I ignore him and his beet-red face and turn to the duo of doom on the couch.
“Ivy.” I smile at my sister. No. It’s time I let go of the hope she would ever be a true sister. The half that had bonded us as together meaning more to me than her, so it’s time I remember she will always be my half-sister. “I want you to know I forgive you as well. For different reasons, of course. I forgive you for being so unhappy with yourself that you projected that on me and spent your whole life building a relationship of hate toward me instead of one of love. You could have had the best relationship with me, but you were blind to that. I forgive you for whatever you lack in your heart to actually have the ability to care for another person, especially your own half-sister. It’s okay because I see now that blood might bond us, but that connection is the only one we will share. And most of all, I thank you for being so driven by your hate toward me that you slept with Brad and saved me from the life I was drowning in. You didn’t know it, but that was the best gift I had been given in a long time.”
“You bitch,” she screams, climbing to her feet.
“Be quiet,” I snap, stopping her in her tracks before she can take more than two steps from the couch.
“Brad, I didn’t know you would be here,” I continue, fake enthusiasm dripping from my words. “I really didn’t plan to have anything more to say to you, but it works out in my favor to have you here during this. So all I have to say is thank you for leaving me when you knew I was too afraid to do it myself. I forgive you for your part in the ‘make Willow suffer’ game. I’m not afraid anymore, and I can tell you with absolute honesty that you are the reason for that. I hope you’re happy with my sister. I meant what I said. You two worked so hard for the common goal that it really would be a shame to waste all that malevolence.”
Everyone is silent when I finish, and I look around at their faces. Each one shocked and bright red.
“Well …” I sigh cheerfully. “That’s all I needed to say. If you’ll excuse us, my boyfriend and I have a flight to catch.”
I turn, but Ivy’s silence has apparently found its endpoint. “You’re with her? Why the fuck would you want her?”
I know her words are meant to lash me mentally, but she won’t get that. Their words no longer have the power to hurt me. I know my worth.
I look up at Kane and give his angry expression a wink before turning back around. I stare at my half-sister and tell her the only thing I can to make her understand that she no longer holds any power to hurt me. “Why the fuck wouldn’t he want me?” The curse word rolls off my tongue effortlessly, and it just makes my smile widen.
She doesn’t respond, but I turn and ignore them. I said what I needed to in order to move on with my life. I no longer have any part of my painful past tying me down. I got the closure I needed, and it doesn’t matter what they think.
The resistance in Kane’s hold draws me up short, and I realize he didn’t move from where he had been standing. He’s staring at my half-sister, and if her trembling is anything to judge by, he looks terrifying.
“To answer your asinine question, it’s because I fucking love her.”
When he turns, he gives me a wink of his own and starts walking out the door, this time leading me. I’m too busy riding the high that my life’s become to even notice what is being yelled at our retreating backs.
I don’t care what they have to say because right now, I know when I leave this office, they’re going to be dead to me. Not even the memory of them will haunt my mind.
I, Willow Tate, have won.
WILLOW DOESN’T STOP SMILING THE whole way out of the offices. She gives Mary a warm hug and promises to keep in touch. She turns toward me, and even though I know confronting her past wasn’t easy, she looks happier than I have ever seen her. I had misjudged just how much this last tie to her past weighed on her. I have no doubt that she finally feels as strong as I knew she had become. Giving them her forgiveness wouldn’t mean anything to anyone else, but to her it was the only way she could truly move on and be free from it.
The thought of letting her do this today had been filling me with unease all night and into the morning. I felt protective of her before we knew each other, so the thought of letting the woman I had come to love be in any pain I could prevent killed me. But when I stood by her side and watched her take charge of her future, I knew that moment was worth all the unsettling feelings I had.
Now, though, all of that is gone and the only thing I feel is pride. No, that’s not true. Witnessing all of that turned me on so much; I could have fucked her right there in the middle of Dominic’s office.
If watching her dominate the room wasn’t enough to have my cock painfully hard, hearing her response to Ivy almost made me come unglued.
I’ve never heard her cuss. Not once. But now, all I can think of is hearing her beg me to fuck her.
When the elevator doors close and shut us in solitude, I turn to her and back her against the wall. My mouth comes down to hers in a hungry kiss. All of the pent-up frustration I felt at having to keep my mouth shut while she got what she needed back there came out in the brutal, savage kiss. All my worry and fear for her bleeding from my body as I let my hands roam all over her body and feast against her mouth. Her moans driving my need for her higher until I have to tear myself away before I really do fuck her right here.
“I’m so proud of you, Willow.”
Her eyes open slowly, and I feel her fists uncoil around the fabric at my hips she had been fisting tightly.
“So fucking proud of you, baby.”
The hazy gaze of lust is still floating over her expression, but her cheeks go pink at my praise.
Bending down so that my lips are just feathering her ear, I whisper, “And one day soon, I’m going to hear you say that word again. You know the one. You’re going to say it when you’re begging me to take you.” I press my lips to the spot just under her ear that I know turns her on. I step back, just in time for the doors to slide open to the lobby.
Grabbing her hand, I lead us out and look around. Besides a few businessmen and women going about their day, there doesn’t seem to be anyone paying us any attention. I was half expecting to have my presence noticed on the way out, but the front lobby is eerily quiet. I would have proudly marched through a sea of reporters if they had been tipped off, but I’m glad I have Willow alone after what happened up there. I know she’s okay, but I still would feel better having her to myself just in case the enormity of cutting ties with her evil family hits her negatively.