Page 211 of Wicked Proposal

Nikita’s eyes widen at the sight. “Fuck. Seriously?”

I don’t bother answering.

Instead, I turn towards my phone, left unlocked next to me on the bank’s app,$900,000blinking at me from the screen.

It’s not an oversight. It’s stalling.

Once I pay her, it’s all over.

She said she didn’t want it.Keep your money—those were her words. Right as she was slipping her engagement ring off, she spit those words to me.

Suspended. Jobless. Cashless. And still, she turned down a million dollars.

That’s how much she fucking hates me.

It’s not right to keep the money. I won’t do it. She can give it all to charity if she chooses; I don’t care. But she needs to get it.

She needs to get something for all I put her through.

Idiot,the cold voice inside me growls.Do you really think it’s money she wants? That a wire transfer will fix what you broke?

After all this, do you really still think Mia Winters is for sale?

No. She isn’t.

But she’s a mom. Before anything else, she’s always been that. A mother to her son. To Eli.

And Eli needs that money.

She’ll take it. I know it in my gut. After the storm has passed in her heart, she’ll take it and move far away from here. She’ll take her son, her life, and disappear under a new name again.

And I’ll never be able to reach her.

It’s why my fingers are still hovering over the screen, unwilling to press down. The second I do, it’s goodbye.

And I’m not ready to say goodbye.

“Look.” Nikita’s voice snaps me out of it, but not all the way. “She’s angry. You lied to her, and her friend got shot. She needs time to process. That’s all this is, Yulian.”

“You weren’t there.”

“No, but I was in her car. I was in your bed, under her care, and then I was in the StarTech basement doing shots with her. I was there when you proposed—shit job, by the way, but at least it was original?—”

“If there’s a point, get to it.”

“Sure.” She turns to face me. “She loves you, you big idiot.She had stars in her eyes when you asked her to marry you. It was the worst proposal on earth, and still, she said yes. Do you have any idea how many women would’ve done that?”

“Pretty much every socialite looking to marry into wealth and power.”

“No. Those would have demanded a diamond and candlelight. And you would have given it to them, because you wouldn’t have cared if they lived or died. But with Mia, you did.”

“I put her in danger.”

“You were trying to save her.”

“From myself!” I snarl, palms slamming on the counter. “I was trying to save her fromme,goddammit—where the fuck’s the love in that?!”

“Everywhere.” Nikita does something bold then, something risky at best and suicidal at worst: she takes my glass away and grabs my hand. “So don’t let it go to waste, brother. Don’t let thesemudakitake yet another family from us.”