Chapter 9
Ridge
I stared at the phone in my hand. Pink. Stupid pink and jeweled case. She had purposely put it on a video call. I turned an ugly stare on Fiona who sat mostly naked, with her knees to her chest on my couch like she had something to hide.
“What did you do?” My words came out almost whisper-quiet because it took every bit of brain power that had come back online to process.
“I…”
“What did you do?” I screamed at her, though my words were still difficult to form.
“Ridge, it was for the best.”
“The best for whom?” I yelled again as Fiona slunk back into the sofa as if she suddenly feared being in my presence.
There was good reason for her to fear me.
Even as I thought that I knew that what she had done wasn’t the issue.
It was what I had done. I had just imploded my marriage based on a stupid suspicion that my conniving assistant helped to plant.
Even if my wife and cousin had cheated on me, I should have never done the same thing in the heat of the moment.
It might have been a liquor-fueled heat of the moment, but that was no excuse.
I shook my head to try to clear the fuzzy haze that seemed to layer my every thought.
The effects of the liquor tried to drag me back under again, but it was a feeling I had never associated with drinking before.
My eyes worked hard as they tracked back to Fiona again.
I couldn’t be sure if it was my imagination or reality when I saw her duck her head as she tried to hide the smug smile on her face.
I looked around for my phone and couldn’t find it. My pants were still on, pockets empty, and then I remembered that I hadn’t planned on staying at the office long. I needed to write myself a note about how the session went at the studio and schedule to get…
Fuck I couldn’t remember. Something important that needed to be handled Monday. That was why I’d come back up to my office, but not with my phone. Had I left it in the studio or my car?
I pulled myself together as best I could and stumbled downstairs to the parking garage. After I retrieved my phone and realized it was dead, I ran back up to my office. Fiona was no longer inside, but I heard someone shuffle around in the bathroom down the hall. She must have been cleaning up.
I jumped into the shower in my office and cleaned the stench of sex and liquor off my body.
It was only then that my brain kicked in enough to realize I hadn’t been wearing a condom.
I also hadn’t orgasmed judging by the way my nuts were left in a rather uncomfortable, blue-ball state.
Thank God for small miracles. I got back out of the shower, dressed in a spare suit I kept at the office, and felt as though I could go home and have what would probably be the worst conversation of my life with Violet.
I walked back into my office to find Fiona waiting for me by the door.
My mind flashed back to a year ago, when she stood in a similar position and propositioned me for my 34th birthday.
I should have let her go then. Even a joke of that nature had been inappropriate.
Everyone warned me that Fiona had designs on getting me into bed, but I failed to believe them because beyond that one blip, she never once said another inappropriate thing to me. I was a fucking fool.
Worse, I was now someone I loathed. I was a cheater.
I had broken my vows to the woman I loved.
She would never forgive me. I knew my wife.
There was no way she would accept this, especially since it wasn’t even a private thing we could keep between us.
Both of our families, and most of our friends from the glimpse I’d gotten, had been at a party with her when she discovered the loathsome thing I’d done.
The thing I couldn’t remember being a part of…
“Obviously, you’re fired.”
“W-what? You can’t fire me!” Fiona screeched. “Do you know what kind of a lawsuit I could bring against you? You’re my boss!”
“You’re my assistant. One who was tasked with getting me to a surprise party if I heard my wife correctly.” Judging by her guilty flinch that was correct. “You liquored me up, showed me pictures of my wife and another man, and…”
“So? I didn’t force it on you. I didn’t do anything but give you some gifts and show you some pictures. Everything else you did all on your own.”
The crazy thing was that I didn’t remember doing the “everything else” part.
I remembered the pictures, taking another swig from the bottle, and then…
Nothing. The shouts from the phone were the next thing I was aware of and even that was only a hazy memory that I had to try very hard to hang onto. Something wasn’t right.
“And you took advantage of a man in his inebriated state. I drank almost that entire bottle by myself and then you…” I hissed and pulled at my hair.
“Fuck, I was so out of it, I don’t even remember how I got from that last drink to you riding my dick.
” I spat the words out at her and made sure they were as full of disgust for the act as I felt.
“You came on to me. You wanted me. You basically attacked me!” Fiona shouted.
“Yeah? So, when I look back at the recording of my office security feed, I’m going to see myself attacking you?”
Her eyes widened and she stood ramrod straight as her gaze tracked every corner of the office. She never knew there were cameras in here because she wasn’t supposed to. “You don’t have cameras in here.”
“I do. There are six of them, to be exact, so every inch of my office is surveilled at all times. I run a multi-billion-dollar business. That’s how things are done when everyone wants a piece of you.”
“Ridge,” Fiona whined.
“Feeling guilty?”
She shook her head but there was no doubt that I wouldn’t like what I saw when I played that video back.
There was also no doubt that my assistant had set everything into play, from the presents to the pictures…
I wondered again how she managed to get those pictures without anyone noticing her there.
Then I wondered what those pictures really meant.
I shook it all off, or rather, it was hard to hold onto any single thought as my brain swirled and fogged over.
It felt like the adrenaline surge from hearing my in-laws screaming at me was fighting the effects of the liquor.
“Get out of my building and do not step foot back inside these walls for any reason. Security is being notified.” As soon as I gave the order, I moved to charge my cell and picked up the office line to inform security that Fiona was no longer welcome, and all her building access codes should be removed immediately.
Fiona refused to budge as she listened to me give those directions. “She has five minutes to clear out of the building, and then I want her charged with trespassing, possibly assault, and maybe even rape.”
Fiona’s eyes bulged and then she ran from the room, and presumably out of the building.
I picked my cell phone back up and thought to call my wife, but no. That would not go over well. I needed to get home, but I was in no way able to drive myself there. My thoughts were still foggy and sluggish at best.
I ordered an Uber and managed to stumble my way back down to the ground level.
The entire ride, I sucked back a bottle of water and prayed like I never had before that my wife would listen to reason.
In all honesty, it was the first time I prayed that there wasn’t a reasonable response to the pictures I’d seen.
The minute I thought about that, I sent a text to my cousin.
Then I tried to call, but it went straight to voicemail.
He was probably pissed off over the ruined surprise party, too.
In an act of desperation, I called his fiancée, Gabby.
“Hello?” she answered groggily.
“Were you at my surprise party?”
I could almost hear Gabby’s smile over the phone. “No, how did it go? From the sounds of it, you enjoyed every minute of it.”
I wished that was the case. “Why weren’t you there?”
“Um,” Gabs sounded unsure of herself then. “Shouldn’t you know that? Surely, someone at the party told you.”
“I wasn’t at the party, Gabby. I need to know where Moreland is and why you weren’t there.”
“Are you serious?” There was more than surprise in her voice, I could sense a bit of alarm, too.
“Yes, where were you?”
“Ridge, Moreland is out to sea. They got called up almost two weeks ago for some incident off the coast of Africa. Maybe it was South America. I don’t honestly know because he couldn’t tell me, but I saw some news about a hostage situation with pirates, so I thought maybe that’s where he was sent.”
“He’s been out to sea for two weeks? What about before that?” I asked desperately.
“He’s been here, except when he went up to Clear Lake to help your wife plan your party. Speaking of which, why aren’t you at the party they worked so hard on?”
“Gabby, they’re having an affair.”
Gabby laughed at me. I could almost picture her with her head thrown back as she leaned into a full belly laugh. “You have lost your damn mind.” I sent her the pictures that Fiona had forwarded to me via text.
“Who in the hell sent these to you?”
“My assistant saw them out on a romantic date and thought I might want to know.”
“Oh God! Tell me you didn’t believe her and do something stupid.”
“You’re looking at the pictures, Gabs. Candlelight dinner while snuggled up close and personal. A kiss.”
“You’re a moron, if you believe that. Fiona did one hell of a job doctoring it, but here’s the selfie they took, which was why they were so close. The caption they sent with it was: We put our two beautiful minds together and came up with the perfect party plan for Ridge’s 35th.
I looked at the picture she texted me. They were wearing the same clothing, and in a slightly altered position, since one of them held a camera out to take a selfie, but the lighting was completely different.
It was broad daylight, probably mid-day.
There were no candles. I could see the remnants of a meal they shared on the table, but more importantly, Violet’s party planning book sat there in front of them, too.
“It was fake.”
“It was fake,” Gabby mocked. “Of course, it was fake. You would have to be off your ass drunk to have believed they were cheating, even based on those stupid photos.”
“She’s been behaving strangely. I swore that I saw Moreland in town a few times, but then he kept dodging my calls, and then no one – not one single person – said a word to me on my 35th birthday – our 9th wedding anniversary. What was I supposed to think when I saw those pictures?”
“Shoot. I guess I can kind of understand,” Gabby offered in a softer voice. “Oh my God, this was the perfect setup that bitch needed. Please, tell me you didn’t do anything stupid.”
“She brought me cake and birthday gifts to the office. One of the gifts was a bottle of bourbon.”
“No!” Gabby moaned. “No, tell me you didn’t.”
“I felt sorry for myself because everyone ignored me. My wife wasn’t even home when I woke up.”
“Oh, Ridge.”
“I drank almost that whole bottle,” I cried to her.
“I don’t remember how we got into…” I hesitated.
“I don’t remember it happening. All of a sudden I heard my father-in-law threaten to feed me my cock.
Fiona had them on a video call. All of them.
She video-chatted my wife at some point while she was on top of me. ”
“No. Ridge, tell me you didn’t.”
“The worst thing was that I was pissed at Violet and Moreland for having an affair, so I think I said awful things about how Fiona’s pussy was better than my wife’s.
I didn’t mean it. I was so angry and heartbroken.
Maybe I didn’t really say those things out loud.
I thought Fiona was telling me to say them, but then her words were coming out of my mouth.
I don’t know, everything is still so fuzzy I can’t focus enough to find the truth. ”
“Imagine how Violet feels now.” Gabby gasped and then it sounded as though she had broken into tears. “Oh God, everyone was there! They all saw what you did. I’m going to pack a bag and come up there. My doctor said I shouldn’t travel too far, but this is an emergency.”
“No, you should stay. My cousin is already going to hate me when he finds out why I did it. He’d kill me if anything happened to you and the baby while he’s away.”
“Ridge, you need to fix this. God, I don’t know if you can.”
“If you were her, and you knew the whole story, would you be able to forgive me?”
“Ridge,” she whined. “I’m not Violet. I don’t…”
“If it was Moreland in this same exact situation, what would you do?”
“I would leave him and never look back.” There was no hesitation that time.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I hung up on my cousin’s fiancée and two minutes later, we pulled up outside of my house.
There were no extra cars, but Violet’s was still in the driveway, though that didn’t mean anything.
All I could do was hope that she would hear me out and try to see how everything played out from my perspective.
I could feel my heartbeat in my throat as my bourbon-filled guts sloshed with the water I used to try to tamp down the drunken fog that plagued me. Unfortunately, it felt as though the water did more harm than good.
I started to sweat profusely as I tipped the driver and got out of the car.
Each step I took toward my house was an effort.
My shoes felt as though the bottoms were made of glue, or maybe cement.
Every step felt heavier and stickier, as if to prolong what I knew awaited me on the other side of my front door.
Never in my life had a solitary plank of wood held so much significance.
On this side, my marriage was still intact.
The minute I crossed over, that would not be the case.
I hoped it would, but Gabby was probably right.
I knew my wife well enough to know she wouldn’t tolerate being humiliated so publicly, and in such a horrific way.
There was also no way in hell she would ever forgive me fucking another woman and saying the things I thought I might have said.
I really hoped like hell that wasn’t a real memory lifting to the surface.