Devon was having a hard time concentrating. He’d already blown three phone calls. He’d sent an email to the wrong recipient and replied to another thinking it was someone else. His focus was completely and utterly shot and he couldn’t even pinpoint exactly what had him so out of sorts.
He was concerned for Ashley, definitely. He hadn’t wanted to leave her that morning, but she’d insisted she was fine and that he should go into work. Still, he had a nagging sensation tugging at his chest that wouldn’t go away.
Something just wasn’t right.
He picked up his phone to call Ashley’s cell but was interrupted by his door opening. He looked up and frowned. His secretary hadn’t announced a visitor and he knew damn well he didn’t have an appointment now.
To his surprise, Eric Copeland strode into the room, his expression grim. He stopped in front of Devon’s desk and planted his palms down on the polished wood.
“What the hell have you done to my sister?”
Devon pushed back and shot up out of his chair. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m getting damn tired of people asking me what I’ve done to her. If you’re asking why we left the party last night, she had a headache and I didn’t want her to suffer needlessly. I took her home and put her to bed.”
Eric made a sound of disgust. “You may not know this about Ashley but the only time she gets these headaches with any frequency is when she’s stressed or unhappy. I find it pretty telling that she returned from her honeymoon after only two days because of a headache and that since then, she’s suffered them on a regular basis.”
It was a fist to Devon’s gut. He sank back into his chair as Eric stood seething over him.
“My sister looks desperately unhappy,” Eric continued. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I don’t like what I see. She’s changed and something tells me you have everything to do with that.”
“Maybe she’s finally growing up,” Devon said tightly. “Her family hasn’t done her any favors by coddling her and shielding her from the world around her.”
Eric gave him a look of pure disgust. The cold fury emanating from the younger man slapped Devon squarely in the face. It pricked at Devon and aroused an instinctive need to defend himself. The idea that his marriage was being picked apart by this outsider roused his ire even as a voice in the back of his mind whispered to him to listen.
“Her family loves her just like she is,” Eric bit out. “She is cherished and adored by us all. She is appreciated for the beautiful, warm, loving person she is and we’d damn well never try to change her. Anyone that would doesn’t deserve her.”
He spun around and stalked toward the door but then he stopped and turned back to Devon, his lips curled into a snarl. “I don’t know what the hell kind of deal you struck with my father but he was wrong. Dead wrong. You weren’t the right man for my sister. The right man would know and appreciate what a gift he’d been given. I’m putting you on notice right now. I’m watching you. If Ashley isn’t more herself in very short order, I’m coming after you with everything I’ve got. I hadn’t planned to take over the business for my father, but if the choices are having you as a part of the family and making my sister miserable or me sucking it up and taking over myself, I’ll do it.”
Devon’s lips thinned but he acknowledged Eric’s ultimatum with a tight nod.
With another dark look, Eric stalked out of the door.