Page 87 of Rival Hearts

I sat on the edge of the table and looked out of the window.

“It’s not a bad thing to want to change,” I said.

“It’s not.”

“If we do this, we could lose everything.”

“There’s that possibility.”

“What happens if we don’t?” I looked over my shoulder at my dad, who stood and buttoned his blazer.

“Then we keep going the way we are now. Which isn’t bad either, you know. We’re successful, we have a good name, a positive company image despite what they’re saying about our sustainability practices… maybe it’s worth considering not doing this at all.”

He patted me on the shoulder before he left the boardroom, and I was alone.

He was right, of course. We could keep going the way we were and nothing would change.

But it wasn’t that simple. Because something big insidemehad changed. I wasn’t the same person I’d been before. So much looked different.

Was it because of Charlotte?

Largely, yes. Not only because I was in love with her and I wanted to do things better because of her but also because of the story she’d told me about her father, about having the opportunity to make the right choice and choosing the wrong one, after all.

I didn’t want to be that person. I didn’t want to be the guy who made the right choice for the sake of money, forgetting about everything—and everyone—it affected.

But if I went through with this, doing therightthing, I’d lose a lot of money, and I wouldn’t be able to do what I did best.

My dad had worked his whole life to be able to give me and my brothers an empire, a legacy we could take forward so that we would be set for the rest of our lives. Could I throw all of that away for the sake of a girl? For the sake of doing the right thing?

Would it be the right thing if I let my dad down? My brothers?

The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt, and I had no idea which way to turn. Losing investors could be the downfall of the company on so many different levels. And that would mean disappointing my family.

But losing a part of myself, doing something that I thought wasn’t right anymore… and on top of it all, possibly losing Charlotte…

How could I choose?

I had my family, on the one hand, people who had always been there for me and given me a shot when my life had been a living hell before. On the other hand, I had Charlotte, who had given me a reason to live again, something bigger to strive for than my name and my reputation.

God, why did this have to be so fucking difficult?

Why couldn’t I ever just have what I wanted and it be enough?

25

CHARLOTTE

Ispent the day working on a campaign report for Victoria Morgan. So far, it was going well.

Better than expected, in fact. But that wasn’t due to my campaign per se—the biggest feat so far was that Alex Blackwood wanted to take his company in a different direction and develop a line of eco-friendly yachts.

I could never take credit for that choice, but the fact that he was willing to open his mind to new ways of doing business was flattering. He’d taken what I’d said to heart, and he was so amazing, seeing my side of things.

It just made me so much more in love with him.

As if that was possible. I was as head-over-heels as I could be about the guy right now.

Pull yourself together, it’s early days.