“Imagine my surprise when I discovered who you really were,” Jorge said now.
“I’m not following the segue here.”
“I got a call about an hour ago from your assistant.”
“Addison?” She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “What did she say?”
The look he gave her was a humiliating blend of pitying and pointed. He knew the truth. Gretchen stood quickly. “I’m not here because of what happened with Colton. I want this job, Jorge. This is important work. I got my bachelor’s degree in public policy before getting my J.D. You said it yourself that my qualifications are perfect, and—”
“I didn’t like you at first, you know.”
“Wh-what?”
Jorge leaned back in his chair. “I thought you were spoiled. Ungrateful for what you had. Driven more by some kind of self-indulgent martyrdom than any real dedication to people.”
His words were a punch to the gut. “Wow. Thanks. How long have you been holding that in?”
“But then I realized you were just simply the loneliest person I’d ever met. I think maybe you still are.”
Jorge might as well have read directly from A Christmas Carol. There he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe.
Colton would have laughed at the irony.
Jorge smiled sadly and stood with a weary slowness. Panic clutched her heart. She swallowed and tried again. “Jorge, please.”
“If you still want this job in a month, it’s yours. But our clients deserve someone who’s here because she wants to be, not because she’s avoiding something else.”
“That’s not fair,” she protested weakly.
“Go home, Gretchen. Whatever you’re looking for, you’re not going to find it here.”
She was too stunned, too humiliated to respond. He left his office door open when he walked out, leaving her alone with heated cheeks and a pounding heart. Finally, though, she picked up her bag and tried to summon some semblance of dignity when she walked out.
She had no idea where to go, couldn’t see the destination. She took the Metro, lugging her heavy bag down the long, dark escalator into the bowels of the capital city. She used to be terrified of these escalators, so long that from the top you could barely see the bottom.
What an apt metaphor for her life.
A train arrived just as she stepped up to the track, its speed sending a whirl of hot, foul air into her face. The car was nearly empty when she walked on. Just one other person sat at the opposite end, a man in an Air Force uniform. She chose a seat near one of the doors and tucked her suitcase against her legs.
The doors closed, and the train took off, slowly at first, and then it hit top speed. She hadn’t even checked which way it was going. It had been so many years since she’d last used the Metro that she couldn’t remember which line she even needed to take to get to her hotel.
You’re just a scared little girl hiding in that damn tree house wishing someone would come find you and take you home . . .
Colton had called her a coward, and he was right. She could have stayed and fought Evan. She could have stood by Colton’s side and let the chips fall where they might. But she didn’t. Despite all her talk about not caring anymore about what her family thought, about being immune to Evan’s name-calling and gaslighting, she’d still let them win. She’d done exactly what everyone expected of her.
She’d run.
And she’d ruined the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Her body flushed where she sat as her heart raced and her mind whirred. What had she done? And how the hell was she going to undo it?
Jorge was right.
She had to go home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The flight to D.C. would take eighty minutes, but it took less than two for adrenaline to give way to panic.
“How do you know she’ll be there?” Even though Colton sat across from Jack on his Gulfstream, he had to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of the engine.
Vlad, Mack, and Noah were settled into the rest of the seats with Elena, Liv, and Alexis. The rest of the guys opted to stay behind.
“Addison said that was the hotel she booked.”
“How does she know?”
“She has access to Gretchen’s credit card accounts.”
Colton groaned. If Gretchen found out they’d tracked her down by invading her financial privacy, she’d never forgive him. And at that thought, panic became full-blown fear. There were a lot of things she might not forgive him for. Christ, the things he’d said to her. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes and tipped his head back to hold back tears.