FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 197

CHAPTER 197

– JAMIE

》(76)

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For a second, nobody moved. The sound of the slap still seemed to hang in the air when a chair scraped across the floor and someone near the counter dropped a spoon.

Simon stayed on his feet, his face turned to one side, his arms hanging at his sides. I knew that expression. He was fighting with everything he had not to react.

“Ma’am, please,” I began, getting up too.

“Please?” She let out a broken laugh. “That’s what my daughter said when she started losing her sight. Please, somebody do something!”

Every table was watching us now. Martin rose slowly, but Simon gave him a subtle signal to stay back.

“What’s your daughter’s name?” Simon asked.

The woman clutched her purse tighter.

“Emily. Emily Carter. She was a model. A beautiful girl with so many dreams. She’d just signed with an agency when she used that garbage one of your companies sold her!”

Her voice rose. A waitress stopped in the middle of the aisle.

“At first, she said her eyes were burning. Then came the pain… The doctors tried, but they couldn’t save her sight. My daughter is only twenty-three.”

Her voice cracked. She pressed her lips together, struggling to go on.

“I brought my baby home today. I was helping her get dressed, and she asked which dress I’d picked out. I told her it was the blue one. Her favorite.”

She wiped at her face, unable to hold back her tears.

“She kept running her fingers over the fabric… Then she asked if I was sure. It’s the dress she’s worn a hundred times, and she had to ask me if I was sure.”

She tried to keep talking, but the sobs wouldn’t let her. It was as though she’d spent days holding herself together and finally couldn’t do it anymore.

My chest tightened. I swallowed hard, fighting back tears, but my eyes were already full.

“I’m so sorry about Emily,” I said. “We’re investigating every complaint. If the company is responsible, she’ll receive compensation. I’ll personally make sure her case is reviewed.”

“Compensation?” she screamed. “You think I want money?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

76

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“Will he make my daughter see again? Will he?” She pointed a trembling finger at Simon. “Answer me!”

Simon looked at her, his expression grave, his eyes shining with an emotion he rarely let anyone see.

“No,” he said at last. “I can’t give her sight back.”

“Then stop talking about compensation!”

She lunged forward. I tried to step between them, but Simon gently caught my arm and moved me out of her path.

The second slap struck his other cheek.

“Simon!” I cried.

He didn’t retaliate. He just stood there, jaw clenched, shoulders rigid. The silence afterward was worse than the shouting.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rough.

The woman seemed to lose her breath.

“Sorry doesn’t change what happened.”

“I know.”

“You don’t know a damn thing, you filthy rich bastard!”

He lowered his eyes for a moment. When he looked at her again, there was a painful resolve in his face.

“I won’t pretend to know what your daughter is going through. But I will find out what happened. And I won’t ask you to trust me until I do.”

Martin offered his card and briefly explained how she could have a representative submit Emily’s medical records to help expedite compensation. The woman didn’t even look at him.

Simon took my hand.

“Let’s go.”

We headed for the exit with her voice following us.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you! My daughter will never be able to look at anyone again!”

I saw two people holding up their phones. The door shut behind us, muffling her cries. Cold air hit my

face.

Simon opened my car door, the way he always did. Only then did he walk around and get in. He didn’t start the engine right away. He stared at the steering wheel, breathing slowly.

“You didn’t deserve that,” I said.

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

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“It’s okay. She needed somewhere to put all that pain. If a product from one of my companies did that to her daughter, the least I could do was stand there and listen.”

“Listening doesn’t mean you have to let someone hit you.”

He looked at me, then turned his gaze toward the street. The mark on his cheek was growing redder.

“I know, babe. I’m not saying she was right to hit me. I just couldn’t bring myself to be angry with her after hearing all that.”

I didn’t know what to say. He started the car, and we drove in silence.

The city slipped past the windows in blurs of light and motion. There were so many things I wanted to tell him, but none of them felt right.

After a while, he turned off the busy avenues and took a road that climbed toward an overlook above the city. He parked facing the glittering skyline. In the distance, the buildings shone, indifferent to everything.

Simon shut off the engine, dragged a hand through his hair, and let out a long breath.

He leaned his head against the seat.

“I’m scared of what we’re going to find.”

That admission hurt more than the slaps. Simon always seemed capable of facing down any disaster. Hearing him admit he was afraid made him seem even more vulnerable to me.

I unbuckled my seat belt, moved closer, and swung a leg across his thighs, settling into his lap. His hands went instinctively to my waist.

“Jamie, we’re in public.”

“We’ve done this before, and you didn’t seem to mind then.”

A small, tired smile touched his lips.

I cupped his face in both hands, careful of the red marks.

“Look at me.”

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