Tit For Tat Chapter 11
Employees passing through the lobby froze.
I pulled my arm free.
“Mr. Cole, this is a place of business.”
He gave a cold laugh.
“Now you want to talk about propriety?”
“That picture of you and Noah is everywhere. It hasn’t even been a week since we called off the engagement, and you’ve already let him into Harbor Dock.”
I looked at him.
“He brought a financing proposal that passed our risk assessment.”
“Sloane brought my private photos and a poll.”
“What, exactly, do you think those two things have in common?”
Adrian’s eyes were bloodshot.
“You know he’s the one person I can’t stand.”
“So?”
“Because you rescued me from his doorstep, I’m supposed to avoid any business opportunity connected to him for the rest of my life?”
His jaw was tight.
“He abandoned you.”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
I met his gaze.
“But when he sat in my conference room today, he didn’t project my past onto a giant screen and ask 327 people to rate me.”
Adrian’s face stiffened.
“You’re not afraid Noah will hurt you again,” I continued.
“You just can’t stand the idea that the woman you ‘rescued’ from him might choose a business partner without your permission.”
“Adrian, I am not a trophy you won from Noah.”
The lobby fell into a dead silence.
He stared at me for a long time without speaking.
Then I walked past him.
Just before the elevator doors closed, I saw him still standing there.
As if, for the first time, he was realizing that I hadn’t just canceled a party that could be rescheduled.
I had canceled the ownership he’d assumed he would never lose.