“Did you know?”
No preamble. No explanation.
Guilt flared, because Samara knew exactly what she was talking about. She lifted her chin. “I found out late last night.”
Lydia narrowed her eyes as if she expected Samara to lie. “My darling nephew went around us to get that contract—a contract we need, I might add—and you didn’t deign to…tell me? Call Journey here and let her know she didn’t need to pull yet another all-nighter?”
Her guilt grew thorny spines that dug deep. Samara shot a look at Journey, taking in the circles under her eyes. Her friend gave the slightest shake of her head, but Samara ignored it. She faced Lydia. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I told you last night. It’s done. We lost the bid. I take full responsibility for not anticipating that Beckett would pull that move.”
“Yes, well, you should have anticipated it.” Lydia pushed slowly to her feet, sickly sweet menace rolling off her in waves. “You’re sleeping with him, after all. You have been for months.”
Samara went still. “Excuse me?”
“Did you or did you not have sex with Beckett King six months ago? You just happened to find your way up to his hotel room on that work trip in Norway and, how strange, you let him take you to bed.”
There had been no letting him do anything. She’d been a full partner in the seriously questionable decision to have sex that initial time. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business one way or another who I sleep with.”
“It is when you’re spilling company secrets because you’re so intoxicated with his cock.”
She flinched, and hated herself for flinching. “I would never do that.” Except she’d done exactly that by informing on Lydia’s inconsistencies to Beckett. Lydia, not Kingdom Corp.
Lydia is Kingdom Corp.
“You would say that now.”
More than anything, Journey’s silence next to her hit Samara right in the chest. She pushed to her feet. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but did you not command me to get close to Beckett in order to distract him from whatever you’re up to, Lydia?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong.” Lydia mimicked. “But I never once told you to have sex with him and lose all sense of loyalty.”
Another direct hit.
This time Samara didn’t flinch. She raised her chin and straightened her shoulders. “Is that all?”
“Hardly.” Lydia pointed an imperial finger at her. “You’re fired. Sleeping with the enemy might be acceptable, but betraying the company because you’re fucking Beckett King is not. I sincerely hope you weren’t planning on continuing to work in the energy industry, because you’re going to have a difficult time finding a job.”
“That’s enough, Mother.” Journey pushed slowly to her feet, her mouth determined even as she seemed to shake. “You fired her. It’s done.”
“I’m nowhere near done.”
Samara shifted, bringing Lydia’s attention back to her. “Seeing as how I’m fired, fortunately, I don’t have to sit here and listen to you rant.” She stalked closer and leaned over the desk, getting in Lydia’s face. “You are a vindictive bitch and you’re positively soulless for what you’ve done to Beckett.”
Nothing showed on her face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Guess we’ll see about that, won’t we?” She turned and walked out of the office with her head held high even as a black hole opened up in her chest. After all her promises that she wouldn’t make the same mistakes her mother had, she’d walked the exact blueprint.
Fall for a rich man from a prominent family.
Compromise everything she’d worked her entire life for.
Lose everything.
Not everything. I haven’t lost Beckett.
She wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse. She loved him. The hurt pounding through her, digging deeper with each heartbeat, didn’t have any effect on what she felt for him. It was just everything else that had fallen apart.
He’d still offer you that job.
If I take it, I owe him everything and we’ll never really be equals.
There was a way out of this—a way forward—but she couldn’t see it right then.
“Samara.”
She stopped in front of the elevators and waited for Journey to catch up. “I’m sorry.”
Journey shook her head. “I’m pissed. It was shitty of him to do, but that’s just business. I don’t get you not telling me immediately, but…” She sighed. “I don’t think you should be fired over it. I tried to convince my mother of that, but she’s beyond reason. She’ll cool down.”
“No, she won’t.” Because the real reason Samara had been fired wasn’t because of the bid. It was because of her relationship with Beckett—the appearance of putting Beckett over Lydia.
“She would if you’d dump him.”
Samara jerked back. “You can’t be seriously asking me to do that.”
“Yes. No. Maybe.” Journey shook her head. “He’s just a guy, Samara. At the end of the day, he might be good in bed and not a total piece of shit outside it, but he’s still someone you hated a week ago. Is he really worth it?”
The choice lay before her, clear as day. She could dump Beckett today and come crawling back to Lydia, promising to spill every single secret he’d shared with her as payment to securing her job once again. Lydia would punish her for a while, but she’d still have her job. She just had to throw Beckett under the bus to make it happen.
Samara let herself imagine it. Continuing to work in this office, going about her days as if she didn’t have a gaping hole in her heart. She’d still have the job she’d worked her ass off for, but at what cost? Her mother never climbed over others to get ahead, even before she’d settled into the life she had now.
Her father had.
The realization slammed her thoughts to a halt. All this time, she was afraid of having her future cut off the way her mother’s had been. It never occurred to her that she might be in danger of following in her
