The Carrero Effect - Falling for the Boss (Billionaire CEO) novel Chapter 74

“What do you really want? Be honest … I might actually give it to you if you are.” I test him. He has the grace to look uncomfortable at least, and shiftily looks away. I can smell booze at this distance and it’s the first time I notice the yellow stained whites in his eyes. Maybe he’s a drunk. Maybe it’s drugs. I don’t care!

“I could do with a little help out … Get back on my feet, you know?” he answers sheepishly, barely able to look at me.

“You mean money?” I grit my teeth so hard it hurts my jaw. His face flushes and he nods.

“What is my middle name?” I snap suddenly. My frayed emotions kicking in and teen Emma sliding out impulsively.

“Ummm.” He moves back, blinking hard.

“What is my birth date?” I yell, this time loudly, voice shaking. He gulps and tries to look anywhere except me.

“Do you even know what age I am?” I scream in his face, fully erupting as his inability to answer consumes me and my composure dissolves. He looks like he’s going to run. I throw my hands up in exasperation and turn away before I truly explode.

“How much money do you need to get the fuck away from me?” I am so beyond mad I can barely think straight, heart pounding through my chest and head aching badly. I just want to curl up and cry right now. Body in full trembles.

“If it’s like that, then as much as you can spare.” He whispers, there’s a hint of success in his tone that hits like a final spear in my chest. Splicing agony.

I’m floored. I can’t even formulate a response; It rises up inside of me like a volcano about to blow out spectacularly. All-consuming, pushing down any rational thought, after the week I’ve had, the month I’ve had. The heartbreak I have sobbed through. The lack of self-worth because of men like this shithead right here.

I spin and impulsively slap him hard across the face, with the force of all my pent-up emotions of the last week and all the shit Jake has put me through. The strength of the impact stings my hand and I recoil, gasping in shock as it reverberates like a throbbing pulse through my wrist, shaking me back to sense.

What the hell did I just do?

His eyes are huge, and he falls into the corner of the elevator with the sheer force of my smack. I’ve never actually lashed out and hit anyone just like that, with unprovoked violence. I can’t talk. I’m in as much shock as he is at what I just did. I just shake my head, words catching in my throat as I stifle a sob and run for an escape. The doors are still open, and I blindly move with speed, immersed in a surge of hysteria.

I head for the stairs, kicking off my shoes erratically and hurtle past a couple of shocked suited women, in passing. I hit the stairwell in its gloomy darkness, tumble clumsily down a few steps, hurting my ankle and sink down onto the cold metal to let loose. My chest caving in, and I’m struggling for breath. My head is a jumbled mess of confusion, adrenaline coursing through me savagely and I wail with pain as the tears begin to cascade.

I clutch at my head yanking my hair as though to calm the chaos.

I just assaulted a man in the elevator of my high-profile workplace!

I’m pretty sure security have cameras in there and I’ve probably just broken about ten laws. I can’t get up. I can’t make my legs work. My breathing is labored as the sheer panic at what I have done sets in and my body is unresponsive to my commands.

Why did he have to come here? Why did he have to ask me for money? Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?

My mind spirals out of control, my body turning into a mass of shakes and shivers, the realization dawning on me like hitting a brick wall. The tears increase to fall thick and fast, realization I have literally, single-handedly destroyed my career, over someone who was always supposed to love me.

Why did he have to do that? Could he not pretend, even for one minute, that I was worth more than money? Genuinely want to know me?

As much as I hate him, it still crushes me to know that the only value I have, to my own biological father, is in how much cash I can give him. I break down fully, howling, and falling to pieces. I can’t breathe, this pain is too much and now to top it off, I’ll be fired for sure. The only worthwhile thing in my life, and I go and do something that is sure to get me dismissed.