Page 60 of Forbidden Fruit
A blush spreads across her cheeks. "Thank you. You too. You look handsome, I mean."
I smile at her nervousness, finding it endearing. "I've missed you," I admit, returning to my seat. "Two days felt like two weeks."
"I missed you too." She fiddles with her napkin, not quite meeting my eyes. Something's off.
"Becca," I say gently, "what's wrong?"
She looks up, surprised. "How do you always know?"
"I pay attention," I say simply. "Something's bothering you. Is it... us? Have you changed your mind about us?"
"No," she says quickly, reaching across the table to touch my hand. "No, it's not that. It's..." She takes a deep breath. "Jack found having lunch with Holly earlier today."
My jaw tightens involuntarily. Of course he did. "What did he want?"
She withdraws her hand, and I immediately miss her touch. "He told me some things about you. About your divorce from Kay. About your business." Her eyes finally meet mine, searching. "He said you drove Kay to depression, that you purposely destroyed her mentally to get a better settlement."
I set my scotch down carefully, anger building in my chest—not at Becca, but at Jack and his deliberate manipulations.
"He also said you've been investigated for sexual harassment twice, and that you..." her voice drops to a whisper, "that you only pursued me to hurt him. That this is some kind of twisted revenge against your stepson."
"And do you believe him?" I ask quietly, studying her face.
"No. Oh, I don't know what to believe," she admits. "That's why I'm here. I want to hear your side."
The waiter approaches, but I wave him away with a subtle gesture. This conversation needs no interruptions.
"First, thank you for giving me the chance to explain," I say, leaning forward. "Jack is lying, Becca. Almost everything he told you is fabricated."
"Almost everything?"
I nod. "The divorce was difficult, yes. But I never drove Kay to depression—she wanted half my company and she feigned depression to garner sympathy from the court, but she had no history of it. Beside, she signed a prenup. The settlement was generous—far more than the prenup required. She made out like a queen."
Becca watches me intently, her expression softening slightly.
"As for the allegations, I've never been accused of harassment. There was one woman in New York and another in London who made accusations at a close colleague when she they fired were fired for misconduct and espionage, but he was investigated and we settled out of court to keep it out of the papers.”
I reach for her hand again, relieved when she doesn't pull away.
"And Becca, the most important thing—I didn't pursue you to hurt Jack. I've been drawn to you since the first time I saw you.Your intelligence, kindness, and quiet strength drew me to you. But you were with Jack, and despite my feelings about him, I would never interfere in a relationship."
"Then why now?" she asks.
"Because in Cozumel, I saw how he much he mistreated you. How he dismissed you. And when you came back from the beach, crying over his callous and entitled behavior..." I pause, remembering her tear-stained face. "I couldn't stand by anymore. Not when I care about you so much."
Her fingers intertwine with mine, and I feel something loosen in my chest.
"Jack is threatened," I continue. "He always believed he’d inherit the company and now that he and his mother are divorced, he’s scrambling to figure out a future that doesn’t include my wallet. He's lashing out, using the one thing he thinks he can control—you."
"I should have known," Becca says softly, her thumb tracing small circles on my hand. "The things he said just didn't sound like you."
Relief washes over me. She believes me. The knot in my stomach begins to unravel.
"There's more," I add, not wanting to leave anything unsaid. "Jack told Kay about us. That's why he's panicking."
Her eyes widen. "What did she say?"
"Exactly what you'd expect. She called me a cliché—the older man leaving his wife for a younger woman. I reminded her we'd been separated for over a year before Cozumel."
