I Told You To Run But You Didn't (Georgia) novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Georgia’s POV

C

67%

Finished

Patricia and I were practically floating as we stepped out into the cool night air, the thrill of her victory making us both giddy. Our celebration was cut short by a voice dripping with disdain.

“You really have a flair for the dramatic, don’t you, Gia?”

We turned to see Lucas and Kiara following us out, their faces a mixture of anger and humiliation.

“There’s no need for all of this,” Lucas scoffed, gesturing vaguely at the club. “This whole charade of cozying up to Salvatore to make me jealous… it’s pathetic. If you want a job, you can always just come back to the company.”

Rage, pure and hot, flared in my chest. He thought this was about him? Patricia’s grip on my arm tightened -a silent plea for me to stay calm.

I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I wasn’t trying to annoy you, Lucas. I was helping my friend secure her future. Something you clearly wouldn’t understand.”

“Helping her?” he sneered, his voice rising. “Don’t be ridiculous. What could you possibly know about her business? Have you developed a sudden interest in ‘guns and such”?”

Before I could retort, Kiara glided forward, taking Lucas’s hand and looking at him with a sickeningly sweet expression. She spoke to him, but her words were poisoned darts aimed directly at me.

“Lucas, you can’t blame her for being so… aimless,” Kiara said, her voice oozing fake sympathy. “She’s probably just realized that her little stunt with Mr. Salvatore won’t amount to anything. Powerful men like him are amused by women like her for a night, but they don’t take them seriously. Your offer to let her come back to the company is incredibly generous. It’s more than she deserves, really.”

Patricia gasped, about to launch into a tirade, but I squeezed her arm back. I was icily calm. I looked from Kiara’s smug face to Lucas’s conflicted one.

“It must be terrifying,” I said, my voice soft but clear as glass, “to realize that my life no longer revolves around you. That I can succeed without you. And that other, more important men, take me very, very seriously.”

Lucas flinched as if I’d slapped him. He was clearly losing control of the situation and fell back on his only tactic. He took a frustrated step forward, his voice rising to a shout.

“I’m just saying you can come back to the company! What more could you possibly want from me?!”

I stopped and turned back to him, a humorless smile playing on my lips. “And what exactly would you have me do back at the company?” I retorted.

“Continue pushing the Helios Project forward, of course Lucas said, grabbing the opportunity. “I have intel that Salvatore’s group is looking to invest in a tech company that’s developing highly effective painkillers–~- something using targeted gene therapy or advanced nanobots. You can take charge of the project, just like you were meant to before.”

“What about Jasmine?” I questioned, feigning innocence “Isn’t she in charge of that now?”

“I can reassign Jasmine to other work,” he said dismissively.

Chapter 13

67%

Finished

I let the silence hang for a moment, then looked at him with a cold, piercing gaze. “So, let me get this straight. You think that because I managed to get Estevan to say yes to Patricia’s deal, he would feel obligated to invest in your company if I were in charge of the project?”

A trace of shame and embarrassment crossed Lucas’s face as he realized I had just figured him out.

“What’s wrong with that?” Lucas replied defensively, his voice rising. “I’m simply trying to maximize our profits. It’s beneficial for both the company and our family!”

Family? Did he even hear himself? That was the one word I had longed to hear from him for three years, a word he never used. Now, after parading his affair in front of the entire world, he suddenly remembered we were a family? The hypocrisy was suffocating.

Before I could respond, Kiara stepped forward, placing perfectly manicured hand on Lucas’s chest as if to soothe him. She looked at me not with anger, but with a condescending pity that was infinitely more infuriating.

“Georgia, you have to understand,” she said, her voice sickeningly sweet. “This is how the real world works. Lucas is a brilliant businessman, and he sees an opportunity. You should be flattered he still thinks you have some value to contribute.” She then glanced at Patricia with a dismissive smirk. “Unlike your friend’s little company, Sterling Pharmaceutical Tech is a global enterprise. We can’t rely on charming little accidents and… freebies… to seal our deals. We need every advantage we can get. If your temporary connection to Mr. Salvatore is that advantage, then it’s your duty to the family to,

it.”

I stared at her, stunned by the very an asset, insulted my

best friend, and lectured me on malculated cruelty of her words. She had called.

I had heard enough.

Without another word, I took

***uty” to a family she was actively trying to destroy.

atricia’s hand. “Let’s go, Tricia.”

Patricia stopped dead in her tracks, pulling her hand from mine. She turned around slowly, a dangerous smile spreading across her face.

“Excuse me? I think I misheard you,” she said, her voice deceptively calm. I tried to pull her away, but she stood firm.

“You heard me,” Kiara snapped, clearly feeling emboldened.

“Oh, I heard you,” Patricia said, taking a slow step toward them. “You talk about the ‘real world’ and enterprises’ as if you have any idea what it takes to build something. My ‘little company’ was built fr scratch on integrity and innovation-concepts you wouldn’t understand. We don’t need ‘charming accidents’ because our products speak for themselves.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify