Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
It's a gut punch to find out my boss has been lying to me for the past three years. And even worse, to find out my work ethic, integrity, and willingness to be a team player—the things I value most about myself—are the things that have made Scott think less of me in the past.
It's suddenly crystal clear to me I’ve spent the last seven years of my life busting my ass to climb a fallacious mountain with a summit that doesn’t align with my core values. All this time, I’ve prioritized the cult of work and ambition above what really matters: my relationships with family and friends. Above searching for love and maybe even settling down and starting a family. For fuck’s sake, I’ve worked myself to the bone to get myself into a club I’m suddenly realizing isn’t even worthy of having me as a member.
In a flash, I feel enraged with myself for the time I’ve wasted. The hours I’ll never get back. And most of all, for the week and a half I’ve spent sitting here at this desk when I should have been throwing myself at Marnie’s feet and begging her to be mine forever. To wear my ring again—only for real this time.
I jerk to standing. “Sorry to disappoint you, Scott, but I wasn’t faking a damned thing in Wyoming. You’ve never seen me that happy because I’ve never been that happy. Because you’ve never seen me in love before. Because you don’t fucking know me at all.”
Scott looks shocked. “Max, your father already told me—”
“I’m guessing you’re the one who told my father the truth, actually, and he just went along with it, after what you said made perfect sense to him. But either way, even if he thought he knew the truth when he sat down with you, he was wrong about that. My father doesn’t know Marnie and I fell in love for real during our week together. He doesn’t know that every smile you saw on my face was genuine. That every moment of happiness was the real deal. I was a goofball that week because Marnie and Ripley bring that out of me. Because they make me remember who I really am. I looked so much like a man who was madly in love that whole fucking week, because I became one. I am one. So you can shove your fucking partnership up your ass. I quit.”
While Scott sputters in shock, I waltz past him toward the door of my office, bound and determined to right all my wrongs, once and for all.
“Is this a joke?” Scott shouts after me.
I stop in the doorway. “The only joke is that I ever gave a shit about impressing you and the rest of the soulless sharks at this firm. I’m not one of you, thank God, and I never will be.”
Scott gets up and points an angry finger at me. “If you think you can quit this firm and still join Wayne’s core team, think again. You need this firm, Max. Wayne never hires in-house counsel directly; he always hires from the pool of attorneys he’s already worked with from outside firms.”
“I don’t care about my career right now, Scott. I’ll figure out my next career move once I’ve got my family back by my side, where they belong. They’re the only thing that matters to me now.”
Scott calls me an idiot before launching into a tirade, but I don’t have another second to waste on him. While he’s still screaming at me, I stride with purpose down the long hallway and into the firm’s expansive, marbled lobby, and then straight into the glittering elevator. Thankfully, it’s pretty late in the evening now, so I only pass a few scattered people as I go, all of whom give me a wide berth as I march on by with an enraged scowl on my face.
Captain’s is only a few blocks away from my office, so I forego the parking garage and head straight to street level. When the elevator doors open, I hurl myself into the crisp Seattle night air and start sprinting toward my destination, as fast as my legs will carry me. God help me, please, don’t let it be too late.
32
MARNIE
“Here you go,” Alexander says. He hands me a dirty martini and takes a seat next to me at our small corner table at Captain’s.
I’m not going to drink this martini, obviously, given that my period is late, but I figured it might raise suspicion with Alexander or my friends across the bar to ask for a club soda instead of my usual drink. In my non-pregnant state, I’d never pass up the chance to enjoy a well-made martini, especially at Captain’s, which is renowned for them.
As Alexander gets himself seated across from me, I can’t help marveling at his uncanny resemblance to Max. How did I not realize when I first laid eyes on Max that he reminded me so much of a certain married man who’d recently dented my heart, not because Max’s eyes happened to be the same ocean-blue color, not because Max’s strong jaw line resembled Alexander’s, but because the young, fit, dashing patent attorney in the designer suit had half Alexander’s DNA inside his cells?