Ryder’s POV”Mr.
Ryder!
It’s David, from the other night—”
I almost let it go to voicemail.
Whitfield shouldn’t be someone I would necessarily have to bother picking up for, at least not without an assistant screening it first.
But something made me answer, and the moment he mentioned dinner, well, mentioned Iris!
I was already reaching for my jacket.
“Where?” I asked, cutting through whatever he was still explaining.
“The Meridian, downtown.
I really do appreciate you making the time, Mr. Ryder, this means a great deal to—”
”I’ll be there.”
I hung up before he could finish, already halfway out the door, telling myself the only reason I was rearranging my evening was David’s account being worth the trouble.
I didn’t fully believe myself, but I let it go anyway.
I arrived at the Meridian a few minutes past seven, already scanning the private dining room for her before I’d even fully stepped through the door.
David stood up, greeting me.
“Mr. Ryder! What an honor. I was almost worried you wouldn’t have been able to make it.”
My eyes scanned around, looking for her.
“Where’s Iris?” I asked, before he could get another word out.
He hadn’t even taken his seat yet.
“Ah.” His face shifted apologetically.
“She wasn’t feeling well, unfortunately. Stomach trouble, she said. Although she sends her regrets.”
I felt something in my chest go tight and cold.
“She left?”
”Yes.
About twenty minutes ago.” David gestured toward the empty seat beside him, not realizing the way the temperature in the room had just dropped several degrees.
“Please, sit, I ordered a bottle of—”
I was already pulling out my phone, dialing her number.
A flat, automated voice responded to the call: “The number you have dialed is currently unavailable.
Please try again later.”
”What?” Frowning hard, I dialed the number again and got the same response again.
I stared at the screen for a long moment, the response repeating itself in my head until the meaning fully landed.
She’d blocked me.
I was waiting like an idiot for the call to somehow connect on the third attempt.
For a second, I just stood there with the phone pressed against my ear, feeling something unfamiliar settle heavily in my chest.
I don’t think Iris had ever blocked me before.
Sure, we argued a lot.
She sometimes ignored me and walked away from conversations she didn’t want to have.
But she’d never me off completely.
My face hardened.
Was she really this determined to get rid of me?
The thought dragged up every interaction we’d had over the past few weeks.
The careful distance she’d been putting between us every chance she got.
I’d seen it happening.
Worse, it felt like I had even let it happen.
Because some arrogant part of me had believed she would eventually come back around.
Iris always pushed back when she was angry, always needing space when she was hurt.
But this was far from space.
The door was being shut in my face for the first time since meeting her.
And I couldn’t reach her.
Something hot and furious surged up through my chest so fast I didn’t fully process my own hand moving until the wine glass in front of me was already in pieces, shattered against the table, red wine spreading like a wound across the white cloth.
The room went silent.
David flinched back in his chair, eyes wide.
“Mr. Ryder…is something wrong?”
”I have somewhere to be.” My voice came out barely restrained.
Iris has blocked me?
“Enjoy your dinner.”
I walked out without looking back, ignoring the way David called after me.
Iris’s POV
I waited until I was fairly sure dinner would be over before I called David back, phone pressed to my ear as I paced my living room.
They wanted to run a gastroscopy, given how much pain I was in.
You won’t believe that I just got home.”
”Oh, that sounds unpleasant.” He didn’t sound entirely convinced, but he didn’t push either.
“Are you alright now?”
”Better, thank you.
I really am sorry for missing dinner.”
”It’s fine, it’s fine.
Though I have to say.
Next time, please don’t act like that.
Be sure of what the consequences of your actions might be before you act!” He said in a fierce manner.
“Mr. Ryder came all the way out for you, you know. Left in quite a state when he realized you weren’t coming.”
Something in my stomach tightened at that.
“I’ll make it up to both of you.”
”See that you do.” His tone warmed again, easy as ever.
“The contract stands regardless. Wonderful working with you, Iris.”
We exchanged a few more pleasantries before hanging up, and I sat there afterward, phone resting in my lap, turning the whole evening over in my head.
He came all the way out for you.
I already knew that, of course.
I’d known it the moment David insisted on calling him.
It hadn’t been my pitch that closed that deal.
Clearly, Ryder’s name had something to do with it.
His name was hovering somewhere behind mine, doing the actual convincing.
That realization sat uncomfortably in my chest, heavier than I expected.
I’d told myself I was building something of my own, brick by brick.
But if David only trusted me because of who I claimed to be close to, then was any of this really mine to begin with?
If I was going to take my father’s company back, piece by piece, then I needed people to trust me — not the girl who happened to know Ryder Lancaster.
Whatever this was between us, whatever it had already cost both of us, I couldn’t keep letting it be the thing that carried me.
Next time, I’ll earn it on my own strength, or not at all.