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pressed her hands together, swallowed and gave a tiny but decisive nod. ‘I told you this was a really bad time for me to get involved with anyone.’

‘What are you saying?’ His words were nothing more than a croak.

Her voice wobbled. ‘I’m applying for this job, Owen, whether you approve or not. And I’m not going to accept my inheritance. Can you live with that?’

He opened his mouth to argue with her further.

‘One thing I do know for sure, Owen, is that I couldn’t live with your silent disapproval and disappointment every time you looked at me. If you can’t talk to me about Frances, and I can’t talk to you about my work…’

‘You’re saying we’re through?’

Her eyes filled, but her chin remained firm. ‘I don’t see that there’s any other option.’

She didn’t? He felt as if he’d been turned to ice.

‘There’s another option, Callie, but if you don’t see it then you’re right—there’s nothing here worth saving.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A KNOCK SOUNDED on her door the following morning and Callie raced to answer it.

Owen.

She stared at him and her heart pounded in her chest like a wild thing. She wanted him to take her in his arms, tell her he was sorry about their fight, and kiss her. She wanted him to tell her there was another way, and that their relationship wasn’t doomed before it had even started. She wanted him to tell her he loved her.

The revelation knocked her sideways. Her fingers closed around the frame of the door in a death grip to keep her upright.

He did none of those things. He stood there stiffly, staring back at her with eyes that burned—as if she’d dealt him a mortal blow when it was him who was trying to control her and her choices. Her eyes stung and her throat ached. She wasn’t letting anyone take her power away again, regardless of how much she liked them—loved them.

His nostrils flared. ‘I came to make sure you’re okay after yesterday.’

Of course she wasn’t okay! They’d had the worst fight in the history of the world and—

‘Finding out Richard is your father must’ve been the most awful shock.’

Oh, that. Her shoulders ached with the effort of keeping them from crumpling. ‘I’m fine.’

He looked far from convinced.

‘I never expected to like my father and I was right. I never harboured any secret fantasies that he’d be a good guy. It’s just now I know the truth.’

He shoved his hands into his pockets, his shoulders as stiff and uncompromising as the line of his mouth. ‘I wanted to let you know that if you need anything you can still rely on me.’

Yeah, like that was going to happen. She folded her arms across a chest that felt blown open and shattered. ‘Thank you.’ She was careful to keep her voice neutral and polite. ‘Is there anything else?’ If he wasn’t going to kiss her, she wanted him gone.

‘I’m still the executor of Frances’s will, Callie. I thought it only fair to warn you that I’ve no intention of sanctioning any decisions you make in relation to your inheritance for the next fortnight—to give you time to think things over.’

All the brokenness in her chest filled with anger and it felt good. ‘Two things, Owen!’

His mouth whitened at her tone and she told herself she was glad.

‘One: you don’t get to approve or disapprove of my decisions. You don’t have the authority to decide what is and isn’t in my best interests. Who the hell do you think you are?’

His head rocked back. His entire body rocked back.

‘Two: you have no say in what I do with my inheritance. You don’t have an atom of control over it. End of story. It’s mine to do with as I please and you get zero input in that. As far as my portion of Frances’s estate is concerned, you were its executor. Past tense.’

It took an effort of will not to slam the door in his face. She wouldn’t descend to that kind of rudeness. But, seriously, the hide of the man!

‘So, what?’ His eyes flashed. ‘You’re going to sell this building out from beneath me as a form of revenge?’ His hands slammed to his hips. ‘Because revenge is your MO, right?’

His words sucked the air from her lungs. ‘My what?’

‘Revenge…it’s what you do. You’re going for the TV job as revenge on Dominic. You’re throwing your inheritance away as revenge on Frances.’

‘Those things are different. And if you can’t see that then you’re an idiot—a huge, big, amazingly dumb idiot!’ She might be above slamming the door in his face but she wasn’t above slinging insults. ‘Dominic deliberately undermined me—he set out on purpose to hurt me. Frances betrayed my mother. And in doing so some could argue she deprived me of my father. Mind you, I’m tempted to thank her for that…but, however you want to view it, what she did was terrible.’

Owen opened his mouth, but she carried on over his protests.

‘What happened between us was a love affair gone wrong.’

He stilled.

‘Neither of us is winning. Neither of us is getting what they want. We have a difference of opinion that can’t be surmounted. End of story.’ Every word was a knife to her heart. ‘I can’t help feeling the way I feel, and you can’t help feeling the way you feel.’

His eyes burned but he said nothing.

‘You’re not deliberately trying to hurt me and I’m not deliberately trying to hurt you. After all, you can’t help being a jerk.’

The pulse at the base of his jaw pounded.

‘But I made a deal with you and I mean to keep it. If you want to buy this apartment block, it’s yours.’ Another thought occurred to her. ‘Do you want the video footage that you created for me back?’

‘No.’

Fine. ‘Is there anything else?’

‘Yes.’

She raised her eyebrow in that way, because she knew he hated it. And because it was better than bursting into tears.

‘Your inheritance isn’t blood money, Callie, and it’s not an