I swallowed. He was correct, it’d been a desperate move and one that probably had torn him apart.
“Sam was my friend and I miss him. I thought you’d finally see how much he meant to me and that I wasn’t using him.”
“You seduced him.”
“I did not. And I resent that because I have breasts, you think I’d use them to get what I want in life. Do you do that when you’re working? Have sex to get a contract?”
His expression turned incredulous. Well, there was that about him. His work ethic didn’t cross the line even if he did in other ways.
“Sam and I were friends.”
He barked out a laugh. “I have a good friend and at no time have I ever thought to offer him any of my properties or holdings for a mere dollar.”
The tension drained out of me. He didn’t believe me and countered with arrogant confidence every point I made. So, this was the real Wes. The man people faced in the boardroom. The guy a whole neighborhood in New York despised.
“Is your friend on the brink of losing his home and the care his mother needs?”
“He works for a living.”
I recoiled like I’d been slapped. “I work hard for what I have.”
He flung a sheet of paper across the table. “Except for the cool million that was given to you.”
I scooted to the edge of my chair to double-check the paper. “My trust? Is that what you’re talking about?”
“Who’s William Kostopoulos?”
I stood up and threw the sheet back at him. He flinched but the paper only fluttered to the floor. “My grandfather.”
The cabin wasn’t large, but I had a good five steps to pace in anger.
“Your mom was never married. He’s not a Baranski.”
I planted my hands on my hips and faced him, leaning forward. “Have your people do a better job. My mom took her stepdad’s name. My grandparents divorced when she was a baby. My grandma remarried and they moved out of Greece. Grandpa Kostopoulos died when I was young, but he distributed his wealth to all his grandkids, me, and the ones from his second wife. I told you I had a soft spot for Greece. Arcadia? Get it? As for the money, I used some to open the store and the rest is going to pay for Mom’s treatments and nursing home care.”
His only reaction was the slight narrowing of his eyes. My grandparents’ story didn’t move him? My use of the money? Good grief, the real Wes was intimidating. And heartless.
“Cornering me in this plane was despicable.”
He didn’t stand but leaned forward in his chair. “Me? Between you and Sam, I don’t know who makes me more sick.”
Not even a raised voice and here I was quivering from hurt and anger.
“Sam loved you. And I didn’t seem to make you sick all those times we had sex.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Occupational hazard.”
I blew out an exaggerated puff of air. My heart seized like a vice had tightened around it with the stark realization he in no way cared for me. At all.
“Explain why an old man latches onto a woman in her early twenties.”
“He had no children that spoke to him and I had no father.”
“Still with the ‘just friends’ story?” He reached back into that damn case and extracted two more papers.
He had more on me. My heart hammered and dread rose. Please, no.
“What about Dr. Jake Johannsen? Were you two just friends? His wife—excuse me, ex-wife—didn’t think so.”
My face grew cold as the blood drained from it. He went there. Took my nightmare and used it against me.
“Jake was a sexual predator.”
“Was that why you fucked him for a better grade?”
Hot tears rolled down my face. “Did you see the rest of my grades? As and Bs. Did you ask yourself why I was suddenly failing? Because I certainly didn’t understand. And maybe I would’ve thought about it if my mom hadn’t been so sick and if I hadn’t been making myself sick trying to care for her.”
Wes settled back and crossed one leg over the other and clasped his hands in front of his stomach.
At least he was willing to listen.
“I couldn’t afford more school. I didn’t know about my grandfather’s trust because I was still twenty-one and I wasn’t supposed to get it until I turned twenty-two. Mom didn’t tell me partly because she didn’t believe it herself and partly because she knew I’d use the money for her.”
I paced. Tears dripped onto my shirt. “Then Jake was all ‘let’s talk in my office’ and he was so understanding. I poured my heart out to him. He didn’t wear a wedding ring, you know. No pictures around the office.”
I didn’t quit moving. Wouldn’t look at Wes. I hadn’t told anyone but my therapist what had happened.
“I didn’t plan to sleep with him. I wasn’t interested. Then May rolled around and I was sitting five points below a D. ‘D for degree’, right? I was so desperate. He listened to me, kept telling me it’d be okay. And I let my guard down and he made his move. I said no, but he said he wanted to help, and I was smart enough to know I wouldn’t pass if I didn’t have sex with him.”
I shoved my bangs out of my face. “He was a handful of years older than me so I didn’t think it’d hurt anyone else. Then he kept wanting it, and there were only two more weeks of school. I just had to make it two more weeks and I’d be done and get the passing grade.” All those emotions rolled back. Humiliation, stupidity, the shame. Turned out I still hated myself for it. “But he had a wife and she found out what his late hours meant and she gunned for me hard. I couldn’t blame her.”
Drawing in a ragged breath, I faced Wes, who hadn’t moved.
