have presented her with the signed documents that gave her fifty percent of the Royal Phoenix. While she was taking that in, I would have dropped to one knee and begged her to be my wife.
Feeling like I was going to puke, I released Joseph, letting him fall to the floor at my feet. “You have one hour. Take what you can pack in that time and get the fuck out of my sight. If I ever see either of you again, I’ll destroy you both.”
Nicole grasped my arm, her eyes pleading with me as she pouted out her bottom lip. “Please, Nash. I-I love you. It’s always been you. I only wanted to make you jealous with Joseph.” She pressed her body up against me, both her tits out now.
Nausea churning in my gut, skin crawling from her touch, I shook her off. “Get her the fuck out of my hotel. If anyone sees her within five hundred feet of the property, call the cops. There will be a restraining order on her and Joseph Royal by the end of the day for assault.”
“What?” Nicole screamed. “I didn’t touch anyone!”
“You tampered with Lily’s birth control pills. That’s assault with intent to do harm.” Sending her one last disgusted look, I warned, “If I were you, Nicole, I’d run as far and as fast as I could. Your reign is over. Joseph won’t have any money to keep you dripping in diamonds by the time I get done with him. He’ll be lucky to afford all the legal fees in hopes of keeping himself out of prison.”
Rubbing at his throat, Joseph stumbled unsteadily to his feet in surprise. “For what?”
“All those deals you intentionally lost the Royal Phoenix over the last several months? They were worth billions. I wasn’t going to pursue legal action against you for them because I knew you would be out of the company soon. But you not only tried to hurt Lily, you succeeded.” I stepped through the still-open door. “See you in court, motherfucker.”
* * *
Worry for Lily weighed me down as I entered Samuel’s office at nine o’clock. Winston sat across from his desk, one leg casually crossed over his opposing knee. Sam stood beside him, hands shoved into the pockets of his designer suit, jaw clenched as he glared at his father.
“Great, Phoenix is here. Can we get this shit over with? I have a packed schedule this morning and need to be in court right after lunch.”
Ignoring his petulant tone, I crossed to my lawyer’s desk. “Is it ready?”
Samuel nodded, opening the file on his desk and turning it around to show me. “Everything is exactly as you requested. I just need your signature in a few places, and it will be final.”
After scanning each page, I scrawled my name on the lines indicated, and then I picked up the leather binder, shoving it at Lily’s best friend. He squared up on me, eyes shooting pure hate at me.
“Read it,” I commanded.
“Fuck off, Phoenix.”
Fighting the urge to punch him in the face, I opened it to the first page and forced it under his nose. “Read it. All of it.” I glanced at Winston, who hadn’t moved. “Both of you.”
Rolling his eyes, Sam finally took the file and scanned over the contract his father had started drafting for me the same day Howard’s will had been read. With each line Sam read, his face morphed, until he looked like he’d been struck by a thunderbolt.
“Holy shit,” he breathed when he got to the last page. “You’re really doing this?”
“What?” Winston demanded, standing and taking the binder from the younger man. “Is this legit? How long have you been working on this?”