1 barely paid attention to what anyone was saying in the room. Everyone seemed to be talking at the same time, and all I could hear was the sound of my own heart beating slowly. I kept my eyes fixed on the papers in front of me, and I couldn’t even see the words properly.
All I could think about was the visit from Marcus’s mother and the offer she’d made me. If I had just taken the money then, I wouldn’t have faced any trouble. But now….
“A million dollars is more than enough,” Marcus’s lawyer’s voice cut through the noise. “My client is being more than reasonable.”
“Your client is worth fifty billion dollars,” Clara argued. “Amillion dollars is like a drop in the ocean for him.”
“And that’s all she’ll be getting from us,” he said. “The offer does not change. Take it or leave it. We have no problem going to trial on this. But the fact that you asked for a settlement means you understand the situation is not in your favour. Just take the money and let’s get this over with.”
One million dollars.
That was the price of my discretion. One million dollars to completely disappear from Marcus’s life, and not say anything about the allegations against me. One million dollars to allow myself become a social pariah, and completely give up every bit of my life. The stipulation was that I wouldn’t set foot in New York ever again, and I would not contact Marcus or any of his associates in any way. I would change my name back to Carson, and it would be as if the last six years had never even happened.
I looked up at him now, and the smugness was still on his face. He barely even looked at me as I sat there and thought about how I’d allowed my life to get to this stage. thought about how I used to look at him like he meant the world to me, like he was the only person I cared about. It was always the two of us against the world, and I truly believed that we would remain that way until the end of time. I thought about those Saturday mornings where we would remain in bed together, curled up with our feet intertwined and watching a movie together. I thought about those dinner dates where he would hold my hand the entire time, and he would always ask me if I was okay.
