Chapter 5
Gianna
Jeremy hadn’t been too keen on seeing me after the party, no matter how much he told me he understood.
After the third call, he told me he was working on a large case and he’d see me in a few days.
Guilt eats at me, and any other time I would have shrugged off his avoidance, but now it makes my skin crawl. Like somehow he knows.
There are three days of stomach-twisting silence before Sebastian makes his first move.
I thought I would have more time to decide how to respond to him being in my proximity again, but I should have known better.
In college, Sebastian had never been patient to get what he wanted.
That had been a courtesy only extended to me, and it clearly no longer applies.
I’ve just started cooking dinner when Jeremy stops by unannounced, slamming the front door and making me jump. Jeremy has never been one to react with a show of force.
“What is this, Gianna?” he demands as I stare at him in stunned bewilderment. He throws a stack of papers onto the kitchen counter while Brittany hovers by the front door.
I grab the papers, trying to make sense of them, but they are legal documents full of a bunch of nonsense. I swear they word things to make the average person confused.
“What is it?” he repeats, seething.
“I don’t know!” I snap, pulling them closer and rummaging through the papers faster while struggling to read the words.
“Do you know how embarrassing it is to be served a restraining order as a lawyer in your own firm?” His voice is tight and condescending, the blame pointed directly at me.
“A restraining order?”
He nods, pulling at the knot of his tie. “Imagine my surprise when I read my girlfriend of two years had a protective order put out to keep me from contacting her. After she left my promotion party without a word to anyone."
My mouth drops open, rapidly blinking as my thoughts spin. “I did not.”
Well, I did leave. I shake my head. “I mean I didn’t file a protective order.”
Jeremy steps closer, stabbing a finger into the paper. “Your name is on the fucking documents.”
I flinch from the cuss word because it’s so unlike him; an entirely different man is standing before me. It seems so inconsequential, but it’s another piece of my life turned upside down. Jeremy has always been on the softer side, the side I’d never experienced before him.
“I didn’t file it!” I cry, angry tears gathering in the corner of eyes from the exasperation of essentially being called a liar.
He laughs. “Who else would?”
Slumping against the counter, I toss the papers away from me, no longer having the energy for this conversation and preserving any hope of them believing me. I glance at Brittany before looking back at him. “Let me handle this. It’s clearly forged. I’ll have my brother look into it.”
Sighing, he rubs tired hands against his temples before shaking his head. “Brittany is here to observe me gathering a few things peacefully, and then I will cut all contact until it’s resolved.”
It hurts that he's so willing to be done without a fight. He’s accepting it without any consideration of how I feel. If the situation were reversed, I would believe who he is as a person to not do something like this, but it seems he doesn’t have the same inclination toward me.
“Jeremy, you can’t—” I try to step closer, but he throws up his hand to stop me.
“I cannot break the fucking law even if you swear it’s not legitimate. A judge I know… A judge I’ve worked with signed the orders, Gianna. I have to do what’s necessary to preserve my reputation.”
His reputation. That’s all he cares about, and a piece of my heart dies with the realization.
He takes a deep breath before looking at me, resignation flooding his face. “Your brother isn’t a miracle worker.”
“I know that.” I tilt my head, confused but protective.
My brother is all I’ve had since I was twelve.
He took care of me after our parents died.
Jeremy doesn’t have a clue about what we’ve been through.
But if anyone can get us out of this mess, and away from Sebastian’s actions, it would be my brother.
He nods slowly. “Even if he can help you prove it, my colleagues saw me get served.”
I turn off the stove before facing him with crossed arms. “What are you saying? Are we breaking up then?”
“Jeremy. We shouldn’t linger.” Brittany speaks up, still standing by the front door.
My irritation with her soars, not only because she’s here to be a mediator, but also because of whatever she is doing with Sebastian.
I’ve seen the photos the company posted.
I shouldn’t care, but fuck, I do. He isn’t mine to be jealous over, but I want to know if she is a constant companion like he claimed, or if she is something more.
I also wonder if she’s helping Sebastian destroy Jeremy’s career, and for what?
To get back at me? I don’t understand where she fits in, but it bothers me nonetheless.
“I think my boyfriend can stay a few moments longer to explain how his career is more important than me,” I snap back at her.
He groans. “That’s not—”
“It is. You didn’t stop to think about whether it’s real or not. You haven’t thought about how I would feel if you move your things out, cut contact with me, and act as if we never happened. Your number one priority has always been your career and reputation.”
“Gianna, baby. You know how hard I’ve worked for this, for both of us.
” He speaks softly, but I can taste the contempt.
I work primarily online doing graphic design, but he doesn’t view it as real work.
It’s why he’s been hinting at becoming more serious over the last few months, so I can stay home with kids.
“It’s not like we need the money,” I tell him spitefully, needing to remind him I would be well off without him. He doesn’t get to make this out as if it’s the best option.
“You, out of everyone, know how much I don’t want to touch my trust fund,” Jeremy says, raising his tone in frustration.
“Whatever, I guess I should be used to being the second choice,” I retort, bitterness making my voice crack.
He laughs and shakes his head, walking toward the bedroom without saying anything more.
I don’t mean to make myself out to be the victim, but Jeremy has no idea we both are being used as pawns at the mercy of a blue-eyed monster.
I don’t follow him, but instead look back through the papers, noting the law firm used.
I text my brother to come over for dinner later, planning to have him go through the papers.
“It was Sebastian, wasn’t it?” Brittany asks, breaking the silence. I ignore her, not moving from the kitchen or looking away from the documents.
“I don’t know,” I say when she huffs out an annoyed breath.
Her face twists, staring at me with distrust. “You two know each other, though?”
I narrow my eyes. “Why?”
She shrugs, crossing her arms and looking at her manicure as if the conversation is beneath her. “He just acted like he knows you.”
“I don’t know Sebastian.” I tell her the half-truth because I don’t know him. I thought I did, but it was just a mask of the man lurking beneath.
“You know Jeremy is a great guy,” she says. “He doesn’t deserve to be cheated on.”
Irrational anger coils in my chest, and I stare at her, daring her to make a real accusation. I raise my eyebrows and she rolls her eyes, glancing around at my small apartment with a frown.
“I don’t think I ever realized how little you decorate.”
Yeah, it’s hard to add your personal touch when you’re moving addresses every other year. My heart squeezes. The way I’ve lived the past six years has been for nothing because in the end, he still found me. But neither of them know that, so I don’t bother with a reply.
Jeremy comes in, his packed bag slung over his shoulder as he walks over to me. It’s only a drawer’s worth of clothes since he usually stays over when he has difficult cases, and it’s easier than lugging back and forth. He shares an apartment with a coworker, so we never went to his place.
His sad eyes study my face wistfully. “You understand, right? I don’t want this.”
I swallow the emotion clawing at my throat. “You understand that I didn’t file it, right?”
I don’t understand why he’s in such a hurry to put distance between us.
If he believes that I didn’t file a restraining order, then he would be willing to fight to prove it’s fraud.
I almost wonder if the disastrous party night is what has him running with his tail between his legs; perhaps he’s sick of me.
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The judge is well respected. I can’t—”
“And obviously bought. I didn’t sign that.”
“If there’s any doubt that someone has power to file on your behalf, it would jeopardize Jeremy’s credibility.
Just let us handle it, Gianna,” Brittany says, coming to rub a hand down both of our arms. If I didn’t know that Jeremy has no desire for her, I would have flung her hand off.
But what’s worse is I don’t hate her touching him as much like I loathed her touching Sebastian that night.
Jeremy pulls away from her, his hand reaching for me before he drops it. “I’ll talk to you when I can, Gianna. I love you.”
Biting my tongue, I watch him as he waits for me to say it back. When I don’t, he nods with a sad smile and they leave as suddenly as they came. I slump down onto my couch, my hands shaking. This is Sebastian’s first move, I’m sure of it, but I can’t figure out the point.
A few hours after Jeremy left, I got a text with an address in Manhattan and I knew exactly who it was from.
I debated telling my brother, but instead I slipped off the bracelet and used the back entrance to avoid his security detail.
This was something I needed to do myself, to end it once and for all… or help Matt put him away.