Been There Done That (Leffersbee #1) - Hope Ellis Page 0,131
This is about me, now? Me being too stupid?”
“I never used that word,” he said, sharply. “And this was not about you, it was all about them and the joke of a standard they were holding you to. I wasn’t going to stand around and wait to see if they did what was right by you. After all that you’ve done for these people, why should you be a puppet, dancing on their strings, just to keep your job?” He shook his head and his lips thinned. “No. No one is going to take advantage of you, use you, on my watch. I just cut the strings—that’s all—so you could keep doing what you wanted to do, but on your terms this time.”
“So, you took it upon yourself to what? Deliver your own justice?”
“I saw how hard you worked. Not just for the job, but for the people. For your patients, for your employees, for the causes you want to advance. All while you neglected yourself. I wasn’t going to wait around for them to acknowledge you and what you’ve done.”
“Well, they did.”
“What?” He frowned.
“They did see my effort. Peter said they voted to approve my tenure three days before you approached them.”
His derisive laughter sent a chill down my spine. “And you believe that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s a clever solution, I’ll give him that. He tells you they were already set to give you tenure just to cover all the bases. Just in case. Meanwhile, they still cash in on the money. He says he’s not taking it, but just wait. You’ll see.”
Stricken, I grasped the back of my neck. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Peter’s explanation might have been his own volley in a mercenary battle.
Was Nick right? Had I really earned it, or was it just a strategic move on Peter’s part?
“Zora, I love you, but you’ve got to see this the way I do, the way the other folks at the table do when they’re gambling away your life and livelihood. Life, winning, it’s all about having control. Having the upper hand. Being the strongest negotiator at the table. It’s a test of wills. It’s a game.”
My stomach plummeted. “Was I a game?”
He frowned, his mouth working. “What do you mean?”
“Was I a game? You came back into town with the upper hand. All the power, all the money, all the influence. Knowing exactly what everyone needed. How hard up the school and hospital are for money, how worried I was. And look where we are today. All of us, eating out of your hand.”
“No, that’s not—”
“You’ve been gone all this time. You waited for years, years, until you showed up again and decided you wanted me back. And God, I just fell for it. I let you manipulate me again, just like you did all those years ago when I didn’t even know it. You put me on the back burner, did whatever you wanted to do in the meantime, and then when you snapped your fingers . . .” I shook my head at my own gullibility. “I fell right in line.”
Nick rushed over to me and I knocked his hands away.
“Do you realize what you’ve done? Asking my boss, my employer to lie to me? Trying to pay for my promotion? Do you realize how you’ve sullied my reputation? How those administrators, my colleagues, will look at me now?”
His lips thinned. “You don’t even know that you want to stay there, and they don’t deserve you. You’ve said yourself that you’re starting to have second thoughts, new ideas about how you might—”
“Then why did you do it?” A horrible thought occurred to me. “Did you just plan on leaving again anyway? Was this all some sick experiment to see if I’d fall for you, then you’d go on your merry way? What was this? Pity?”
I looked at him as he stood before me, color high, breathing fast.
He’d never lied about who he was. He had told me that money and influence, power, were the most important things to him.
I loved this man, loved him more than I’d ever thought I was capable of loving someone not in my own family. He’d shown me a happiness, a possibility, a way of life I’d never thought possible. I hadn’t even known how much I wanted it, craved it.
But I wanted myself, too. I wanted to excavate, to discover who Zora was and what she wanted, for once, finally.