Chapter 25 Rumours
Lily
The week goes by in a wonderful blur. I feel high off of my date with Renata.
And she seems to operate at peak efficiency, strengthened by my blood, I’d like to think.
Unfortunately, it’s so busy at the hotel, I hardly get to see her.
There’s a big wedding coming up, and the witch conference.
It’s exciting, but there’s barely a moment to spare.
Today’s a Friday, and I’m working a day shift, so I only get to overlap with Renata for an hour in the morning.
I’m debating whether I should talk to her about changing my schedule.
Perhaps if I give Chelsie and the interns a little more responsibility during the day, I could work nights more often.
It shouldn’t be a problem, now that Eli is in daycare.
When he goes to school in September, it will be even easier.
I can drop him off at school in the morning and then sleep during the day.
My mom’s been basically living at our house, so she can keep an eye on him overnight.
Yes, I’m definitely going to ask her about it…
My phone chimes to remind me that my workday is wrapping up. I send off a few more emails, and I debate whether I should work late today. But I’m tired, and I shouldn’t push myself too hard. Maybe tomorrow morning, if I have some extra time, I can draft a proposed fall schedule for myself.
Pleased with my productivity today, I log off on my computer and grab my purse. I wave goodbye to the receptionist and press the elevator button.
One of the many great things about living at the hotel is the short commute.
And I have a few hours before I have to pick up Eli from daycare.
I consider picking him up early, but then I decide to have a bath first. Yes, perfect.
I’ll have a lovely bath with my book, then I’ll go get Eli, and maybe we can go to the lounge for dinner.
I think Amara is working tonight, it’ll be nice to see her.
Looking forward to a pleasant soak in my big tub, I tap my key card to the panel on my door and enter the suite. I toss my purse on the foyer table and kick off my shoes.
I turn into my living room and stop in my tracks.
Sitting on my couch is my ex-husband.
“Dylan!” I shriek, flipping on the lights. “What are you doing here?”
He’s wearing his usual suit and tie, like he just came from the office. His hair is a little messy and his tie is crooked, as always. He stands when he sees me, an aggressive gleam in his eye. That familiar sense of fear rises up in me. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
“Did you break into my apartment?” I squeak. I wish I sounded more confident, but I’m completely taken by surprise.
“Don’t be hysterical,” he replies. His voice is hard and serious. “Your mom let me in.”
“Mom!” I shout. There’s something I don’t like about the way Dylan is looking at me. I want to have someone else nearby.
“She’s not here,” Dylan says, taking a step toward me. I move backward, backed into the corner of the living room. “She went back to her apartment, so that we can talk.”
“Talk about what?” I ask. “I don’t have anything to talk to you about.”
“Well, I have something to talk to you about,” Dylan says angrily.
I don’t like how he’s acting. I forgot how much I hate it when he gets upset like this. There’s a frightened tremor in my voice. “Just…just calm down, Dylan…”
But this only riles him up further. “Don’t tell me to calm down, Lily! You’ve been blocking my calls for weeks. I have a right to be angry.”
I know I don’t owe him my time, but I’m scared to tell him that. I also know how he can get when he’s upset like this, and I’m very aware that we’re alone in the suite. He stands between me and the land line on the side table, and my phone is in my purse in the foyer.
“Ok, fine.” I swallow nervously. “What do you want to talk to me about?”
“I know what you’re doing here,” he says, viciously. “At first, it was just rumours. But now I have proof.”
“Rumours of what?” I ask, but my palms are starting to sweat.
“Rumours that this hotel is a mafia front,” Dylan says.
My stomach drops. But…but he can’t have any real proof, can he? Celine and Renata keep everything running so tightly, there’s no way…
But then Dylan reaches behind him and grabs something off the couch.
“My laptop!” I gasp. I reach for it, but he pulls it back. It’s my personal laptop. “How did you…?”
“It was easy to guess the password,” Dylan says, a mirthless smirk on his face. “Your dad’s birthday. A little basic of you, huh, Lilyboo?”
Desperate tears start to form in my eyes, but I refuse to cry right now. “Dylan, give me back my laptop.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says with a sneer. “I’ve already downloaded everything I need. All of the photos, all of the bank receipts and secret transactions. You really shouldn’t have work information on your personal laptop, Lily.”
I heave a shaky inhale. How could I have been so stupid?
“You can’t let anyone see that, Dylan,” I say to him. “Please.”
“Oh, but I can,” he says. “Look who has the power now. Doesn’t feel so good, does it?”
I shake my head. “Dylan, you don’t need to do this…”
“But that’s not even the best part.” His nostrils flare. There’s a deep red flush across his face. “Remember my friend, who’s a PI? I asked him to keep an eye on you. It wasn’t easy, especially since you never leave this stupid hotel. Except for Saturday night.”
“No…” I whisper.
This has to be a bad dream. This all has to be a bad dream.
“That’s right.” Dylan takes out his phone, and shows me an image.
It’s Renata and I, leaving from the restaurant last weekend.
It’s very obvious that we’re together. Her hand is on my waist, and I’m leaning into her.
“Don’t you think your HR department would find it interesting that you and your boss are going out for an expensive dinner together? ”
The breath catches in my throat.
“Or better yet.” He raises his eyebrows. “Maybe the newspapers would find that interesting, huh? The CEO of the city’s most expensive hotel chain, and her personal assistant?”
My head is spinning. I put my arm to the wall so I don’t lose my balance.
Dylan looks at the image with malicious interest. “I have to admit, Lily, I didn’t expect that from you.
You were always so boring in bed. Why didn’t you say you were into this sort of thing?
I would’ve liked to see you with a woman.
We could have had a threesome.” He takes another step toward me, so his body is just inches from mine.
He towers over me, radiating heat. “It’s a nice picture.
I’ve enjoyed looking at it over the past few nights, if you know what I mean. ”
I really wish I didn’t know what he meant. I wish I could kick him out of my suite. I wish I could rewind the last twenty minutes, to back before my world fell apart.
But I can’t.
“Dylan…” I beg, my legs shaky, fear coursing through me at his closeness and the smell of alcohol coming off of his breath. “Please don’t tell anyone about what you found. I could get fired. Renata could get in trouble. Think about Eli…”
“Oh, but I am thinking about Eli,” Dylan responds.
“And I’m thinking about our upcoming divorce case.
I don’t think that the judge is going to be very impressed when he finds out that you’re working for a mafia empire, and fucking your boss, do you?
In fact…” a horrible, twisted grin mars his face.
“I think in the light of this new information, I might even file for sole custody.”
This, more than anything else so far this evening, completely catches me off guard. In a matter of a moment, the fight completely leaves me.
“You…you wouldn’t, Dylan…”
“I think you know that I would,” he responds. Now he presses his face up close to mine, and I can really smell the stench of his cologne, and the humid, sticky warmth of his breath.
I can’t help it. I feel a hot tear roll down my cheek. “You can’t, Dylan. Please, please don’t…”
He brings a rough hand to my face, and wipe it away.
“Well, you know I hate to see a woman cry,” he says. “So I’m willing to keep all of this a secret.”
I sniff, but I know that he’s not that generous. “What do you want?”
“I want you to come back and live with me. You and Eli. And I want you to quit this job. Everything was fine before you started working here. You come back and live with me, and drop the divorce. And I won’t say a word to the newspapers, or the police.”
Now the tears are properly streaming down my face. I brush them back with the sleeve of my shirt.
“I’ll give you two days to think about it,” Dylan says, tucking my laptop under his arm. “Two days, then I go to the police and the papers.”
Without another word, he exits the living room. He slams the door loudly as he goes, punctuating his threats.
Unable to stand for a second longer, I collapse onto the couch. I’m shaking uncontrollably. I can’t believe what’s just happened.
I knew it was good too to be true. That my life here, at the hotel, with Renata…that it couldn’t last. Eventually, someone was going to find out and it would all come crashing down.
Heaving, choking sobs overwhelm me, and I hold myself tightly on the couch.
Maybe I can tell Renata about what’s happened. Maybe there’s something that she can do to stop Dylan.
But the more I think about it, the more I know that I can’t drag her into this.
I know enough about Dylan to know that he’ll make good on his threat.
If evidence…real evidence, like the kind I know is on my laptop…
were to leak, that could cause big trouble for everyone here.
And if the newspapers found out about the relationship between Renata and I…
I know it would be as bad as Dylan said, if not worse.
That would be a huge scandal. I could never risk that happening to Renata.
And Eli…I can’t lose Eli. I might work primarily for the hotel, but I’ve been privy to Celine and Renata’s underground business dealings, enough that I might be compromised if there were an investigation.
Even if I’m not charged, I might lose my ability to see Eli, for long enough that Dylan could get custody of him.
Dylan works for the largest legal firm in Silverlake City, and he has excellent representation.
I just don’t have the same sort of resources as he does.
It would be easy for him to get custody, if he can demonstrate that I’m not a fit parent.
An unbidden image pops into my mind, and refuses to budge.
The night that I found Renata with Eli, after she put him to bed.
The tender expression on her face, the love in her eyes, warmed my heart.
There was just a second, just a moment, when I thought that maybe I could have it all.
That maybe the three of us could be a family.
But when I asked her about it, at the restaurant, she came up with an excuse.
And when I told her I loved her in her crypt, she didn’t say it back.
I heave a heavy exhale. I know I feel something real for Renata. Something that I’ll never feel for anyone else. But I know in my heart that her first love will always be her work. I can’t ask her to choose between the hotel and me.
It was always going to end this way…
I just thought we had more time.