The Heirs: The Murphy Sweetheart

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Rhys

When I meet Emery at my car Monday morning before work, she doesn't say a word. She hardly looks at me. We drive to the office in silence. Not even the chatter about the workday ahead of us comes up.

The only sign of life in her is how she wrings her hands together and taps her foot in a repeat-3 motion against the door of my car.

When we get to the office, she plasters on her fake smile, greeting everyone as she normally would. We go through the motions of the morning meetings, and she acts as normal as ever.

Only I seem to be the one affected by what happened Saturday night. The tight net of self-control I put around myself has broken again. Only Emery Murphy seemed to be able to put me so off balance.

Her face haunts me.

Why do you hate me now?

She couldn't possibly really think that I'd ever hate her. If anything, it was the opposite. I don't have many people in my life that I care about. Family has never meant much to me. I send my mother money out of sheer obligation. I don't talk to anyone else I grew up with. I have a handful of friends, who are more like colleagues. I care about my coworkers, I care about the Murphys, but mostly, I care about Emery.

It makes me physically sick that she thinks I could ever dislike her.

I realize this is all my fault. I handled everything so wrong. I pushed her away last fall after the Harrison incident. She has feelings for me, and I knew it then. I just wish she understood that I'm not capable of being good enough. How could I be? She's...everything. And I feel like nothing in comparison.

I'm hardly paying attention when Jordan informs the team that we heard back from Pat's former clients from Dublin. After taking months to digitize Pat's past clients, Emery came up with an algorithm to find potential new clients out of this list. Her work has already brought us over a million dollars in profit. Apparently, there's some tech kingpin in Dublin named Lionel Kelly whose company used to make trades with Pat back in the early 90s.

Kelly is looking to expand in the American market, and he was rather receptive to our calls.

"He's invited you out to Dublin," Jordan tells me.

"When?" I frown. With everything going on with the Cosa Nostra, traveling for this side of the business right now seems like it should be avoided. Especially in dangerous waters like Dublin.

Not to mention, I try to avoid going back to Dublin as often as I possibly can.

"As soon as possible would probably be ideal," Esther speaks up.

"Alright, we should book travel then. Craig, Martin, Esther, Emery, and I will go," I nod.

"We can't, boss," Craig makes a face. "We've got the big Hilton deal."

"And my cousin's wedding this weekend," Esther mutters.

I look to Emery. She swallows nervously.

"Alright, fine. Emery and I can handle it," I frown down at my laptop, looking anywhere but at her.

"Great," Jordan says. "I'll get everything booked."

"What's the next agenda item?" I grumble.

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