I didn’t read up on Megaland because I didn’t want to know what my father was doing with my company.

I mean, his company.

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind he would take care of the company, but I was disappointed he saw what direction I was taking it in. It was basically like looking at my playbook.

It was unfortunate.

Even as weeks went by, I couldn’t swallow the defeat. He came into my office and robbed me, but I did nothing to stop it. All I could do was put my hands in the air and let him walk out—with my balls in his pocket.

I sacrificed business for romance.

Something I promised myself I would never do.

But Titan was my woman, and I loved her too damn much to let anything bad happen to her. She worked so hard to retain respect from men in her field. If the world thought she was cheating on Thorn with me, she would never live it down. It would haunt her for decades.

My company wasn’t worth that lifetime of sorrow.

Besides, she was going to be my wife someday.

I didn’t know how, but she would. She’d arrived at my penthouse drunk and said everything I wanted to hear. She had doubts about her marriage to Thorn. She wanted to marry me instead. Liters of alcohol showed her true colors, her profound vulnerability. She was just as weak as I was, miserable at the thought of letting me go.

We would make this work.

I needed to do something to make her choose me, but I didn’t know what else I could do. I had no evidence to support my innocence. All I could do was show her how much I loved her with every action I took.

Eventually, the lack of evidence wouldn’t matter.

She simply couldn’t live without me.

The way I couldn’t live without her.

I was at my office when the news showed a video that had been released to the press—and it included me.

Someone had sent in a video of my father and me from the charity gala. We spoke to each other in the corner of the room, both of us fiercely hostile with unnecessary space in between us. There was no audio, thankfully. But it was obvious we hated each other. We didn’t even shake hands.

The story accompanying the video made it even worse.

Vincent and Diesel Hunt are still at war with one another, over a decade into their feud. A few months ago, Diesel Hunt shared his version of the story with one of our team members, and this evidence seems to support his account. Vincent Hunt is seen standing across from his own son and doesn’t even offer a handshake. Few words are exchanged before he abruptly walks away. Did Vincent Hunt treat his son just as badly as his stepson, Brett Maxwell? We reached out to Vincent Hunt’s office for comment but haven’t received a response.

“Jesus Christ…” I rubbed my temple as I listened to the rest of the story, which made my father sound like an even bigger scumbag. Technically, it was completely accurate, but I didn’t need any more fuel added to the fire. He already took Megaland away from me. I didn’t want to make my life even more difficult.

But he wouldn’t take this lying down. My father was stubborn and prideful. He didn’t care much about what other people thought of him, but having the entire world critique his parenting skills would unnerve him.

It was only a matter of time before I heard from him again.

My cell phone rang, and I saw Titan’s name on the screen. She never called me during business hours, so I knew exactly what this was about. I answered. “Hey, baby.” I didn’t think twice before I spoke to her that way. No one was in my office, so I could say whatever the hell I wanted. Besides, I wasn’t in the mood to censor myself.

She didn’t correct me, which told me she knew about the news story. “I’m assuming you already saw it.”

“Yep, just finished,” I said with a sigh.

“I wonder who got that video.”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” In a world of social media and endless cameras, it was impossible for every little detail not to be captured.

“He’s not going to like this, is he?”

“Nope.” He’d probably already punched a hole in the wall by now.

“Maybe you should be proactive and tell him you had nothing to do with this.”

I wasn’t doing a damn thing, not when he came down here and threatened to destroy my woman’s life. “No.”

“Diesel—”

“No.” I wasn’t telling her what I did, not yet. And I definitely wasn’t going to tell her over the phone. “It is what it is. He’s a smart man. I’m sure he’ll figure out I had nothing to do with this.”

“But you did indirectly cause it.”

There was no denying that.

“Do you need anything?” she asked quietly. She took time out of her busy day just to call me. I knew very few people were afforded that luxury, earned her devoted concern. As far as I knew, it was just Thorn and me.

“No.”

Titan knew my bad attitude wasn’t going to change. “Alright. I’ll talk to you later.”

I shouldn’t be a dick to her, not when she was just checking on me. She didn’t deserve that. So I forced myself to speak, even through gritted teeth. “Thank you for calling me.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Diesel. Bye.”

In a moment of weakness, I did something I’d never done before. “Love you.” I’d heard tons of people say it to their significant others over the phone, but I’d never done it before. The words shot out like they had their own power. It didn’t matter how angry I was, I should always show her what she meant to me. I lost my temper once before and pushed her away unnecessarily. It was a dick move. Now that I could lose her at any moment, I had to fight even harder for her.

“Love you too.”

---

An hour before the office closed, Natalie spoke through the intercom. “Sir…Vincent Hunt is here to see you.” Her voice shook in a way it never had before. It even cracked a little, like the pressure was too much.

I suspected my father hadn’t said a word to her. He probably walked inside and just stared at her, knowing she would figure out exactly what he wanted.

It’s what I would do. “Send him in, Natalie.” This time, I was prepared for this arrival. This time, I knew what was coming. He’d stopped by my office unexpectedly in the past, but now I always expected him, every minute of the day.

He stepped inside my office, a powerhouse in a navy blue suit. With a different watch on his wrist and shiny shoes on his feet, he moved at a quick pace, his massive shoulders rigid with his intense rage.

I could feel it.

He dropped into the chair and set his fierce expression on me. It was different from all the others because this was a new level of anger. If the desk weren’t in between us, he might throw a punch right into my jaw.

I held his gaze without blinking.

He didn’t drag out the tension like he usually did. This time, he got right to the point. “Bridges continue to burn, but you never learn.”

“It wasn’t me.”

His eyes narrowed in hostility, and he didn’t show an ounce of belief. “I taught you to be a man. And men don’t lie. Whatever your crime may be, you fess up to it. You do your time and walk away free.”

“I know.” I leaned back in my chair. “And I still didn’t do it. Someone else must have leaked that to the press and got a nice paycheck out of it.”

My father stared at me with increased anger. This conversation seemed to be making him more upset, not less. “I’m sick of your bullshit, Diesel. You went to the world and painted me as the bad guy. But they don’t understand what you took away from me.”

“I didn’t take anything away from you.”

He rose to his feet and stood over my desk, casting a shadow like a tall mountain. “You took away the most important thing in the world. And now I’m going to take away the most important thing in the world to you.”

Titan. “You already took Megaland. Give it a rest.”

He gripped the edge of my desk, his veins expanding with the tension. His jaw was so tight it might snap in half. His eyes remained the same, but they always looked full of rage anyway. “End things with Titan. Or I’m sending every photograph to the press.”

This was worse than taking Megaland. This was the worst thing he could possibly do to me. He could wipe my bank accounts clean, but I would still be fine. But to take away the one thing that made me happy was insufferable. I rose to my feet and met his gaze. “Keep her out of this. This is between you and me.”

“You were the one who got her involved in the first place, Diesel. You threw me under the bus to spare her.”

I still didn’t know how he knew that. My father was unnaturally intelligent. He’d skipped several grades in school when he was young, and he graduated at the top of his class from Harvard. He was the smartest man I knew, but this still surprised me. “It doesn’t make the story untrue.”

“But you didn’t have to tell the world about our dirty laundry. You crossed a line.”

“And you crossed a line when you threw Brett out on his ass.”

“He was an adult. It was time he grew up anyway.”

I knew he would never see Brett as one of us. They had no genetic relation, but that shouldn’t change anything. “Leave Titan out of this. I mean it. I’ve given you Megaland. You’ve already won, alright? You beat me. Congratu-fucking-lations.”

His eyes narrowed. “You think we’re even?”

“More than even.”

“You destroyed my reputation. You told the world only one side of the story, and I’ve never had the chance to say mine. Now they think I’m some heartless father who doesn’t give a damn about his family.”

“And is that untrue?” I snapped. “It’s dead on. We haven’t spoken once in the last ten years. I’ve gone to mom’s grave every single year, and I’ve never seen you there—not once.”

He stood back, his arms shaking with anger. It was unclear what would happen next because it seemed like he might actually hit me. “Because her grave is in my heart.” He jabbed his finger into his chest as he spoke. “Because every damn day it’s her funeral again. It’s her birthday again. It’s our wedding again. Don’t stand there and act like I don’t love your mother just as much now as I did when she was alive.”

I’d never heard him say anything about her since she’d died. He was dead silent about it. After her funeral, he became a different person. He never mentioned her.

“Don’t talk about something you don’t understand.” He brought his voice back down, but his tone remained just as deadly. “My ultimatum still stands. You end things with Titan, or I’ll destroy her.”

I shook my head. “I’ll give you anything else except that. Seize all my businesses. Take my cars. Take my yachts.”

“Money means nothing to me,” he whispered. “An eye for an eye.”

“This isn’t an eye for an eye,” I snapped. “I didn’t take Mom from you.”

“No.” He slammed his hand on my desk. “But you took you away.”

I stopped breathing as I stared at the ferocity in his eyes. His expression slowly softened into a look of abject pain. It was almost difficult to look at.

“You’re my oldest son. And you took him away from me.”

“I didn’t—”

“Choose, Diesel. Break it off with her in the next forty-eight hours, or the world will know about your affair. And if you think you can carry it on without me knowing, think again. I have ten different men tailing you at all times.” He turned around and walked to the door, his rage still filling the entire room. It was a different kind of anger, a kind mixed with heavy pain. He stopped at the door and turned around.

It seemed like he might say something, whether it was harsh or soft. But his stare continued with no words. He finally opened the door and walked out, buttoning his suit as he went. He didn’t look back.

But I kept watching him anyway.

---

My father forced my hand, and I had no other choice.

I had to tell Titan everything.

I thought I had more time to figure this out, to convince her to choose me, but now I had to apply the pressure. She needed to make her decision now. She had to end things with Thorn publicly and choose me.

It wasn’t ideal.

She wouldn’t like it.

But it had to be this way.

When the workday ended, I headed straight to Titan’s penthouse. I didn’t hit the gym like I usually would, and I didn’t change out of my suit. The elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside.

Her shoes were next to the couch, and her satchel was on the table. She must have just walked inside minutes before I did.

“Baby?”

She emerged out of the hallway, in a black dress with three-quarter sleeves. Without her shoes, she was four inches shorter, but it didn’t distract from her powerful presence. A gold bracelet was on her wrist along with a matching necklace. Her eyes landed on me, roaming over my expansive shoulders as she crossed the room and headed to me. “This is a nice surprise…”

If only she knew.

I could blurt out everything right then and there, but now that I was looking at her beautiful figure, I decided to be quiet for a few more minutes. My volatile attraction to her always made me lose my train of thought.

She grabbed my shoulders and lifted herself onto her tiptoes to kiss me.

I kissed her back, my hands squeezing her hips. My stubble brushed against her mouth, and I felt her perfume sear my senses. Time seemed to stop anytime I kissed her. I could feel my own pulse in my neck. I could feel my body come alive, burning everywhere as I enjoyed the innate chemistry we shared.

All my anger faded away.

I had nothing to worry about. I believed in what we had. I would tell her my father’s ultimatum, and she would choose me.

It would be that simple.

Our kiss lasted a minute, a long greeting between a man and a woman. My fingertips explored her body, feeling her petite waist and the gentle grooves of her ribs. I pulled away slightly and looked into her gaze.

Her lips were slightly parted like she didn’t want our embrace to stop.

I never wanted our kiss to stop. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Her hands trailed down my arms until they rested on my forearms. “Alright.”

“My father stopped by my office.”

The desire in her eyes faded away. She instantly shifted, her attitude changing once she realized the severity of the situation. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not. He gave me an envelope full of pictures of the two of us.”

Her face turned stark white, the blood draining from her cheeks. It happened instantly, quicker than the snap of a finger.

“There was a picture of us kissing in the hallway at the gala…among others. He’s captured me entering your building late at night…you leaving mine. He’d been tailing us for a while.”

“Fucking asshole.”

I had worse words to describe him.

“What does he want?” She got right to the point, knowing he wouldn’t be tailing us unless there was a reason he wanted dirt on us.

“He’s going to show everything to the press unless I stop seeing you.” I looked into her fiery green eyes and didn’t feel afraid. The conversation would be painful, but we would get through it. She would choose me. I didn’t have any doubts anymore.

“What?” she asked incredulously. “What does he get out of that? What’s the point?”I shrugged. “He wants me to suffer…and he knows you’re the most important thing to me.”

She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “I can’t believe that.”

“He said a few other things to me…that I took myself away from him. That’s why he’s upset.”

Her eyes softened, but only slightly. “I knew it.”

“But that doesn’t matter. If he really wanted to be on speaking terms again, he should go about it a better way. He doesn’t want to reconcile. He just wants revenge for what I did to him.”

“So, you think he’s not bluffing?”

I shook my head. “He’s definitely not bluffing. He said I have to break things off in forty-eight hours. He’ll know if I followed through.” There was probably someone watching the building right now. Thankfully, all the windows were tinted, so no one could see us inside.

She stepped back and tucked her hair behind her ear, showing an emotion no one else had ever witnessed from her—fear. She was unnerved by all of this, sick to her stomach. It was my initial reaction too, but I couldn’t reveal it to my father. “Fuck.”

“I’m sorry he brought you into this.”

She paced back and forth, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “Unbelievable.”

“I know.”

She paced for another minute before she came back to me. She stopped in front of me, her face tilted to the floor. She breathed shakily, the distress hiding the beautiful features of her face. “I’m not ready for this to end yet…”

Both of my eyebrows rose slowly. “It’s not going to end.”

“Now right now…but it will tomorrow.”

What? Was she serious? “You’re kidding me, right?”

She shifted her eyes back to me, her expression full of the torment in her heart. “What other choice do we have?”

The obvious choice. My rage started to simmer under my skin, making me scalding hot everywhere. Like someone dumped boiling water all over me, I burned from the inside out. My hands tightened into fists because I had no other outlet to express my rage. “You choose me, Titan. That’s our choice.”

The blood drained from her face again. A thin film of moisture covered her eyes. “Hunt, I told you—”

“You told me not to let you go.”

“What…?”

“The other night when you were drunk, you told me you didn’t want to lose me. You said you didn’t want to let me go. You told me you didn’t want to marry Thorn so soon because you couldn’t walk away from me yet. And now you’re ready to walk away from me tomorrow?” Losing my temper wouldn’t help the situation, but I couldn’t control it. My patience was officially gone. I’d been a dirty secret for too long. I put up with the nightmare only because I loved her so much. I understood her fears, her trust issues. I even understood how guilty I looked. But now I was strung too tight. I couldn’t keep doing this anymore.

“I’ll never be ready to walk away from you…as long as I live.”

“Then. Be. With. Me.”

“I told you I was going to marry Thorn. I said that when we agreed to keep seeing each other.”

“Then change your mind,” I snapped. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. If you don’t want to marry him, don’t.”

“You know that’s now how it works.”

“Yes, it does,” I hissed. “End it with Thorn. Step out with me. And that’s the end of the story.”

“And betray my best friend?” she asked incredulously. “I can’t do that.”

“Talk to him.”

She shook her head. “Hunt, I can’t do that. I made my decision, and I have to stick to it. It’s a commitment.”

I stepped back, my shoulders so tense the muscles started to hurt. “I’ve done everything for you, Titan. I’ve sacrificed so much…shit you don’t even know. I’m tired of being a lie. I’m tired of being a secret. If you really loved me, really trusted me, you would know I’m innocent. You would choose me, and that would be the end of the story.” There was no point in telling her about Megaland because it wouldn’t change anything. I’d already given her everything that I had, and it still wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough for this woman.

The tears welled and turned into drops.

“I’m sick of this bullshit, Titan.” My love for her wasn’t enough anymore. I was disappointed in her. I respected her pragmatism. I respected her for being cautious. I even respected her for ending things with me in the first place. But after everything we’d been through, all the long nights of making love, I couldn’t believe this was her decision. “I’m not doing it anymore. I’ve already given you all of myself…and now I don’t have anything else to give.”

Tears rolled down her face, one of the few times I’d seen her cry. “You know I love you…”

“You don’t love me enough.”

“Don’t say that to me. You were the one with the files in your drawer. You were the one caught kissing some woman. You were the one caught red handed. If that had never happened—”

“I didn’t do it, Titan. In a relationship, there is trust. You need to trust me. Would you love me so damn much if I were really a liar?”

No response.

I’d never love another woman as long as I lived. I believed you could fall in love more than once, but if it took me thirty-five years to fall in love for the first time, it was unlikely it would ever happen again. This was it for me. It was either Titan, or it was no one. I didn’t want to walk away from this, even now. But I wasn’t going to settle for less than what I deserved. My patience had reached a breaking point.

She was still quiet, tears streaming down her face.

“This is it, Titan.” I kept several feet in between us, the kind of distance we only showed when we were in public. We were already divided even though I hadn’t walked out yet. We were over before the words had officially been said. “We’re in this together. Or we’re apart. It all depends on you. If you want to marry Thorn, fine. I’m not gonna chase you anymore. I’ll move on with my life, go back to a different woman every night as I try to forget about you, and you’ll be in a loveless marriage. We’ll both be miserable. But if that’s what you want, I’m not gonna fight it anymore.”

Her eyes shifted back and forth as she looked into mine, the tears pooling at her chin before they fell to the floor.

“Or we could be together. We could tell Thorn what we want. He might be upset, but he’ll understand. You guys could announce your split amicably before my father even has a chance to do anything. Then we could be public. People might think we were seeing each other when you were with Thorn, but who gives a fuck? Maybe my father will release those pictures, and the world will see them. So what? We’ll be happy, and that’s all that matters. I don’t give a shit about my reputation, and you shouldn’t give a damn about yours—as long as we have each other.”

More tears emerged from her eyes, the intensity quickening. She didn’t release a sob or change her breathing, but she was still torn into pieces. Her arms tightened over her chest, and she seemed smaller than usual. The powerful woman I knew was fading right before my eyes. She struggled right in front of me.

“Pick me, Titan. We’ll figure it out—together.”

When she severed our eye contact, I knew her answer. “I can’t, Hunt.”

I was stupid to think she would give a different answer. The decision filled me with more pain than I anticipated. Tears didn’t appear in my eyes, but I felt like I’d just shed a million tears. My chest hurt. All my muscles ached. I felt winded even though she didn’t lay a hand on me. I’d been stabbed in the front and the back—at the exact same time.

I was heartbroken.

She quickly wiped the tears off her face and sniffled. “There are so many reasons why I can’t…”

“I don’t want to hear them again.” My body suddenly shut down because that was all I could do to cope. The pain was too much, and I had to protect myself as best I could. I felt betrayed and gutted. There was nothing I could do to prove myself because Titan had her mind made up from the beginning. She was too afraid to trust me—to look past the evidence and have faith in me.

I deserved better than that.

I understood her reasoning, but I didn’t agree with it.

There was no going forward.

It was just over.

I didn’t kiss her goodbye. I didn’t take her bed one last time.

It was the first time I didn’t want her.

I gave her one final look in the eye, knowing it was the last time I would ever look at her this way. Until I stepped inside that elevator, she was still mine. She was still Tatum. But tomorrow, she would just be a business partner. She would just be another suit in the boardroom. She wouldn’t be my friend anymore because I’d never wanted her friendship. I wanted all of her—or nothing. “Goodbye, Tatum.”

She took another deep breath, the pain heavy in her eyes. When I disappeared into the elevator, she would sob. I could tell just by looking at her. But despite that pain, she wouldn’t ask me to stay.

I held her gaze for another moment before I finally turned my back to her. I hit the button and waited for the elevator to arrive, knowing she was still standing behind me. The minutes seemed to stretch on forever. Finally, the doors opened and I got inside.

I hit the button and stared at the floor.

The doors finally closed.

And the weight of the end hit me. The elevator began its descent to the lobby, and I felt my stomach tighten in misery. Pain bubbled in my throat, and I couldn’t swallow the burn. My tongue felt too big for my mouth, and the grief choked me. Every breath I took didn’t seem to be enough.

I recognized the sensation because I remembered the last time I felt it.

When my mother died.

But unlike then, I didn’t cry.

I did my best not to, refusing to let her break me.

But the burn reached my eyes, the moisture threatening to saturate my face.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and forced the emotions to disappear. I forced myself to straighten, to square my shoulders like a man. I loved Titan with all my heart, really loved her. I wasn’t just losing a woman. I was losing the one person who meant the world to me. But I couldn’t let that shake me. I had to be strong, to carry on. She wasn’t worth my tears, not when she wouldn’t choose me.

When the doors opened in the lobby, I’d conquered my emotions.

I was ready to go on.

And hope I would find happiness again…someday.