Chapter 8 #4
“You lied,” she cried, tears spilling down her cheek.
“Again, you lied to me. About everything!” Such heartbreak filled her voice that I couldn’t breathe.
I was hers and she was mine, there was no changing it, why was she saying this?
“You said you were never involved with the woman I sent flowers to. You lied. Y-you even had this drawn up.” She threw the envelope at my chest, it slapped against me and dropped to the floor.
She breathed in, hard and shaky. “You tell me to communicate but you never do the same for me. You met with her.” The last four words were infused with pain.
Panic squeezed my chest. I would lose her and that would cripple me—I would no longer function.
It seemed impossible to feel this intensely so quickly.
Love had happened while I hadn’t paid attention, reveling in the pleasure of having her. I could have done nothing to stop it.
“There’s nothing between us. I met to—”
“That is not the point!” Her fists balled and brought my attention to her shaking hand, then down to the blood trickling down her leg.
“You’re bleeding.” I crouched and peered at the dried injury. Scrapes marred the side of her calf. This had happened recently. She moved back before I could touch her, and I clenched my hand midair.
“You met with her without telling me.” She repeated more forcefully.
Her head lowered to look at me, causing tears to trickle down her cheeks.
I hadn’t thought of it as lying. From a business perspective, meeting Claire was a necessity, but I should have just sent Caine to close the account with her and to inform her that I would no longer do business with her after her stunt of showing up at my home.
But I’d wanted to find out how she knew my address when she’d never been there.
It was a short meeting meant to slice her existence from my life.
I wanted to avoid Nina’s pain in any way possible, but by keeping a meaningless event to myself, I only managed to hurt her.
A thick barrier in my esophagus made it difficult for me to respond to Nina in the face of the agony splashed across her face.
I slowly stood, placing my hand on the door behind her.
“I lied.” The words burned coming out. I wanted to protect her and had only ended up hurting her.
She nodded sagely, swiping the back of her hand across her cheek.
“Thank you for finally being honest,” she croaked. “I have to get back to work.”
“Nina,” I breathed. She only shook her head and shoved my arm off the door to go back into the hall, leaving me standing in the stairwell with my heart throbbing.
The large envelope mocked me from the floor.
I grabbed it and slid the documents out.
My attorney’s office logo was the first thing I focused on.
Everything I’d told him to include burst forward in my memory. Fuck.
I owned everything I could possibly want, but I’d never felt emptier. I couldn’t move, her words left me paralyzed. The gray slab of the door slamming shut mocked me.
Hollowness carved my chest where my heart belonged, it’d formed into the woman currently walking away from me.
Nothing and no one would come between us—even her.
I avoided his car by leaving through the back exit, then I’d come home via taxi, so he didn’t catch me at my usual bus stops. It cost me a pretty penny but avoiding him was worth the expense.
He knew where I lived, so I had no choice. Now, I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling with my stomach cramping from hunger, but I didn’t have the energy to eat.
Thumps of someone climbing up the staircase of my apartment building echoed through the thin walls.
Every sound could be heard from within my 400 square foot studio.
My wrenching sobs left my chest aching, but the tears had finally subsided to the point that I just lay under my blankets breathing wretchedly.
A loud bang vibrated my door and I gasped.
Slapping my hand over my mouth, I cut off the sound.
The bang came again. I curled my fingers around the edge of my blanket, peeking over my toes under it as I watched the door across from my twin sized bed.
“Nina.” His muffled voice came through clearer than should be possible with a wall between us. My muscles clenched like they wanted to bounce up and run toward him. “Open the door, Nina.” The order hinted at an Alpha Bark and I sat upright before I forced myself out of my instinct to obey.
How did he learn which was my apartment? I yanked the blanket over my head. The doorknob rattled, and I stayed silent, laying as still as possible under the blankets.
Who was I kidding, he had information at his fingertips with the sort of power he wielded.
Another vibrating thud of the door. If he kept this up, my muscles would all cramp like this.
“Nina. Please open the door.” His voice softened, but even so, the command in it remained.
He jiggled the doorknob. I closed my eyes tight, hugging my fuzzy pillow to my chest.
A door creaked. “Excuse me?” A woman’s frail voice shrilly exclaimed. “Stop the racket or I’m calling the police.” She sounded familiar, it was the elderly neighbor who lived with her young nephew. “Wait a minute, you’re one of them Astor’s. I saw you on the news.”
Footsteps thudded. “Hey, where are you going?” she called.
She’d successfully scared him away. Tension floated off my limbs, but my heart was left hurting.
My phone vibrated and I slipped my hand out of the comforter, searching under the pillow until I found it.
I yanked it to my face, and the bright light made me wince.
I’ll be going to Singapore for a meeting. I’ll be gone for a week, can you please let me in? I need to see you.
I cinched my eyes shut. The phone vibrated in my hand again. Relief mingled with agony. He would be gone, I hiccupped.
Please. The NDA was a mistake. I asked him to draft it right after meeting you.
I didn’t answer. Nor did I answer the thirty phone calls after that.