Chapter 113: What happened?
Ashley stared at him, speechless. Then, she laughed. It wasn’t loud. It was soft, breathless.
"You’re kidding, right?"
Silence.
A frown slowly settled on her face. She quietly slid off his lap. Lorenzo’s heart skipped. This—this was exactly why he hadn’t wanted her to find out. Now he feared it would push her away again.
"Ashley, I was going to tell you eventually. I swear, I didn’t mean for you to find out like this," he said quickly, rising to his feet, hands gently holding her shoulders, his gaze pleading.
He was just starting to earn her trust, he couldn’t ruin that again.
"Now it makes... sense," Ashley murmured, avoiding his eyes. "Grey Group mysteriously offering us a partnership. It was you all along. Why didn’t I see it?" Her voice was quiet, breathy. She slipped from his grasp and sat back down on the couch.
Lorenzo turned to face her. "Ashley, that was just my way of helping you. You needed it, and I had to do it discreetly because back then, you wouldn’t have accepted help if you knew it came from me."
"Now I feel like I didn’t earn any of it," she said in a low voice. "Like you just handed it to me... just like my grandpa handed me the company. Maybe they were right. Maybe I don’t deserve the position at all."
Lorenzo swallowed a lump, hating how she was belittling herself.
"Hey, baby. What are you saying?" He knelt in front of her, cupping her face. "You’re doing so much better than you give yourself credit for. You know that, right?"