smiled with the whitest teeth, the darkest skin, and the kindest eyes.
And I believed him. It wasn’t the gun on his hip or his constant vigilance. I trusted him because, at gut level, I knew he was one of the good guys. He had my back.
“I don’t know what to do.” Do I go back inside? Do I try to do this sober? Or do I self-medicate and fade away? “I don’t know where to go from here.”
“Does this feel like rock bottom?”
“Yeah.”
“Then there’s only one direction to go.”
Up.
Missing Magnus was a painful way to grow up. He wasn’t a mistake. I would never regret the time I’d had with him.
He’d taught me how to live and let live, how to make every moment count, how to be more than what I was, how to experience what I learned, how to be taller and stronger for the struggle.
He taught me that the best things in life didn’t come easy.
He taught me how to love.
CHAPTER 37
TINSLEY
Why was my mother looking at me like that?
I sat across the boardroom table from her, meeting her stare for stare. Her gaze rarely spent this much time on me. Maybe I had something on my dress?
I glanced down at the starched white fabric. Pristine. Perfect. I was dressed for business today. We all were.
The boardroom belonged to the Kensingtons. Situated on the top floor of their corporate office, it overlooked the glinting steel of downtown Manhattan.
My family occupied half of the long table—my mother, Winny, Perry, Viv, Elaine, Keaton, and all our assistants and lawyers. Galen stood near the wall behind me.
The other half of the table sat empty, awaiting the Kensington family and their legal team. They’d called us here to make the final arrangements for the merger.
Tucker graduated from St. John de Brebeuf last month and was off gallivanting across Europe. I hadn’t been allowed to attend his ceremony. My mother didn’t want me near the school for obvious reasons.
My graduation had been a quiet affair. I received a digital copy of my diploma. Galen and I opened a bottle of wine, which he ended up drinking by himself.
It’d been six months since I’d seen Magnus, and the pain was still as raw as the day I’d left. I was surviving, but I wasn’t living. I was barely breathing.
Perry sat beside me, speaking in low tones with Winny next to him. My mother hadn’t stopped staring at me.
“What?” I squared my shoulders. “You’re freaking me out.”
“You don’t look like my daughter.”
The room fell quiet, and I glanced around at all the faces that so closely resembled mine. Pale blue eyes, blond hair, fair skin—the genes ran strong in my family.
“Just say it.” I fisted my hands on my lap. “Say whatever you’re thinking if it’ll make you stop staring at me like—”
“You’re sad.” My mother stated the fact as if remarking on the weather.
Jesus Christ. I’d been fucking miserable for six months. “You’re just now noticing?”
“I notice everything, Tinsley.” She drummed her manicured nails on the table, holding the room in suspense. Then she stilled. “The Kensingtons need this merger as much as we do. Perhaps more. The Morellis have been trying to buy them out for years, undercutting them at every turn and offering deals that would leave the family in ruins.”
I didn’t know that detail. I’d never thought to ask. I only knew that if we didn’t merge, the Constantine dynasty would lose the strategic Kensington holdings to the Morellis, thereby giving the Morellis a stronger position in Bishop’s Landing. In our cutthroat world, if we didn’t remain on top, we would be crushed.
“I want you to know,” my mother said stiffly, “every person in this room appreciates the sacrifice you’re making to save this family.”
“We love you, Tins.” Keaton smiled softly.
More smiles appeared around the table. Perry gripped my hand and squeezed it on my lap.
My heart thudded with an exhaustive ache. Even though I’d been forced into this position, it didn’t change the fact that I loved these ruthless people. They were my blood. My tribe.
“Where are they?” Winston glanced at his watch. “The anticipation is fucking wearing.”
Anticipation?
The door opened, and a stream of suits rolled into the room. Lawyers, corporate officials, followed by Hugh and Anna Kensington. My future in-laws. I hadn’t had much interaction with them. I’d been avoiding them for months.
Greetings erupted around the room, and I started to fade, detaching, retreating inside myself. I didn’t want to be here. It was too real. Too final.
“Thank