Page 148 of Hate Me Like You Mean It

“I’m assuming Alice doesn’t know yet?”

“She’s still asleep. This won’t affect her.” I had bots and staff all over that. If her name was ever dragged into any of my messes, it was immediately taken care of.

He swiped his phone off the counter. Began tapping. Dialing. “Hey, it’s me. No, I know what time—obviously it’s a fuckingemergency, you’re the one who flagged it,” he gritted out. A glare was chucked my way when I stood up. “Family meeting. My place. I’ve got Dominic, but you’ll need to grab the gremlin. She’s still asleep, apparently.”

He hung up.

“Fifteen minutes. Twenty if you’re lucky,” he said. “That’s how long it’ll take before Gampy gets to her apartment, wakes her up, and she calls me. At which point I’m going to send her those links.”

“How do you know she’s not at my place?”

“Because you’re too stupid in the mornings to drive, and she lives four blocks away.” He rechecked his watch. “That’s one minute down. If you’ve got any calls to make, now would be the time to do it.”

I slipped my hands into the smooth pockets of my running sweats, considering him. “She’s not going to get dragged into this if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Even if that’s the case and you somehow manage to keep her name out of it—andeven ifshe stays off the internet until shit calms down—how do you figure she’ll feel watching what the fallout of this will do to you?”

I shrugged. “What will it do to me?”

He huffed a sarcastic laugh. “Get fucked, Dominic.”

“No, seriously. What will it do? If anyone would know, it’s you.”

The bitter amusement in his eyes sharpened, but he still wouldn’t answer the question. “What about your mother? If this blows up, how do you think it’ll impact her?”

“It won’t.”

“Jesus, you cannot be this fucking daft! This will tear her to shreds. Call your fucking people!”

“I don’t need to. She won’t hear about it, and even if she does, it won’t matter. She’ll forget it happened.”

There was a brief pause. “What?”

“Alzheimer’s. Early onset. Most days, I’m lucky if she even remembers that I’m her son. Any other arguments you want to make?”

His brows pinched, but his stance softened.

I was surprised Robert hadn’t spilled the beans yet; he’d never been all that keen on minding boundaries.

Choosing to put a temporary pin on the topic, Adrien let out a blunt sigh. “Call your team, kill it, and we’ll sit down to talk.” Then, in a firm, unwavering tone, “Trust me on this one. Please.”

“I can’t.”

“We both know that’s bullshit. Make the call.”

“No.”

“Dominic—”

“No, dude. No.” I didn’t give a fuck what they said about me. This was my one chance to fix my big fuckup, and like hell I’d give it up. “You know what this willactuallydo? In two hours, if that, every major news outlet and social media platform is going to be screaming about how majorly you’ve been wronged. People are already talking about your environmental work, and I’m willing to bet good fucking money that by the end of the workday, your reputation will have been redeemed by the same algorithms that tore it down.”

Then maybe he’d actually agree to fucking talk to me, and Julie would be able to look me in the fucking eye again.

I dragged a rough hand through my hair. “Alice is putting up a tough front, but this is hell for her, man. The best thing I could do at this point is to let her go. But I’m a selfish bastard who knows what it’s like to be without her, and it’s… misery doesn’t even begin to cover it. I wasn’t living. I wasn’t even surviving. I was just… waiting.”

Constantly waiting until I got to see her again, talk to her again, fight with her, play.

The girl wore my heart on her fucking sleeve, and I’d cling to her until she finally got sick of me nipping at her heel like a lovesick puppy and kicked me to the curb.