The Best Revenge It Wasn't Even Your Child novel Chapter 71

“I’m not going to leave her. She won’t be left alone.” Lance’s voice was calm, completely unmoved by her threat. “You should start thinking about how you’re going to explain all this to the board when I get to the bottom of it.”

“You…” Belinda sucked in a sharp breath.

***

Catherine sat in her living room, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself. After a moment, she pulled out her phone and accepted Gavin’s friend request from last night.

Gavin sent over a meme almost instantly.

Without hesitating, Catherine tapped to start a voice call. “Gavin, you’ve seen the news, right? SilverLeaf Industries thinks I leaked the data to you. Can you help clear my name?”

Her voice was tense, a little desperate.

Gavin hadn’t seen a thing. He only opened the finance headlines after she brought it up.

“Holy crap. Who at Golden Horizon is pulling this kind of dirty move?”

Catherine paused for a beat. “It’s probably your dad.”

Gavin’s father had taken over Golden Horizon after Gavin had been pushed out. A story this big wasn’t hard to trace, and if Golden Horizon was behind it, his father definitely had to know.

Gavin groaned. “You know how my dad is. He doesn’t care about loyalty or feelings. If he’s involved, you’re just out of luck.”

Basically, even if he wanted to help, there wasn’t much he could do.

Catherine hadn’t realized Gavin had so little sway with his father.

“You might as well resign now. When I’m back at Golden Horizon…”

Before Gavin could finish, another call came in and interrupted him.

He glanced at the screen and answered.

“Who is this?”

Lance’s voice came through, cold and steady. “Do you want your seat back at Golden Horizon or not?”

Gavin was silent.

Of course he wanted it. But the way Lance was talking, like he controlled everything, made Gavin’s skin crawl.

“Catherine, I’ve been thinking. This mess started because of me, so I can’t just walk away. But I have a condition.”

Catherine was a little surprised. She’d expected him to back out, not to change his mind after just a few minutes.

“What’s your condition?”

“From now on, I’m going to pursue you, openly. You’re not allowed to avoid me,” Gavin said, his tone completely serious.

Catherine’s hand tightened around her phone. Her brows knitted together.

“Gavin, this isn’t funny. Don’t mess around like this.”

She knew Gavin liked to joke, but if he really made a scene, people would start paying attention to her. That was the last thing she wanted. She just wanted to blend into the background, to keep herself and her child out of the spotlight.

“Catherine, you really don’t know how charming you are. I mean it, I’m genuinely interested,” Gavin said, and there was something else hidden in his words.

Any woman who could make Lance lose control and kiss her… she had to be special.

Catherine hesitated, torn. Was it really worth getting tangled up with someone like Gavin just to fix things at work?