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“Of course I can.”

“No you can’t. I saw the financials. You’re running on fumes. You’re banking on us turning you around so you can pay it all off after.”

She gritted her teeth. I was right. She knew I knew it.

“That’s why I’m going to make you an offer,” I said.

I wasn’t going to lose this project. I wasn’t going to lose the chance to show her I wasn’t the asshole she thought I was.

“What could you possibly offer me that I’d want now?” Cassandra asked.

“Don’t fire me. I’ll wave the retainer and expenses. If I don’t turn your resort around, you don’t have to pay us.”

For a moment, Cassandra said nothing.

“In case you don’t believe me, I’ll have my lawyer write it up into our own contract. Between you and me.”

For a moment, there was only silence.

Then she said, “What’s in it for you?”

“You don’t tell anyone my secret. And you do everything I say.”

Her brows lifted.

“If you succeed, I succeed.”

She hesitated.

“This is the deal of the century for you,” I said. “And it’s only on the table right now.”

Just then, there was a bang as the door behind us opened. A couple of staff in gray uniforms came out, looking surprised when they saw their boss on the steps. Their eyes went wide at the sight of me. Maybe I was looking intense. Or maybe they sensed the tension between us, as tight as a wire.

“Ms. Kelly,” said one.

Cassandra smiled, softening for a moment. “Julia, Louise—how are you two? How’s your daughter, Louise?”

“We’re great, ma’am,” one of them said. “So are they. They’re going home with the baby tomorrow.”

“Amazing,” Cassandra said, sounding genuinely happy.

“See you at the all-staff meeting next week?” the woman asked her.

“Can’t wait.”

The way she was with her staff—it made me twist inside. Cassandra was a good person. Too good for my life of lies. I wished I’d never embroiled her in my shit. I wished I’d stayed the hell away from her on that island and acted like a decent human being.

Or never suggested we take this job in the first place.

The moment the two had gone down the stairs, I stretched on my jacket, which I’d been gripping in my hand. “The offer closes the minute I hit that bottom step,” I said.

I was done bargaining, done begging. I was going to go home to New York, pretend I never met Cassandra Kelly. We hadn’t started here yet—I could make another client our 100th.

But with each step I took, the storm cloud over me grew darker.

It wouldn’t be the same.

My phone buzzed. I pulled it out. It was my father. Of all fucking people.