Page 25 of Nine Months to Bear

“So she’s schmoozing her way into the deal with fucking astrology and pseudoscience. It’s bullshit.”

“Yeah, but the Cartier watch she gifted Karen Thompson isn’t. Apparently, they had a girl’s day at Bergdorf’s last weekend.”

The fact I’m even surprised shows how naive I still am. Of course Walsh would buy her way into this Mass Gen partnership, the same way she has wriggled her snaky way into everything else. There are no depths she will not stoop to.

“That fucking snake.” I press my fingers to my temples. “You’re sure about this? The board’s really canceling?”

“They haven’t officially. But Bradley told me this morning they’re just going through the motions with you. Walsh promised she’d bring on board some big donors if they sign with her clinic.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?” My voice rises like a tea kettle, but it’s more sad than it is righteously enraged. EvenI’mnot scaring me. “What the hell is the point of a man on the inside if you don’t tell me anything until it’s too late?”

“I only found out an hour ago! Plus, it’s not like you can do anything about it. Unless you’re going to buy off Brian and Karen, too, then?—”

“How much?” I cut him off.

There’s a suspicious pause. “… How much for what?”

“To beat her. I need a number. What would it take to change their minds?”

I can practically hear Jimmy’s lawyer brain calculating the ethics of this conversation. “Don’t do that, Liv. You’re better than her.”

When I don’t respond—mostly because I don’t want to lie and agree with him—he groans. “Jesus, Liv. You’d need serious backing. The kind of money that?—”

“A number, Jimmy. Give me a number.”

“Seven figures, minimum. And that’s just to get their attention. But Liv, please tell me you’re not really thinking about this.”

“Thanks for the heads up. I owe you one.”

“You can pay me off, too, if that’s the way you’re going,” he mumbles.

I’m not sure if I hang up first or he does, but I place the phone on my desk and look down at my hands.

They should be shaking, trembling with indecision and worries about the morally bankrupt pit I’m falling into.

But they aren’t.

Not even as I reach for the business card on the corner of my desk. The black one with the sharp edges and the devil’s name embossed in gold.

Walsh thinks she can buy her way to the top? Fine. Two can play that game.

Though the thought of calling Stefan makes my skin flush hot again, my body remembering the fantasy from minutes ago. On second thought, this deserves more than a phone call.

I reach for my car keys, ready to face this problem head on. One thought lingers in my head as I charge out the door before I can stop to ask myself if this is actually a good idea.

Under it all… maybe I really am my mother’s daughter.

12

STEFAN

I watch the footage of Olivia on my tablet as she rearranges the white orchids in her office window for the sixth time today. It’s the same fucking routine. The same obsessive attention to detail. One stem falls a millimeter out of place, and she has to fix the entire arrangement.

A half-remembered dream from last night comes back to me. It’s a haze of barely-there thoughts. Glimpses of Olivia against the wall in her office, her body warm and soft against mine as I pinned her beneath me…

I woke up hard as a rock with her name on my tongue.

The reason she’s in my head is because she’s making me work for it. At least, that’s what I told myself. She’s the solution to all of my problems, but I’m going to have to fucking earn it for the first time in too long.