he said.
“Funny. I don’t remember asking to be humiliated in front of my boss and the committee.”
Archer reached for me, and I held up a hand, using it and the laser beams firing from my eyes to warn him that he’d better not touch me right now. “Don’t you see? This is for the best. If I bow out of the competition, you’ll get to design the complex. That way, you won’t end up resenting me for taking away your project.”
The words were a sledgehammer to the chest. I clutched the spot over my heart, not that it helped with the radiating pain. Who would’ve guessed that I’d be wishing I was a ghost no one could see?
Hell, I’d rather he disclosed he’d been conning me since the very beginning. That I’d fallen for his ruse hook, line, and sinker. Because this…?
The pain permeated muscle tissue and dug its claws into bone. I blinked, refusing to give in to the rising tears, no matter how badly they insisted I let them free. “You… You don’t believe in me.”
His face dropped, and his hands were on my shoulders before I could react. “That’s not it at all. I thought about it a lot the past few days, and there’s no way it wouldn’t mess with our relationship.”
I stepped out of his grasp, praying the anger I’d felt moments ago would return and overtake the avalanche of agony that threatened to bury me alive. “Admit it. You think that if you gave your all during the presentation, the same way you would’ve done before you and I crossed lines, that I wouldn’t have a shot at winning.”
Archer opened his mouth, floundering for a way to respond, and goddamn him for making me think he was different. “Penelope, it’s nothing against you. This set of blueprints is just the best set I’ve ever designed.”
Shit, the tears were coming, blurring his features. I wished it made this easier, but it fucking didn’t. “Of all the people who’ve disregarded my ideas or treated me as less than, this one hurts the most. How could you do this to me? To us?”
“I decided to do it for us. So that we can be together.”
Sardonic laughter burst from a deep, unhinged place inside of me. “Then you don’t know me at all. I could’ve handled losing to you after giving it my all. I would’ve wrapped my arms around you and congratulated you, in spite of my disappointment. I would’ve toasted to your success and been your biggest cheerleader as you watched your vision for the complex take shape.
“But this?” My voice cracked, and a fissure formed in my heart, gaping wider with each beat, as though it sensed as I did, that it’d never be the same again. “This is what I’ll always resent you for, Archer. This is what I won’t be able to get over. I could never be with someone who doesn’t believe in me or consider me his equal.”
It took every ounce of my resolve to lift my chin. I sniffed, forcing myself to smother any signs of weakness. “Now, get back in that conference room and deliver your presentation. It better be all out, too, or our relationship won’t be the only thing destroyed by your lack of faith in me. I’ll hire Cat, and she and I will spend every waking minute finding a way to destroy you as thoroughly as you just destroyed my heart.”
29
Archer
Well, fuck.
I’d never quite understood that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions until about five minutes ago. I’d stewed for two days straight. Polished my presentation. Considered trashing it entirely.
Luckily, I’d studied it to the point that I could deliver it on autopilot. Not that anything about today was lucky. With nothing else to do, I launched into my presentation, gesturing toward my blueprints as I went through all the ins and outs.
Yesterday afternoon, as I’d been making last minute tweaks, I’d picked up Mom’s book on meditation. Immediately, I heard my dad’s voice in my head, telling me how sensitive I’d gotten after spending a month with mom, and discarded all the zen crap she surrounded herself with as BS.
Only to pick up the book after another hour of stewing.
It felt weird as hell to focus on my breath, open my heart, and visualize my desires. But it did help shut out all the inner turmoil and narrow in on what I wanted more than anything.
Penelope.
The woman currently looking