Page 110 of Fake Dating Mr. Prince

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dean

One month later...

It took every ounceof self-control to remain cool and seemingly unaffected. The anger inside burned like fireball whiskey, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing how her actions had affected me.

“I’m taking you to court for slander, Simone.” I paused to let that sink in.

A barely audible gasp escaped her lips. “No.”

It gave me extreme pleasure to hear the tremor threading her voice with that one word.

“You won’t win.” She fired back reining in her show of weakness.

Winning didn’t matter. Only Ashlyn mattered.

“I don’t care,” I said. “I’ll keep it in the courts for years. Motion after motion will drain you dry until you have nothing left to pay your lawyers.”

“You wouldn’t.” She growled at me.

I went in for the kill. “Try me. I know it was you who stole the designs. So make a choice. Stay the hell away from me and my family or I’ll leak this to the press.”

I forwarded the short clip of her in my office the night she stole the designs to her phone.

“That proves nothing,” she insisted. But her voice was missing the earlier arrogance so I knew I’d won.

“You’re done. I’ve heard things are rocky with your career right now. Do you need the additional bad press?”

“Fuck you, Dean.”

“I’ll take that as you agreeing to my request. Asking you to stay clear of us is far less than the punishment you deserve.”

“Screw you.” She spat through the phone before hanging up on me.

I needed coffee.Now.

I decided to take a short walk to my favorite café nearby, instead of getting a cup from the break room. The walk helped to work out the kinks in my neck and let me cool off from the call with Simone and the board meeting I’d had before it.

This was my dream job, to be the CEO of Prince Industries, I reminded myself. Yet as the days passed without Ashlyn in my life, I realized my dream job wasn’t enough.

It had been a challenging four weeks, and every minute had been spent on my transition into this role. Tensions were high at first, and some still doubted I was ready, but the reality was they didn’t have a choice.

I didn’t have a choice.

I was now the new CEO and would carry on my father’s legacy.