Trying to sit through a meeting and share her success about Dreams with Wings, should have made Brooke feel triumphant, but instead she felt sick. All she heard was the sneer in Niall’s voice, echoing in her head. It was like a broken record and she couldn’t pick up the needle. Why did he have to ruin everything? Steal the only happiness she’d ever known? She felt the pit of hatred harden. It was money—it always came back to money.

How was she going to get through this?

“Brooke?” Bruce waited at the other end of the conference table.

“Yes?”

“You were going to lay out how we should integrate your design into the website? Do you have that for us?”

She blinked. “Yes. Right. Exactly.”

She scrambled through her notes, looking for the file on the web design. It wasn’t her area of expertise, but she knew how she wanted it to look and feel when donors or families clicked to research the foundation. It would be the main basis for information. It had to be perfect.

“Bruce, I’d like to consult with the web designer and then we could work through that at the next meeting.”

“But we need that for the celebrity endorsement page. That should come up first, don’t you think?” he asked.

Her head pounded. Why was Bruce giving her a hard time? “Sure. But I need a consult first,” she spat the words with more anger than she intended.

“Sorry.” He pushed back from the table. “Let me know when you have something for me to see.”

He marched out of the conference room.

Brooke sighed. She had let her fear surface in front of everyone. She smiled at the group. “Let’s reschedule this meeting for tomorrow. Ok? I think we all need a day after the launch’s success.”

She hurried out of the meeting, looking for a place to hide. She ran to the ladies’ room and splashed water on her face. She dabbed a towel to her neck. She had broken out in a sweat.

There was no way she was going to give Niall money, but if she didn’t, she could lose Lee and Tyler.

She didn’t have enough in her savings to make a payment that would satisfy her greedy cousin. She could take out a loan, but she knew that still wouldn’t be enough to make him happy. If she had been worth six-digits to Tyler in a poker game, Niall had to be thinking a figure somewhere near that.

She leaned into the wall for support. The chills ran through her. Heat and cold. Back and forth, controlling her body with fear and rage.

Where was she going to come up with that kind of money?

* * *

Danny greeted her at the door when she arrived at the penthouse. Lee and Tyler were stuck at the office in a meeting. They told her to go ahead and eat dinner without them.

“Anything you need, Miss?” Danny asked.

“No. I think I’m going to take a hot bath.”

“Should I draw it for you?” he asked.

She looked at him. Danny was instructed to help her with anything she wanted, but that wasn’t something she needed help with.

“I think I’ve got it.” She smiled. “Will you let me know when Tyler or Lee are home?”

“Yes. Dinner is at six.”

She rolled her eyes. She thought maybe since they were out for the night she could eat on her own schedule.

“Ok.” She climbed the stairs, feeling the exhaustion hit her.

Her phone buzzed. She saw Niall’s name appear on the screen this time.

“What is it?” she asked quickly.

“Are we meeting tonight?”

“What? I said I would call you when I had something for you.”

“I’m not patient.”

She reached the top of the stairs and rushed to her room. The last thing she needed was Danny to hear her conversation.

“You’re going to have to be. I don’t have the kind of money you think I do. You gambled me into this situation, Niall. It’s not like you sent me with a dowry.”

“What the fuck is a dowry?”

She hung her head. “It doesn’t matter. It just means, I need some time.”

“You have until the morning. Or I go to the press.”

“Morning? There aren’t piles of cash lying around the house, Niall. I don’t know what you think happens with rich people and money. It’s in accounts, not stuffed in a mattress.”

He blew into the phone. “I don’t care how you get it. Just get it.”

Before she could protest again the line was silent. Brooke looked at the phone. He had hung up on her.

“Shit,” she whispered, sinking on the bed.

Last night she had moved into her new suite of rooms, adjoining both Lee and Tyler’s rooms. She flattened her hand on the pillow where Lee slept and rolled to Tyler’s side. She could still smell them on the pillows. They were her everything.

They would be humiliated if they discovered what she had done. They wouldn’t be able to forgive her. They would never look at her the same way.

Her eyes burned. The tears stung. She loved how they touched her. How they kissed her. How they worshipped her body. The idea that she could lose it because of her past, was suffocating. She fell to the bed as the sobs filled her lungs.

She couldn’t lose them. Not now. Not ever.