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“Any magazine you’ve slandered over the years,” I answer casually. “Which is, I think, all of them.”
He narrows his eyes. “What do you want?”
It’s a bottom of the ladder question. A reverse Mufasa on the cliff moment, if you will. A smirk tugs at my lips and I load the gun I’ve been waiting to rapid fire for years. But before I can say anything, before I even have five minutes of reveling, Izzy steals my glory.
“Resign from your position. Leave the industry. Go work in sales or something where cheating people is expected. Then, leave us alone. Leave Ethan alone, and never contact me again. And, most importantly, never try to come after my son. If he wants to reach out to you when he’s older, he can. But do not contact or even look him up. Do all of that and we’ll destroy the article.”
“Izzy,” I cut in. She might be doing the right thing but dammit, I really wanted this.
“If he agrees to back down, we win. Without stooping to his level,” she says to me and fuck.
She’s right.
I nod once. A reluctant nod.
Liam looks between both of us. Then, for the first time since I met him forty some years ago, he deflates. The ego literally washes from his smug face, leaving him pale and defeated. And without a word, the mighty Liam Sloane exits his own building.
Izzy presses her hands to her face with a shaky sigh of relief. “We did it,” she says, then pulls her hands away and almost smiles. “We did it!”
“You lied to me!” Jaxon cries out and we both look down at him.
“What baby?” Izzy asks, her smile gone.
“You lied to me. You said you didn’t know who my dad was and you did. And it was Ethan!” He stops and looks up at me. “Did you know?”
Izzy looks at me desperately but right now, I’m done lying. She’s literally holding her breath but I’m done. “I didn’t know either,” I admit.
“You lied to him too!?” Jax screams and runs out of the room.
“Jaxon!” Izzy cries out before turning to me.
“This is all my fault. He’s lost his friend because I trusted Rosilyn or Rose or whoever she is. And now he knows the truth about you. And I just…I fucked up.”
I run a hand through my hair. I don’t know how to make her feel better. At this point, I don’t even know what I’m feeling. “Yeah. You kind of did.”
I know my words are a shot to the gut. But I don’t know what else to tell her.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to protect him. And to live our lives. Away from my dad, away from anything that would threaten the life I was trying to build–”
“Away from me?” I ask and she blinks.
“We couldn’t be together. This whole thing–” she motions between us– “It’s crazy. And we were silly to think otherwise.But he’s attached to you now and it’s all going away. And that’s what’s unforgivable.”
Izzy hugs herself and as much as I want to wrap my own arms around her, I won’t.
I can’t.
Because my own heart is trying to protect itself too. I shove my hands in my pockets to take away the temptation. “You are a good mom. You were just trying to do what was best for him. Even if what you thought was best might have been wrong.”
With that, I walk out. I don’t look at her, I don’t look at my door as I pass it even though it might be the last time. I don’t look at Rose’s desk because I want to turn the damn thing over right now. And when I see Jax, who is sitting next to the fish tank, huddled in his blanket and squeezing a worn out stuffed blue dog, I don’t look at him either. I can’t. I’m not abandoning him, but for now, I need to figure out what I’m going to do. Everything we thought we were working towards, everything I dared to hope could be, just went up in smoke.
And I need to assess the damage.
Chapter 29
Izzy
“We need to get back in bed, buddy.” I usher Jaxon towards his room. It’s late. Very late. Later than I ever let him stay up. I am regretting everything that happened tonight. I regret getting him out of bed, taking him to the office. I regret confronting my dad, even though I think it worked out for the best. We aren’t running the article and everything is out in the open.