10. Anton
Chapter 10
Anton
“Get out!” I bark at her, dragging the wine bottle from the island. The island I fucked my angel on only days ago.
I want Cassandra off it, not tainting that memory.
I turn back to Cassandra, and she pretends to cry. “Don’t fucking start the waterworks. I stopped falling for those years ago.”
I’ve been polite with her.
I’ve put up with her, but we’re over and I don’t know why she now thinks we can be friends. Or that I will bankroll her.
But she keeps turning up. Keeps on calling me, begging for another chance. Normally, when she’s had a drink.
I need to put a stop to it permanently and maybe I have gone too far to stop her. But as the police siren blares in the distance, I’m fine with my choice.
She suddenly realizes...it’s for her.
“I am going to sue you for every dollar you have. What you did is illegal and only when you can prove the recordings are deleted will I say it’s a mistake, or you can spend some time thinking about your actions in jail.”
She lunges at me, screeching. I step one foot to the side, and she falls. Her face slapping against the kitchen island.
She stumbles on her heels. “I’m going to tell them you hit me.” This time she is crying for real, holding the side of her reddened face. “It’ll be you that will be locked up. Not me.”
“For what?” I say, calmly.
She points her sharpened nail against her slowly bruising face. “This.”
I shake my head. “Nobody will believe I did that.”
She smirks. “Your little girlfriend will think you beat me up. Imagine if her daddy found out. Imagine what he would do to you.”
The sirens get closer to the house. She rips her blouse, exposing her red lacy bra. “Who will they believe? Me or you?”
My heart is pounding at this turn of events. Cassandra really is deluded, but worse, she is bat shit crazy.
The sirens stop. Moments later, there’s a knock at the door. I turn to Cassandra and say, “This is your last chance to be amenable.”
She laughs, her fingertips brushing over her cheek. She tilts her head and gives me a fake smile. “Or you can give me one million and I can make it go away.”
I close my eyes and shake my head, sorry that it came to this. “You’re going to claim I hurt you, that I did that.” I point at her cheek and at the ripped top. “And you’re blackmailing me?” I hiss.
“I could, and I would say you have a couple of minutes to decide.”
I growl, wanting to wrap my hands around her neck and hurt her for real. “If I pay, how do I know for sure you haven’t downloaded the videos or made a copy?”
She smiles. “Everything on my phone gets uploaded to the cloud, and once you agree and transfer the money, I can log in and delete it today.”
The knock comes harder this time, and I hope Scarlett is still sleeping. I don’t want her to be hurt by what Cassandra is doing to us.
“One million dollars and you give me everything, and you leave me alone forever?” I say. “Anything else?”
She swipes her tongue over her bottom lip. “This house.”
“No fucking way. This is my home.” I stroll down the hallway and head to the front door.
“Two million!” she yells, as my hand hovers over the handle. I turn to her and glare.
Then I open the door, beckoning the cops inside. I talk to them for a few minutes and then usher them into the kitchen. Glancing up the staircase as I do.
I don’t want Scarlett hearing anything if I can and hope to keep the scene in the kitchen.
Cassandra stands with her arms crossed over her chest, and I know she is waiting to play her trump card if I decide not to go along with her two million dollar threat.
I always thought Cassandra was slightly off balance. Now I knew she was not only crazy, but dangerous with it.
“Cassandra here broke into my house,” I say, and glance at her face. Her lips turn down into a scowl and her fingernails dig into her arms.
“He invited me here and tried to rape me,” she says, fake sobs release from her mouth as she grips the edges of her torn top, and tries to cover her bra.
One cop stares at me, and I shake my head. “She broke into my home. That is when I called you. She is trying to blackmail me with a sex video she recorded of me and my girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend!” she hisses. “She’s a child and there is no proof I recorded the video or blackmailed him.”
“She’s an adult.”
“You will find the security footage at my workplace will prove she is the person behind the recording, and my home security will prove the blackmail and everything else.” I point to her face and her ripped top. “She did everything she could to get me to agree to her plan. To give her two million dollars.”
“We’ll take her in. But we need the footage within twenty-four hours to charge her,” One cop says. Taking hold of her arm.
“The video is on her phone and the cloud. I need to delete them.”
“It’s evidence, I’m afraid. No judge will lock her up without it.”
Cassandra screams as she’s led down the hallway. She lashes out at the cop holding her arm and he spins her to the wall, pressing her face against the panel, and slaps a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.
Only once she is in the car and leaving my property do I run up the stairs. There is no way Scarlett isn’t awake from the chaos.
When I open the door, the bed is unmade, but she isn’t in it. I rush to the bathroom, but she isn’t there either.
“Scarlett, where are you?” I call out, checking in the other bathroom, hoping she is listening to music through earphones.
But everything is empty.
I chew the inside of my cheek and try to think back. Did I remember any sounds? Her padding down the staircase? Her footsteps on the tiled floor?
I was too busy arguing with Cassandra.
Did she overhear the conversation?
My eyebrows pull together in concern as I look around the room. I dash to the upstairs hallway, running in and out of the many bedrooms our children will fill. My heart is crashing against my ribcage because she is nowhere around.
Panic thumps in my chest as I walk out of the room and down the hall. I check the other rooms in the house, just in case, but nothing. I walk up and down the stairs, trying to think of where else she would be. Even checking my locked office and the living room and kitchen again. I search every room in the house, twice, and by the time I’m back in our bedroom, blood is pounding in my ears and my body trembling with fear.
Her phone isn’t beside the bed—she leaves it there every evening. I open the wardrobe and most of her clothes are there, but her purse is gone.
She wouldn’t leave me. Would she?
“Scarlett,” I yell. But I know she isn’t here.
I rush down the staircase two steps at a time to retrieve my phone. Frantic, I call her number but there’s no answer and then the list of her friends I have in my contacts. It’s late but I don’t care. I need to find her. Now, I’m happy I insisted on getting the numbers from her mother before they left for Hollywood.
But none of her friends have seen her since Friday night.
I drive to Hetty’s house. She is her best friend.
She tells me she isn’t there, but if Scarlett didn’t want me to know where she was. Hetty is likely to go along with the plan.
I wait for half an hour for her to come to her senses and come out of the house, but as it’s past midnight and all the lights have gone out.
My phone chimes.
Hetty: She really isn’t here. I promise.
Then where the hell is she?
My blood is thrashing at the thought of her being alone. She walked from my home, in the pouring rain, so she couldn't have gotten too far.
I have the key to her family’s home.
She wouldn’t go there.
Would she?
I slam the car into gear and speed down the road. Her walk from my home to the house would take half an hour, but it’s only minutes away by car.
The wipers across the window-screen flash in front of me as I check every person I pass. But don’t see my angel.
I reach the street her parents live on and slow my speed to not draw attention from the nosey neighbors. After parking my car on the road just outside the house, I scan the windows to see if I see light.
My hand holds the handle as I shut the car door with a low thud and walk across the gravel pathway, trying to recall the alarm code correctly. I grimace as something cracks under my foot, hoping the sound hasn’t traveled into the house. I don’t want to scare my angel, nor give her the time to flee.
I need to find my princess. I’m not leaving without her.
I push my hand in my pocket and take the key to her parent’s home from my pocket. Once inside the house, I disarm the code. Luckily, I remembered the birthday of Scarlett’s younger twin sisters.
I look around for signs she is here. There are no wet clothes or shoes lying around. But my nostrils flare at the unmistakable scent of her.
She’s here.
I don’t want to scare her. For her to think she can hear a stranger downstairs, that would freak her out. Silently, I creep up the stairs. Ready to go to her room.
I know which is her bedroom. She rarely joins her family downstairs when I visited her home. And as I couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing her before I left, I would make the excuse I was saying goodbye.
But today I’m not expecting to see my friend’s daughter doing her homework. I’m hoping to see my future wife asleep in her bed. When I do, I’ll coax her out of her sleep. Take her in my arms and tell her everything will be fine.
I push open the door and step inside her bedroom. Her bed is made, but she isn’t under the sheets. My heart thuds as I glance around the room.
“It’s me, baby. It’s Anton, don’t be scared.”
There’s no sound. I step outside the room and stare down the hall. Then slowly close the door behind me. I know she is here because I feel her.
“Scarlett, talk to me?” I walk towards the bed and look around. I can hear her breathing, but she doesn’t answer. “We need to talk.”
I stand at the edge of the bed, inhaling her scent. The smell of strawberries and a hint of vanilla.
“It’s over now, angel. Cassandra is being charged for trying to blackmail me.”
I swallow because she still doesn’t answer. I hope Cassandra hasn’t ruined my one shot at happiness with Scarlett. “You can’t leave me again. You’re mine now. I’m going to marry you and have lots of babies with you.”
She gasps. Her hand slaps over her mouth, and I smile, knowing she is listening.
“I can’t let you ruin your business or your reputation. I have to let you go. You need to go back to Cassandra,” she whispers.
“I don’t want Cassandra. I want you. I love you. Now get out here and talk to me.” My words sound brutal, but there’s no power behind them. I can’t, not to her. I just want to make it right.
“But the video, she will destroy you,” she says. Not caring about her father finding out about us. If Scarlett can be selfless, then so can I.
“I don’t care who finds out, your father... my clients... my employees... Nobody matters but you. But I think I’ve dealt with it sufficiently that nobody does.”
“You don’t care if my father finds out. He’s your friend.”
“I love you, Scarlett. And I want to shout it from the rooftops. Even if the video is released, it doesn’t change things, but I don’t want to ruin your future as a brilliant lawyer, and that is the only reason I’ve made sure nobody finds out.”
“You think that?” she whimpers.
“Yes, you are going to be brilliant, Scarlett. At everything, your career, at being a mother, and being my wife. But I need to see you, angel.”