Mary do her thing. I’m going to talk to Addison for a minute.” Emily yawns and snuggles into her bed as the nurse takes her temperature.
Damian ushers me out of the room, his hand placed firmly on the small of my back.
His smile vanishes the minute we are out of sight. “What are you doing here?” His voice is cold and hard and I want to throw myself at his feet and beg for forgiveness, but not here. This isn’t the right place for that.
“My boss asked me to visit an Emily Jones. I had no idea you’d be here.” I stop and study him. “Why are you here?”
“Your boss is an asshole.” He runs his hands over his face. “I’m here because that little girl needs someone to love her, and right now, I’m it. Tell your boss to go to hell, he has no idea who he’s messing with.”
He talks like he knows Thomas, has known him for a while, and my brain starts to scatter in a million different directions, until it lands on one very important fact.
“Wait a second. How long have you known I work for Thomas Feeley?”
His blank stare and deep breathing does the talking for him.
“Is that why you moved next door to me? To get an inside track on her case?”
He shakes his head and begins to speak, but I don’t hear much of what he says. I’m so angry my pulse is beating between my ears. I make out words like after, no clue, bad situation, but this only confirms my gut reaction as to what a monumental mistake sleeping with Damian really was.
“You do know I could get fired right? That you, me and my job have just become a huge conflict of interest.” I can’t see straight I’m so angry. He had to have known this and yet he still tried to pursue a relationship with me. What a selfish bastard. “I’ve already lost enough in my life Damian, did you want me to lose my job too, the only other part of my life that’s all mine?”
I’m seeing red, furious that he would put me in this position. If Thomas found out I had some sort of connection with Damian, let alone started dating him, he’d fire me on the spot.
“You could have had me.”
“What?” I spit out.
“I could have been something that was all yours, but if you choose your job over a little girl who needs someone on her side, then you’re just as bad as he is. I didn’t know you worked for Thomas when I moved in. I didn’t know you were on the case until five minutes ago, but go ahead and assume the worst. You seem to be good at that.”
His eyes narrow and his lips form a tight line as he lowers his voice so only I can hear. “If I wanted to go through you to get what I wanted, I would have fucked you months ago. You’re right. Sunday night was a mistake. One I’ll make sure to never make again.”
Standing tall, he storms off.
“Can you fucking believe it? Thomas is trying to put Addison on Emily’s case.” I can’t go home, and I can’t go to the hospital, so I’m at the track, running myself ragged with Reed by my side.
“You knew she worked for the fucker.”
“She wasn’t on the case. Now she is.”
My lungs are beginning to burn and my legs are feeling the pain, but I don’t care. Addison wasn’t on Em’s case when I moved in, she wasn’t on her case when I decided I needed Addison in my life and I’m feeling a little sick inside at the fact that in addition to now working on helping Thomas out, she’s also emotionally farther away from me than I’d like.
“You should tell Addison why Thomas hates you so much.”
“That he thinks I killed Emily’s mom? I’m not telling Addison that.”
“I want to adopt her. Take over all her medical expenses and make sure she has the best care possible.” We are in a conference room at my attorney’s office, Thomas Feeley sitting across from me, and my personal attorney by my side.
“No.” Thomas is staring at me with complete hate in his eyes and I have no idea what I did to make him despise me so much.
Standing with such force that my chair falls over, I meet his dark beady gaze. “You can’t outright deny the request. I have the funds, I can take