Because, according to Andrew, it was her nagging and always being on his case that had made him into the stranger he had been to her on the evening she saw him for who he really was.
She still had nightmares sometimes, remembering how Andrew had attacked her. Those nightmares were accompanied by a feeling of dread and fear of having to be near Andrew ever again.
Separating her private life and the company from Andrew had been traumatic. But Ellie had done so knowing she had to protect herself, and the company, from further attack.
Not that the latter had been altogether successful, apart from managing to keep Sally and Benny in her employ. She couldn’t say the same thing about her client base, because it seemed that Andrew had also grown—or had always been?—vindictive, and as such was unwilling to go quietly from her life or from HERA. Within months of their separation, he had opened up his own company and persuaded a lot of HERA’s clients to go to him instead of her.
Which was the real reason Ellie had come here herself this morning, to stand in until Sally arrived with Knox Wilder’s laundry and coffee.
She, specifically HERA, desperately needed to keep Wynter Security as one of their clients.
Ellie had been slightly dazed and heartbroken those first few months after she learned of Andrew’s affairs. Which was why she hadn’t realized at first exactly how much money he had taken from both the company and from their joint bank account.
Thankfully, her parents’ lawyers had insisted that the bulk of her inheritance be kept in a bank account that only they and Ellie could access.
It had been another source of contention between her and Andrew when he learned of that condition.
In retrospect, those lawyers had probably already seen what she hadn’t, which was that half of her attraction for Andrew had been the money left to her by her parents.
After their separation, personally and professionally, Ellie had been so focused on going to work each day, in doing her job of running the company, that she hadn’t realized what else Andrew was doing to undermine her and HERA.
By the time she realized clients were canceling rather than renewing their contracts with HERA, she had already lost a third of that client list.
She had telephoned several of those companies to ask why they had decided to break with HERA, wanting to know if it was something she was doing, or not doing, which was to blame. Every one of the people she spoke to had fobbed her off with the excuse of tightening the company belts in the current financial climate.
Not totally convinced by this explanation, Ellie had made an appointment to see and speak to a partner in one of those firms.
At first, when the other woman realized who she was and her reason for being there, she had been reluctant to talk to Ellie. But eventually, she had admitted that Andrew had contacted her and explained that he had now opened a recruitment agency of his own. That he had done so after having to part ways with Ellie when he discovered she was embezzling money from the company to feed a gambling and drinking addiction and so was no longer a reliable partner, in business or privately.
Andrew had completely twisted the truth and projected his own bad behavior onto her!
That was when Ellie’s rage, rather than the numbing heartbreak she had been stuck in, had taken over.
Ellie had pared the office staff down to just herself and the loyal Sally and Benny and charged less for services to the clients they had managed to keep. Since then, she had also managed to pick up several smaller companies as clients, ones that Andrew hadn’t yet had a chance to poison against her.
It was going to take time, but Ellie was slowly rebuilding HERA’s and her own reputation for reliability and excellence.
Wynter Security was one of the original clients she still had and didn’t want to lose. Which was why, when Karen had called her early this morning and said she was on her way to the hospital to give birth, Ellie had chosen to come to Wynter Security herself so that someone would be here until Sally arrived after doing all those other tasks Karen had said needed to be done this morning.
Ellie now lifted her chin to meet Knox’s questioning gaze from behind the glasses that she acknowledged had now become the shield between her and the rest of the world.
She felt comfortable with that barrier between her and everyone else.
After learning the truth about Andrew’s infidelity and stealing from her and embezzling from the company, Ellie had not only taken a blow to her self-confidence but also to her trust, in both her own judgment and in other people’s motives.
Knox knew, from the distress and then resolve he had seen in Ellie’s expression after her thoughts had turned inward, that there was a lot more to the ending of her partnership with Andrew Day than she was currently sharing with him. Understandable when they had only just met.
Except he really didn’t like seeing her weight loss and that haunted expression on her face.
“It was a mutual decision for Andrew to step down six months ago and leave the company,” she finally answered him.
“For good?” he prompted.
“Yes.”
“Halliday is a cute play on both your surnames, by the way.”
Her top lip curled. “We thought so at the time.”