I emerge from Harry Winston on Fifth Avenue with a few extra dollars, and a lot less weight in my pockets. I suppose I should be happy about unloading the engagement ring from hell, but I’m not.

I climb inside the limo and instruct Earl to take me to the office. The meeting with the board is in a half-hour, and all of the board will be there.

It’s been a week since I left Lily, and a lifetime of changes have happened in the interim. My father passed away that Tuesday, and since then, everything has been about preparations for his funeral. He’s been in the ground for two days, and now, the company is anxious to move on.

And they’ll move on with me at the helm.

This is what I want. It doesn’t matter what Dan has found out about Lily. All I have to say is that we were close, I had been considering marrying her, but now the engagement is off, leaving me to fully concentrate on the business. Many of them are bachelors, so they will appreciate that. Sure, having my father’s blessing would have meant a lot, but I will convince them that I am the right man for the job, nonetheless. I’ve convinced people of things that were a lot harder to believe.

I close my eyes, thinking of Lily.

When I do, I think of her sweet body, hovering over me, those gorgeous tits in my hands. I think of the way she trembled against me as she came. But more than that, I think of her selfless heart. The way she sacrificed everything for the people she loves.

And that’s not me.

As much as I want it to be. That can’t be me. I’m about business. Not charity.

I look at my phone, open to the last message I sent her. She’s read it, but hasn’t replied, almost as if she realized it was a mistake, too.

Fuck. Part of me wanted her to fight. If she’d fought for me, maybe I’d . . .

No, definitely. I wouldn’t be able to turn her down. I’m powerless with her. But if she knew that, would it matter? She has so many people who love her and care about her in her life, and she doesn’t need me.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Winchester,” another one of my father’s employees says to me as I walk to the office. I’ve been told it about a thousand times today, and though I know they mean well, I just want everyone to shut the fuck up.

When I get to my father’s office, Dan is standing in the doorway, holding a banker’s file to his chest, looking like he’s already moved in. “You’re late,” he says. “You called this meeting, and you’re late. Seriously?”

I frown at him. “Don’t give me shit,” I mumble under my breath. “I had somewhere to be.”

He rolls his eyes as I drop my briefcase inside. Funny, his things are already stacked on the desk, as if he really does think he already owns the place. We walk in silence to the room, and the tension pings back and forth off of us, making the air surrounding us suffocatingly hot. Before we get to the conference room, he mutters, “I don’t know why you’re hanging on like this. You know what dad wanted.”

“I know what he may have wanted, but I want to do what’s in the best interest of the company I’ve been running,” I mutter back to him.

The door opens. Anderson, who is about eighty and used to be one of my father’s best friends, lets us in, a somber look on his face. I can’t tell if it’s because my father is dead, or because he knows I have no chance at this company anymore. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he says to both of us.

“Thank you,” I say, as Dan and I take the only empty seats around the massive boardroom table. I raise my eyes and meet Dan’s. He purses his lips, a simpering smile on his face. Asshole.

Anderson says, “You understand our situation, Mrs. Winchester. We are in the difficult spot right now of having to select a new CEO after your father’s unfortunate passing. You both have considerable qualities that I know that either of you would be a great asset to the company. However, there can only be one.”

We both nod. “I understand,” I say.

He looks at me. “In the past, your father has expressed reservations at your wild spending, your substantial risk-taking, and your social life that leads to a lack of stability. He has therefore strenuously recommended that Daniel Winchester succeed him at the helm of the company.

Dan nods seriously, and clasps his hands under his chin, which was one of my father’s signature moves. I want to smack that look off his face. As much as he tries to stone his face, I see that sly smile beneath his facade. He’s enjoying this.

“So we have to ask you, what you actually think you might be able to contribute. I heard from your father that you’re engaged? Congratulations, by the way.”

I start to shake my head, but Dan speaks before I can. “Actually, I have sufficient evidence to lay before you today that will prove that my brother’s engagement was nothing but a farce.”

One of the men gasps, and a murmur rises up. Anderson’s furry white brow knits. “Is this true?”

“Oh, it’s true, all right,” Dan says once again, before I can get a word out. He reaches into the banker’s file and pulls out a bunch of slips, which he spreads over the table. It’s all the things I’d expected he’d find. “He paid an obscene amount of money for a woman whom he groomed to be the perfect wife. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is, he met her at a sex club. She’s a prostitute.”

“Lily’s not a prostitute,” I snap at him. “Don’t call her that. And I . . . care for her. Very deeply.”

I swallow, surprised with myself. Admitting that wasn’t as hard as I thought.

Then I look at the members of the board, who are staring at me like I’m a piece of shit.

“All right, I know it sounds bad,” I begin, rising to my feet. Time to bring out the speech I’d stayed up all night, reciting to myself. They want to hear I’m focused on the business, and only the business. I’ve dealt successfully with them for a year, and I know how they tick. “And I know how it must look. Yes, I may take risks, and make unorthodox moves, and I haven’t exactly been a family man. But I guarantee you that no one wants this business to succeed more than I do.”

I push my chair back under the table. “First, I want to say that I know the ins and outs of this company, and when my father fell ill, I took control and have poured every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears I have into making Winchester Properties the most successful real estate development company in the city. I understand I’m not conventional.

“And in a lot of ways, my brother Dan is the opposite of me. He’s very conservative with company funds. He likes to play things safe. And his vision for the company is one that might keep things stable, and the same, without trying to grow us in the way we’ve been growing. To me, that is a mistake.”

Dan shakes his head. “That’s not--

“Please allow me to continue,” I say, holding up a hand. I pause, looking at every one of them, stopping at Dan. I can’t believe I’m really going to say it until the words are out in the open.

“What I’m interested in is a partnership. An equal sharing of the CEO role, if you will.”

Dan drops his chin down to his chest and shakes his head slowly, and the men exchange worried glances. Anderson says, “That isn’t going to . . .”

“Listen to me. This CEO job is one my father knew was too much for any one person. He knew that so much that when he realized he was neglecting my mother, he pulled back, and loosened the reigns on it, hiring other people to stand in. You can’t run this company alone and maintain your family,” I say, looking at Dan in particular. “And I don’t think I can maintain a life working as hard as I have the past few years. I haven’t taken a vacation in ages. It’s too hard.”

Dan sits there, frozen, like he isn’t sure whether to believe me.

“I’m not saying that because I don’t want you on board, Dan, at the helm of things,” I tell him. “I’m telling you that because I believe you have assets to contribute, and that we need you. I have something to contribute, too, and we complement each other. I think if we work together we’ll make Winchester Properties better than ever.”

The men just stare. I’m encouraged, though, that they’re no longer muttering under their breath and exchanging worried glances.

“Isn’t that what we’re here for, anyway? What difference does it make who runs the company, as long as the profit margins are up? So this is the deal. Put both of us at the helm. I promise that as a team, we will not let anyone down. What do you think, Dan?”

I reach out my hand to shake his.

He sits there, shell-shocked for a moment, and then, he reaches out and shakes my hand. The simpering smile transforms into a genuine one. He nods. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

Anderson starts to clap, and one by one, the rest of the men join in. Soon they’re all clapping for us, and you know what? Lily’s right. It wouldn’t be so bad, not having all the power.

I’m starting to realize there are things that might be more important.