Yesterday was perhaps one of the shittiest Mondays of my life. Mason, Mom, and I managed to quiet down the major shareholders and our investors for the time being.

Although, we know it's a very fragile peace, and this problem needs to be sorted out before it ruins our five years of hard work.

I cannot go bankrupt again. I refuse to live another day as a penniless girl. No, it's not happening.

Unfortunately, Nathan the asshat has gone dormant. Though I can't say I'm surprised. With the stunt this asshole has pulled off, he definitely knew I'd blow up.

However, I need to be smart. Either I have to convince him to give up on this madness of selling the shares way under-priced, or to Benjamin. Or I have to persuade it to hand over the shares to me.

The only complication is, I have no clue how I can do either of these things.

My leg bounces, I keep on repeatedly tapping the top of my pen to the desk as I stare at Spencer's empty desk, right across from me, on the other side of the room.

Spencer.

Oh God.

I'm certain he'll bring up the topic of that stupid necklace the first chance he gets. Yet again, I'm clueless about how to respond. What excuse can be practical enough to explain why I still have the necklace and carry it everywhere with me.

I release a blow of air and rest my forehead on the heels of my palms with my elbows propped up on the desk.

The phone on my desk goes off, startling me.

Hoping against hope to not be bad news, I answer it. "Gracie Stewart speaking," I weakly say.

"Ma'am, Mr. Johnson insists on meeting you right away," Erika speaks.

Instantly, I straighten up. Nathan! Here! "Let him in."

My heart pounds in my chest as I sit taller on my chair and push my shoulders back. A mixture of anger, fear of the unknown, desperation, and frustration wreak havoc in me.

The door flies open, and Nathan marches inside. "Gracie," he greets me, shoving his hands into his trousers' pockets and halting a pace away from my desk. His tie is loose and the first button of his shirt, the same blue of his eyes, is undone.

I lean into my seat, pulling over a mask of confidence as I plant my elbows on the armrest and intertwine my fingers, holding his hard stare with an indifferent one.

"Nice office," he remarks, surveying the place.

I purse my lips and keep on staring at him.

"I believe you've received the news, right?"

"How can I not? I own that company."

He nods in an exaggeratedly slow way and I clench my jaw, slowly losing my cool. "Of course, but I thought since you moved your office here and you're going to be the William's daughter-in-law, MK enterprise has lost its meaning for you... after all, you're going to be one of the richest humans alive after marrying Kris."

I raise my eyebrow in a silent challenge. "I can't see why any of this would be of any importance to you."

"It wouldn't have been." He nods, striding towards my desk. "Only if you hadn't betrayed me."

I roll my eyes. "Oh please. I did not betray you. Get that inside your thick skull," I snarl.

He plants his palms on my desk and leans to me. "Or what?"

Sucking in a sharp breath through my nose, I try to calm my thundering heart and raging thoughts. "What do you want, Nathan?" I ask as coolly as I can muster.

He straightens himself and retreats a step, shrugging. "Take a guess."

"I'm not a mind reader," I mutter.

With a snort, he thrusts a hand into his pocket and smugly watches me. "Looks like alongside becoming a greedy gold digger, you've gotten dumb too."

My fingers curl into a tight fist. Anger boils my blood as I scowl at him.

"I'll get right to the point. You betrayed me, used me, and then cast me aside once you were done. It's only fair if you pay for what you did."

"I didn't do anything to you!" My voice climbs up on octave as I get to my feet.

He frowns at me. "I can't tell if you're pretending to not understand, or if you're actually a self-serving bitch who takes no regard about the people around her."

"Listen-" I start, jabbing my index finger at him, but he interjects.

"No, you listen. I deserved better than what you did to me-"

"I was crystal clear with you from day one, you asshole!" I shout.

"You had no right to use me-"

"You fucked me too," I spit. "It wasn't like I was the only one getting the benefit out of our friends with benefits setting. I told you from day one, I'm not ready for anything serious-"

"And I waited for you. You promised me six months, you slut."

Without a thought, my hand darts out, grabbing the first thing within its reach. The pen holder, along with all the pencils and pens inside of it. I hurl it at Nathan.

He jumps away, dodging it. It flies past him, less than an inch away from his head. "You will pay for what you did," he bellows.

"You are a fucking kid, who has lost his toy and can't bear losing," I yell back.

"You did me wrong, you bitch." He prowls to me, his chest rising and falling with his heaving breaths. "Call off your wedding with Kristian, and I'll leave you alone."

"Never," I growl.

"Fine. For all these years, you had me as your friend. But from today, I'm your enemy. The one you have to fear the most, because I know everything about you, and I will destroy you."

My insides tremble with fury. I bare my teeth ready to spit out a threat of my own, but he's quicker.

"Till today, I was your ally, but from now on, I'll be Ben Stewart's ally, and I'll make sure he breaks you and destroys you. I will do everything in my power to ensure he wins, and you lose."

"You fucking moron," I screech.

"You didn't have the right to play with me and my feelings like that. This should be a good lesson for you. Hopefully, by the time I'm done, you're ruined enough that I won't ever have to see your pathetic, gold-digger face again." He spins and stamps out of the room, slamming the door shut.

Breathing heavily, my gaze frantically jumps from one place to another, my body trembling from head to toe. I shake my head.

"No no no no no," I mumble, shoving my fingers through my hair. Hot tears of anger and frustration gather and burn my eyes.

He can't do that to me. I cannot let him.

Benjamin won't win. I won't let them snatch away everything I've built so far.

But how? How? How?

Glacial panic sits at the pit of my stomach.

He has all the winning cards. Thirty percent of my shares. Everything there's to know about me, Nathan does.

I was honest with him. I was upfront with my intentions from the very beginning with this bastard.

An ear-piercing scream escapes from my throat as I send everything placed atop my desk crashing down to the floor. I kick the desk, cursing Nathan out loud.

They won't win. They cannot win.

I won't let them win. I've lost too much. Benjamin Stewart won't get what he wants. I cannot let Nathan ruin everything for me.

Five years.

Five fucking years I've been working my ass off for this. I sacrificed my love, the chance of a happy future with him for this. I lost my dad because of Benjamin.

No! No! No!

I shriek, grabbing the only thing left on my desk, the stupid phone, and hurl it to the floor. It crashes with a loud crack, skidding next to a pair of black shoes.

Breathing heavily, I freeze, my eyes widen with horror as my gaze travels up and meets Spencer's shocked face.

Fuck.

"Looks like an intense Tuesday." His voice is blank, carrying no hints of how he might be feeling. Without taking his eyes off me, he shuts the door and remains put on his spot.

I cast my eyes away. Suddenly, I realize I've been crying like an idiot. Angrily, I wipe the remnants of tears on my cheeks.

A part of me wants to yell at him. Blame it all on him.

Because I need someone to blame and fight with, and he happens to be the only one present at the moment. I clamp my mouth shut and grab my bag, rummaging inside of it to find my cell phone, but to no avail.

"Gracie," he calls softly.

"Leave me alone," I snap, throwing my bag to the chair and stomping around the desk, finding my mobile lying on the floor with its screen cracked. I curse under my breath and quickly bend down and grab it. When I straighten myself and press the button on the side, nothing happens.

I try a few more times before screaming, "You useless piece of shit!" I throw it away and again it lands a pace away from Spencer.

"Gracie," he starts again.

I press my trembling hands to my face. "Just go," I say, my voice quivering as a fresh set of tears gathers in my eyes.

He takes a step towards me, holding out his hand. "Let me hel-"

"I don't need it!" I squall, a tear sliding down my cheek. "I don't need your pity! Just go! Leave me alone!"

"Okay." He retreats a step, holding up both palms as his gaze stays fixated on me, burning holes through me.

I bet he's ecstatic out of his mind. Seeing me lose everything.

My bottom lip quivers and another wave of anger washes over me. This time wholeheartedly directed at Spencer.

I want to shout at him, to cuss him out, to yell at him how much I hate him... and how bad I need him.

What I wouldn't give just to melt into his embrace and let him calm me down and console me. Give me fake hope and promises that everything will work out.

But I can't do that. Because we had a fucking deal and he has kept up with his side, and now I have to uphold mine too, which is staying away from him. I swallow the frustrated screaming building at the back of my throat.

I survey the ruin. My computer lays broken. Pens, papers, and contracts are scattered everywhere, and the three paperweights I had are shattered.

I'm a mess.

Another tear slips from my eye and skids down my face.

"Don't worry about it, I'll tell someone to clean it up and order new ones to replace these till tomorrow," he says, in his ever so calm and soothing voice.

I nod. Slowly the adrenaline from the anger disappears. My knees grow weak and standing in the middle of the mess I've made, a realization trickles into my consciousness.

I'm tired.

I gave up everything for this business, taking down Ben, and avenging my dad, yet I'm losing.

I'm tired of fighting.

With a shaky leg, I hesitantly step away from the ruin. I glance at my bag from over my shoulder.

"I can tell your assistant to inform your driver to take you home right now," he quietly offers.

I gulp away the huge lump at the back of my throat.

Why is he being so nice to me?

He should be the one acting like Nathan. I betrayed him. 

Come on, show me you're happy to see me break down.

Give me a reason to hate you.

My heart clenches painfully, making evenly breathing ridiculously hard. With unsteady steps, I distance myself from the wreckage.

"Careful," he says.

But his warning is a second too late. Where my foot lands, something underneath rolls making me lose my balance. His hands catch me a second afterward, right on time, steadying me again.

I quickly step away from him, refusing to meet his scorching gaze.

"Gracie-"

"I'm fine," I say as firmly as I can. I push my shoulder back and toss my hair behind my shoulder. Steeling myself, I meet his dark blue eyes, clouded with concern. "Everything is fine and perfectly under control."

Though my resolve is not strong, and my chin quivers, tears threatening to spill down my eyes. Instantly I look away and hurry out of the room.

I'm truly tired of fighting.

For the first time in these five years, I'm on the brink of giving up.

❦ ♥︎ ❦

Sooo... quite a dramatic chapter, right? xD Comment your thoughts. Do you guys think what Nathan is doing is... fair? Or not?

And your thoughts on Gracie wanting Spencer to mean to her? And of course, your thoughts on Spencer? 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, vote if you did =)

My dearest readers, regarding the matter of updates, are you guys sure you want me to update so frequently? 👀 like... I don't know about you guys, but a tiny part of me is not ready for Gracie and Spencer's story to be wrapped up. Once this story is done... there won't ever be another anything from them. No chapters, no problems, no drama or conflict. Nothing. It'll be over. 

=))))) okay, I don't want to sound weird or anything, but with each update, we're getting closer to the ending. And relatively speaking, compared to the over 120 Gracie & Spencer chapters we've had so far, not much is left. Like really, not much is left xD

Oh my gosh, I'm not ready for this book to be over :')

Anyway, if you guys are still up for double updates, we'll have one tomorrow =) And prepare yourselves to get pissed off XD

Stay safe, lots of love, happy reading ♡