Page 203 of Collide

“No.” I step closer, my voice shaking. “What changed? What did I miss in those five years? What happened to the man who didn’t give a damn if I was halfway across the world?”

His eyes flick away for a second, the first crack in his armor.

“Was it Mom?” I whisper, my voice breaking on the word. “Was it her diagnosis? Did the guilt finally eat you alive?”

His jaw tightens. “You don’t understand?—”

“Thenhelp me understand!” I shout, the words ripping from my throat, too jagged to control.

“Because from where I’m standing,” I spit, “you only care about how I makeyoulook. You didn’t care about me when you tossed me aside as a child. You didn’t care when I was grieving.When I was broken. You only care aboutyourname. Your precious dynasty.”

He exhales sharply, chest rising and falling with the effort to hold himself together. “This isn’t aboutmyreputation.”

“Then what is it about?!”

Silence stretches between us, long and suffocating, before he finally speaks.

“It’s aboutyours,” he says coldly. “Alexander Westerberg is a liability.”

“Excuse me?” I breathe, disbelief slamming into me.

“He’s careless.” His voice is bitter. “Scandal follows him like a shadow. And now, because of him, you’re dragged into this mess.His mess. Your career, your future, everything you’ve worked for—everything—is on the line because you refuse to see what’s right in front of you.”

I don’t flinch. I won’t give him the satisfaction. “That wasn’t a problem when you were being careless in your marriage, was it?”

His face darkens, a thundercloud rolling across his features. “Don’t start.”

“Oh, what? Too close to home?” My voice sharpens, slicing between us like a blade. Heat flashes across my skin. I feel the control slipping, leaking out through the cracks I can’t seal fast enough.

“Alex may be a lot of things,” I say, my voice rising, “but you know what he’s not? He’s not the man who abandoned me. He’s not the man who discarded me when I needed him most. He didn’t break my heart.”

“Elena—”

I step forward, closing the space between us until there’s barely a breath left. My heart punches against my ribs, the pounding in my ears drowning out the rest of the world.

“He’s the first person to make me feel like I’mworthsomething,” I choke out. “So don’t you dare stand here and tell me he’s not good enough for me when you never were.”

Mortimer’s eyes burn into mine, a battle cry he’s too proud to voice. His jaw tightens until the muscle jumps.

“You’ve worked too hard to let this man destroy you,” he says, every word hitting like a fist to my gut.

“Don’t talk about him,” I grit out, barely holding the line.

“You think he cares what happens to you?” Mortimer snaps, his voice cracking like a whip through the air. “You think whenthisgets worse, he won’t run? Men like him, they run, Elena.”

The unspoken fear I’d buried slips right out of his mouth.

A long silence stretches between us.

I wipe at my face, tears falling faster now, his words sit heavy in my chest.

“Maybe Alex is a mess,” I mutter, my voice splintering. “But so am I. And he sees me and he still wants me.”

Unlike you.

I don’t say the last part out loud. I don’t have to.

Mortimer’s face hardens. “He’s going to hurt you.”