“If You Can’t Bear My Mistress, We Can Swap Newtons”- So I Married His Worst Rival At the Wedding Chapter 10

“If You Can’t Bear My Mistress, We Can Swap Newtons”- So I Married His Worst Rival At the Wedding Chapter 10

Haggard. Completely wrecked.

He looked down at the papers on my desk and laughed bitterly.

“It ended up in your hands after all.”

“Sloane, you know? After the Hales got out of crisis, a lot of people said that even with the money, I was never as capable as you.”

“I knew it too. So I admired you. And I was terrified that the company I’d barely held together would one day belong to you.”

“I’ve seen what happens when the Hales fall from grace. I swore I’d never go through that again. And I still screwed it up. No matter what I do, I can’t beat you.”

I looked up at him.

“You got two things wrong, Preston.”

“You didn’t rebuild the Hales. I did. So don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

“I knew about you and Tessa a long time ago. I didn’t say anything because I was giving you a chance. If you’d come clean, I would’ve stepped aside. I would’ve let you have the project.”

“But you were greedy and you wanted everything. So you got the fake proposal. What you really lost to? It was your own conscience.”

I’ve seen every dirty trick in business.

Tessa’s hypnosis skills? A joke. She thought she could get

anything out of me?

Winners win. Losers lose.

Preston had nothing left to say. He set down the signed contract. From today, the Hale company changed its name to Drake.

Oh, right. I’m Sloane Drake now. My mother’s name.

On his way out, he turned back.

“Sloane. You know what? I really regret it. I wish I never let you help me back then.”

“Because then the way I felt about you would have stayed pure. I wouldn’t have gotten scared. I wouldn’t have needed to compete with you.”

“Now I have nothing. So I can love you purely again. But you won’t want me anymore.”

“Sloane. Loving you was real. So was betraying you. I’m sorry.”

The door closed between us.

I knew from that moment, our lives would never touch again.

That night, I was working late when a text came from a number I didn’t know.

[Sloane, I did a lot of wrong things. I fell for a man who wasn’t worth it. And I hurt my best friend for him.]

[I know you won’t forgive me. But I’m sorry.]

I didn’t reply. Didn’t ask where she was.

None of it mattered.

I checked the time. Nico was already waiting for me downstairs.

I looked out the window. The city was all lit up with neon. Lights coming on everywhere. I closed my laptop and headed out. Toward my own kind of happy.