Chapter 29
Cora
“Do you think we can expand that fast?” I look at the projections.
“I think we need to up our fundraising efforts to make sure we’re not dependent on your family’s donations only, but I think we can,” Britney, C.O.R.A.’s managing director, explains.
“Okay, let’s do it. Let’s schedule a brainstorming session about potential ways to find additional funding sources. Let’s invite some close-to-us teachers and parents, and I’ll talk to Xander to get a few business people in. Different minds, different ideas.”
After I found out about C.O.R.A., I got involved immediately. That was a month ago, and things are getting busier every day because we’re adding new schools to the program. I love it.
“Good.” Britney smiles. “I will send you potential dates, and we’ll see who is available to help us prepare the plan.”
I used to judge my sister for her involvement with different causes. All of them were in need, but her involvement didn’t feel genuine. Like she did it just to fill her time. Like many other wives of rich men, in my previous limited viewpoint.
And now I’m one of them, but I see a different angle: I enjoy the freedom of spending my time where it matters, because I don’t have to worry about making ends meet. Spreading kindness because I can and want to, not because duty calls.
“Let’s also plan a few activities for the holidays. We still have a few weeks to put something together,” I suggest.
“On it.” She salutes me. “Before you go, could I get your input on the menu for next month?”
We spend another hour talking about menus. For years at the bistro, designing the menu has been a chore—always looking for ideas that are economical and appealing at the same time.
Here, we’re looking for economical and nutritious ,while appealing to picky children, and none of it feels like a chore.
After I finish, I call Tessa. “Will you need me today?”
“Playing hooky again?”
“I want to review the manuscript revisions, but I’ll come if you need me.”
“I’m good. Go do your thing. I hope you show up for our opening.”
“When is that again?” I tease.
“Too soon if you ask me. So much work. You wouldn’t believe—” She launches into retelling me all her grievances with a carpenter, a furniture supplier, and the city approval process. Today, she also adds a few anecdotes from the interviews with potential employees.
I listen, grateful she tackles so much with pretended reluctance. Grateful she found something that makes her happy. And grateful I don’t have to deal with all of that.
Finding a small coffee shop, I order a latte and open my laptop. Time flies as I dive into revisions.
When I finally stretch, I find a message from Xander.
Xander
Do you want to grab lunch together? I’m free at noon. Just come by my office. Xoxo
I’ll be there. I hope you feed me well.
Xander
My cock is waiting.
I laugh and start packing up my things. The café is warm with the scent of cinnamon and ground espresso, bustling but calm.
When I lift my gaze, I see a familiar face. “Sanjay!”
I’m on my feet before I can think, a smile stretching across my face. God, it’s good to see him.
Of all the people who kept me sane during the last year at the bistro, Sanjay was my lighthouse. He believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. He was the first person who motivated me to even contemplate changing things up.
He startles at the sound of his name. “Cora?”
But his voice isn’t nearly as joyous as I feel. He steps back slightly, clutching a green apron as if it’s a shield, his knuckles white against the fabric.
I falter, mid-stride. “Do you work here now?”
He glances around, like he’s afraid someone’s watching. “I only came back because my sister is sick.”
Came back?
My brow furrows. “I’m sorry to hear that. But… I thought you left because she was sick. I thought she lived in Chicago.”
He goes still. His mouth opens and shuts like he’s trying to breathe underwater.
“I don’t want to get into trouble,” he says quickly, almost in a whisper. “Let’s just pretend you didn’t see me.”
“Sanjay…” I lower my voice, stepping closer. “What are you talking about? I’m happy to see you.”
His eyes flit toward the exit. Fight or flight? Something is very off.
“Look, Cora, I regretted it the second I took the money.” The words tumble out too fast. “I mean, my family needed it. But I never—I never wanted to betray you. I relented only because I knew he’d fix everything.”
My stomach drops, and I don’t even know why. He makes no sense.
“What money?” My voice is careful now, trembling at the edges.
Sanjay swallows. “Please know I would’ve never left you. Not unless—” He breaks off, guilt etched across his face. “But I knew he would take care of things for you. I knew you’d be okay.”
A beat of silence stretches, taut and unbearable.
“Who?” I ask, even though I already know. I feel it in the clench of my jaw, in the sudden throb behind my eyes. But I fight that thought because… no, no, no.
He looks at me like a kid caught in a lie. “Mr. Stone.”
Xander.
The air around me thins, warping like heat off the sidewalk. “Xander paid you to leave?”
He nods, just once. “I’m sorry. I—I didn’t know what else to do. He said you needed a fresh start, and he could fix it faster without me in the way. And he was offering enough to—” His voice cracks. “I was trying to do what was best for my family. But it was wrong.”
My hands tremble as I clench my notebook to my chest.
The betrayal stings sharper than I thought it would. Not because Sanjay took the money—I can understand desperation.
But Xander.
Another lie.
Another betrayal.
Why?
Why would he destroy my business?
To manipulate me.
In light of Sanjay’s admission, the lie about Xander’s father forcing him to marry pales.
I manage a nod, though I’m not sure what it’s meant to signal. That I understand? That I don’t?
“Thank you for telling me.” I don’t recognize my own voice—flat, as though all the air’s been punched out of me.
“I’m really sorry, Cora.”
“Yeah.” I offer a tight smile and leave before he can say more.
I don’t want to fall apart in a coffee shop. Not here. Not now.
Outside, the city moves around me, uncaring. But inside, something is cracking.
And this time, it might not glue back together quite so easily.
I don’t know how long I wander around aimlessly. The worst part? I can’t reach deep enough to find anger or sadness. I’m just numb, completely empty.
Someone bumps into me and I stumble, but it’s New York, and crowds flow around me, unaffected by my personal turmoil.
He paid off Sanjay.
I wish I could just laugh it off. I wish I could go back to this morning, when we both climaxed in the shower before I left the house with a spring in my step.
My phone vibrates in my purse, but I don’t want to look at it. I don’t want to merge back into daily existence as if nothing has happened.
The vibration doesn’t stop.
I relent.
I dash into another cafe and shiver as the AC air accosts me.
“Are you in the line?” someone urges behind me.
I shake my head and slouch into an empty chair. I finally fish out my phone. On the locked screen, I see several missed calls and messages.
Xander
Lunch is waiting.
Are you running late?
Where the fuck are you?
Cora, I’m going crazy here. Answer the phone.
God, I hope you’re okay.
The phone rings, and I drop it to the table, startled. The picture of Xander’s grinning face mocks me.
There is no point in dragging the agony out. I answer.
“Cora, for fuck’s sake. I got Lindsay calling around the emergency rooms. Where are you? Are you okay, love?”
Love?
I want to find words, but they are not coming.
“Cora?”
I look around, searching for an anchor. Anything to ground me and help me breathe.
I’m sitting across from the Merged offices. I didn’t know I’d walked this way. I didn’t even know I was here. But the realization gives me a purpose.
“I ran into Sanjay.”
“Who the fuck is Sanjay?”
Jesus. It goes from bad to worse. “My former employee.”
The silence on the other end of the line is deafening. It whooshes through me with vicious pain.
“Where are you, Cora?” His demand is laced with panic.
“On my way to your office. See you soon.” I hang up.
Soon feels like three lifetimes as my numb legs trudge across the street, against the background of honking, braking, stomping, humming, and all the other sounds of the city. It all blends into the monotony of my hurt.
When the elevator door finally opens on the Merged executive floor, I expect to see his face. Instead, Roxy, who looks uncharacteristically panicked, waits for me, biting her nails.
“Cora.” She grabs my hand and rushes me across the swanky reception area into a boardroom.
“Where is Xander?”
“He’ll be right here. He had a major fight with Corm just minutes ago, but Corm insisted he stay for a call they had scheduled. Do you want something to drink?” The edge of panic in her voice intensifies with every word.
It’s weird. I met her only a handful of times, but the woman oozes confidence. She is the general around here.
I guess, in my current state, everything is weird.
“He took a meeting instead of talking to me?” Bitterness fills the room.
“No, no, he really had no choice. Can I get you anything?”
“Why are you being weird, Roxy?”
She sighs, looking upward as if she needs strength for what’s coming.
“He didn’t get a chance to say anything.
He probably wouldn’t anyway. But he was so distraught, he almost punched Corm, and…
he said I need to make sure you wait here…
” She closes the door and leans against it like she wants to make sure I don’t bolt. “He said you know.”
And the plot thickens. Her words—while I’m not sure how everything relates to her—are like a cold shower, sealing my shattered heart into a box of ice. “And you know as well?”
“Fuck, Cora, I’m so sorry.” She sags against the door. “I should never have given him that file.”
A file?
I sit, because standing currently requires too much brainpower, and I need all I can muster to unravel this clusterfuck of lies and manipulation.
“A file…” I hope to prompt her to reveal more.
“Shit, you didn’t know about the file.” She straightens up.
“Talk, Roxy. I’m angry enough to force you, so you better explain.” I don’t recognize my voice. My tone. My threat.
“Fuck. Look, Cora, you need to know that man was into you since—”
“That’s not what I want to hear from you.”
She stares at me, her expression twisted with regret. “He wanted your address and… that’s my job—to find out about potential clients, partners, employees—and finding your address was super easy, but I got carried away and dug out more. All I could.”
“You dug through my life because he needed my address? Who does that?”
“I’m not proud of that. I enjoy a little sleuthing, and I never planned to give the file to him—”
“And that makes it better? Besides, you apparently gave it to him. What was in that file?”
She lowers her head. “Nothing you wouldn’t have told him eventually. But he was so confused after you ran away after the Ed date fiasco, and I wanted to help him, I guess. And maybe I had my selfish reasons, but at the end of the day, he probably used the information to… propose.”
She knows about my date with Ed? Has everything in my life been orchestrated by others?
“To manipulate me, you mean?”
She sighs. “Cora, he loves you. That man was smitten with you from the day he laid eyes on you. Is his conduct deplorable? Yes. Were his intentions sincere? Also yes. Just give him a chance to explain.”
“Do you know he told me his father was forcing him to marry to help him with some client business? I found out about that omission almost two months ago. That was probably the time he should have elaborated.”
“He fucked up.” She nods a few times, more like shaking the idea out of her head. “Please give him a chance. I will forever regret my hand in it all.”
“So I should give him a chance to absolve you of your fucked-up ways? Fuck you, Roxy, and fuck Xander. I don’t want to be near your kind… entitled manipulators.”
I push away from the table, my chair tumbling to the ground.
“Cora, I’m so sorry.” Roxy doesn’t move.
I snort. “I’m sure you are, Roxy. And I even believe that you snooped through my life only to satisfy your twisted curiosity. That changes nothing about my husband’s betrayal.”
Roxy propels forward, almost face-diving into the table as the door springs open and Xander’s stormy eyes collide with mine.
Earlier today, I thought my life had crumbled into pieces too scattered to ever be replaced. That my heart shattered into a million irreplaceable shards. That my ability to trust vanished into thin air.
None of that compares to the domino effect of my insides folding, and my world collapsing at the sight of the gorgeous man.
I always knew he would hurt me. I always knew he would destroy me. I always knew I would never recover from Xander Stone.
But I never realized how painful it would be to see him suffer in equal measure.