Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
S age made it back to her desk on trembling legs. Setting the bag of food she had bought for Kent’s lunch down, she sat dry-eyed, staring off into space while her mind grappled with what she had overheard.
She could just imagine the silly smile that had been on her face at the thought of surprising him with lunch.
If Kent’s assistant hadn’t told her that he had sent her to get his briefcase, and she hadn’t felt bad he would be working through lunch to prepare for his court case that afternoon, she would have never found out about Kent and Livvy’s sexual relationship.
She had been about to knock on Kent’s office door, when she had heard the door being locked and Livvy’s voice.
Stupidly, she had stood there, listening to them, while all the dreams she had begun to believe possible were shredded into a million pieces.
The sexual sounds coming from inside the office had her leaning against the wall for support.
The noises were reminiscent of the same ones she had made last night after they got back to their hotel room after the concert. Reeling in shame, she had stood there, unable to make herself walk away.
“You okay, Sage?”
Her name being called made her jerk back to reality. Liam Nester’s assistant, Jillian, was standing on the other side of the desk, staring at her in concern.
“I’m fine. I just have a small headache. What can I help you with?”
“I need to return these files I checked out. I know they should have come back yesterday”—Jillian grimaced—“but I would rather take a write-up than having to deal with Livvy again. Every time I am forced to have a interaction with her, I want to quit.”
Jillian was the third complainant she had heard about Livvy.
“You’re okay.” She pointed to the color-coded tab on the folder. “This folder is green,” she explained. Jillian had only started to work at the firm soon after she had. “Red is restricted from leaving the file room. Blue has to be back by the end of the day.”
“That would have been helpful to know. I haven’t been told about the red and blue tabs. Thank you for telling me.”
“Glad to help.”
While she checked the folder back into the file room, she didn’t respond when Jillian continued to harp on how much she disliked Livvy.
When Jillian realized she couldn’t draw a response, she left, and Sage wanted to grab her purse and run home.
Thank goodness Kent wasn’t able to drive her.
She wouldn’t have been able to hold back the overwhelming emotions bombarding her.
She spent the rest of the day alternating between wanting to break down in tears or hating Kent with every fiber of her being; she had never looked forward so badly to the workday ending.
At four o’clock, she headed out the door to the elevator. She silently prayed the whole way out of the building that she wouldn’t run into Livvy.
She made it to bus stop and didn’t have to wait for long before the bus arrived.
She was the only passenger getting off at her stop. She started walking to her apartment two blocks away. The dam she had forged when Denny had died and Glory had been so seriously injured had held steady. But finding out about Kent’s betrayal was straining her dammed-up emotions.
Each step she came closer to her home, she felt as if her heart was going to burst out of her chest. Approaching a crosswalk, she stopped briefly when a dark car came toward the streetlight.
With the light turning red and the green light showing the pedestrian signal it was safe to walk, she still waited until she perceived the car was slowing down.
She stepped off the sidewalk and onto the crosswalk and made it to the middle, when she heard the motor gunning on the approaching car.
Sage took off running at the sound. Out of the corner of her eye, she knew she wasn’t fast enough to make it in time.
In a desperate attempt to save herself, she threw herself toward the sidewalk with a sob.
Landing with a bone-jarring thud, she found herself lying on the sidewalk as the car sped away.
Whimpering, she sat up, feeling stinging pain on her shins and the palms of her hands.
When she stood, a jarring pain shot through her leg, forcing her to limp the rest of the way to her apartment building.
She concealed her pain when she greeted the girls as they rushed down the short hallway toward her.
“Auntie Sage!” Grabbing her thigh, Colby hugged her. “I missed you!”
“I missed you, too.” Bending down, she picked Tinsley up before she could grab her by the other leg. She limped down the hallway, then gratefully sat down on the couch by Glory’s feet.
Glory lowered her iPad to study her. “Rough day?”
“It’s been challenging,” was all she managed to get out.
Clenching her teeth to ignore the pain of Colby jumping on her lap, she reached into her purse for the chocolate kisses.
After peeling the foil off, she gave them to the girls before giving them each a toy unicorn phone.
The girls squealed with delight, then jumped from her lap to sit on the floor and jabber into their phones.
“How?”
“Nothing. It was busy because I was gone for a day.”
Glory didn’t seem convinced but dropped the subject, moving on to one she really didn’t want to discuss.
“Well …” Glory prompted, “are you going to tell me all about your night out?”
“There’s nothing to tell, but I won’t be seeing Kent anymore.”
“Oh no! What happened?”
“I found out this afternoon he’s been seeing someone who he specifically told me last night he wasn’t.”
“The”—Glory looked down at the girls innocently playing before looking back at her—“cheating liar. I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“There is nothing you can do. I’m going to fix dinner. Do you need anything?”
“No. Allie is in the bathroom. She’s changing the sheets for me. I spilled a glass of water when I took my medicine.”
“I could have done that.”
The woman she had hired to care for Glory while she was at work came out of the bedroom, interrupting them discussing her.
“Hi, Sage.”
“Allie, I could have changed the sheets.”
“It was no problem.” The woman brushed aside her protest. “There’s not much here to keep me busy; your sister is so easy to take care of. I hope it’s okay, but I made a tray of lasagna and put in the fridge. It just needs to be heated for about an hour.”
Allie’s kindness after the day she had was almost her breaking point.
“It’s more than okay. You don’t know how much it means to me you’re taking care of Glory and the girls.”
The young woman shook her head. “I’m the one who owes you. If you hadn’t hired me, I’d still be working for Ivo.”
“It works out for both of us.”
“Yes, it does,” Allie agreed. “Since you’re home, I’ll take off. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good night,” both Glory and Sage told her.
Holding on to the arm of the couch, she waited for Allie to leave before getting up. Carefully walking around the girls, she slowly made her way to the kitchen.
“Why are you limping?” Glory asked.
“I was nearly run down by a car at the crosswalk.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I wish.”
She reached the fridge and took out the lasagna, then slid it in the oven. She then gathered the makings of a salad before, pulling frozen Texas Toast out of the freezer to go along with the meal.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m sore; that’s about it.”
As she explained what had happened, she pulled on a pair of disposable gloves and started chopping the lettuce, when the doorbell rang.
Placing the knife on the chopping board, she removed the plastic gloves.
“Allie must have forgotten something,” she said, coming from behind the counter.
She walked to the door and opened it without checking the peephole. Upon seeing Kent, she instinctively started to shut the door in his face.
His hand came out, preventing it from closing. “I want to talk to you.”
“You want to talk?” she hissed at him, barely keeping herself from screaming at him. “Go talk to Livvy! I don’t want to talk to you ever again!”
Proud of herself that she didn’t use the profanity storming through her mind, she was still inwardly screaming. If she weren’t afraid there was a chance the girls would hear, she would have.
She jerked off the bracelet she had bought and threw it at him. “Take it!” she whisper-screamed at him.
Kent caught it in his hand.
“The only memory I want of you is you walking out the door!”