Page 120 of How to Break My Heart

Everleigh

I’m here as a friend if you need me. You’re not alone, Aston.

But I am alone.

She isn’t in my arms, all because I fucked up and allowed Harvey to ruin what I deserved. The pain of it all only forces me to drink myself into a more profound stupor, miserable as I struggle to climb out.

So I don’t respond.

The Aston Beaumont she supposedly fell in love with doesn’t exist anymore.

And until I find myself, I am worthless to everyone.

My eyes strain to see the sun peeking through the drapes. As I glance around the room, it takes me a few minutes to realize I’m in my penthouse.

I don’t even know how I got here.

Beside me on the bed, there are multiple empty bottles of liquor. I twist my body in an attempt to sit up, but my muscles ache, and a shooting pain stabs my hand. Slowly, I raise it, only to see a bandage wrapped around it and blood seeping through.

There’s glass smashed on the floor and a liquid stain running down the wall. And with no recollection of last night, the truth becomes increasingly clear.

This is not the man I am.

Harvey Beaumont may have raised me, but if there’s only one thing of value he has taught me, it’s to always make your opponent believe you hold the better hand.

I take my first shower in days but trim the beard instead of removing it entirely. With the glass cleaned up and the empty bottles tossed in the trash, I choose to wear my best outfit—my Zegna suit, which was custom made for me in Italy.

I am on a mission.

And that mission begins inside the boardroom.

My moment of confidence is shadowed by the lawsuits Harvey has insisted on throwing at me. I know it’s a punishment for Mom leaving him, which is why I hired the best attorneys to fight him. The games have only just begun.

Inside the boardroom, there is a team of six attorneys, all belonging to Lexed Enterprises, which is Lex Edwards’s corporation. He called me after hearing of the lawsuits, then offered me his team without even asking what the hell happened.

Lex and Will sit with me in the meeting, since they are both stakeholders and part of existing deals. Lex makes my father look even more pathetic, and for that, I’m grateful.

Across from us, the monster has graced us with his presence.

And his lawyer begins firing away with just how ruined I supposedly am.

Lies, all of them to protecthisreputation.

My nostrils flare, angered by the deceit this man has conjured up to salvage his ego.

The temperature inside this room suddenly becomes unbearable as the four walls begin to close in, trapping me in this fucking nightmare.

But then, he mentions all the land Harvey lost because I didn’t sign the contracts, and I remember the abandoned housethat sat on that very land. It was the night of the bachelor party when Roland urged me to stand up for what I believed in.

The night I allowed myself to fall in love with Everleigh.

To my father, it was a house on a piece of land he planned to destroy to make him more money.

To me, it was the house the woman I love dreamed of making hers.

A piece of land, which became a piece ofus.

I hear her voice urging me to fight. Encouraging me to stand up and own my life because it belongs to me and only me.