Stand Aside, the Billionaire Is Here novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Night After
We did not speak in the car, and this time it was because we did not need to.
He drove my sedan again, one hand on the wheel and the other wrapped around mine on the gearshift.
At the house I shut the front door, turned the lock, and leaned my back against it.
Joaquin stood in the hall under the lamp with his jacket over his arm.
"You said you had something to say," I told him.
"I do."
He laid the jacket over the stair rail, very slowly.
"I came home to bury a boy in a photograph and buy a dock," he said.
"I thought that was the whole of what I wanted. It was a lot to want, and it was lonely."
"Then a woman in a navy suit stood up in a restaurant, and every plan I had got smaller."
"I do not forgive Lionel. I may never."
"But I stood in that boardroom and watched you take every hit alone, and I was not afraid of the Heywards anymore."
"I was afraid of you, because I want to stay."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Stand Aside, the Billionaire Is Here are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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