25. Ivy
Ivy
I toss and turn alone in the huge comfortable bed by myself all night long.
Emmett doesn’t bother coming back after the way he made my body feel things it has never felt.
After he left, I angrily took the hot bath. When I was done, I found the room spotless again, the bloody sheets changed, my torn wedding dress hung up and shoes arranged perfectly.
When I walk to the closet, I see all my suitcases that were at Beverly’s house all arranged in a closet and my clothes neatly put away. How any of this was done, I have no idea.
While impressed, I’m mad.
Ty told me Emmett was the one who made the chicken ginger soup for me and always had a doctor for me on standby, which perplexed me to no end.
The jerk ignored me but kept a doctor designated just for me on standby at all times.
I grudgingly accepted the checkup and was told to have lots of rest, but I couldn’t for the life of me remain asleep.
I was waiting for that jerk to come back. How could he flat-out deny me like that?
But like a coward, he never showed up even when the sun started to rise, so I quit and finally fell asleep.
I didn’t see him the next day either.
I wandered the halls of the wing with Ty trailing behind me. When I asked where his boss was, he only told me that he was out with no other explanation.
So, I went to the library I had that bombshell-dropping conversation of sorts with Emmett’s grandfather and spend the whole day waiting for him.
I have no idea what happened to my phone. If I had it, I would spam that jerk with texts to stop acting like a little b?—
Breathe.
I needed to breathe.
It just so happened that on the third day of Emmett’s drop off the face of the earth, Scar came by, and took me out on the town to shop… with major security.
“Er, your husband’s orders. Your life is worth more than this world, so, get used to this,” she said with a shrug as she tugged me along Fifth Avenue from one store to the next.
Ty presented me a black card with a very unfamiliar name on it.
Mrs. Ivy Marie Easton.
Not only that, but there are also new identity cards in the box, all with my supposed new name.
“The young master said these are yours,” Ty said, offering a suede box of key cards.
“What are those?”
“Keys to the Manhattan building, the upstate residence, the Westbrook Blues estate, the villa along the Amalfi Coast, and another along Lake Como. Some apartments in the United Kingdom, as well as a one in Zurich.”
“Excuse me?” Is that bastard telling me to get lost to one of his properties?
“The young master also said your jet is always on standby to take you where you want to go, whenever.”
“My jet?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I’m livid by this. Instead of showing up to face me himself, he throws his wealth at me?
“Whoa, Ivy,” Scar grabs my hand. “You should see the intense look on your face. Is everything all right?”
Breathe, breathe, Ivy!
Emmett is clearly a manipulating coward, using techniques to wear me down thinking I’ll be demure about all this?
“You know what, Scar? Everything’s just perfect.” I say with a huge smile. “When do you ever get free rein of unlimited funds? Let’s go shopping. On me!”
“Oh my gosh, really?” she squeals. “His cards are different from ours.”
“Damn straight, anything you want, beautiful!” I wink exaggeratedly.
Ty is about to say something but I shoot him a glare. “Is something wrong, Ty?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Uh, Young Madam?”
“Are you being for real?”
“My apologies, Mrs. Easton.”
“Urgh!”
I storm off with Scar, and we really go ham with that asshole’s card.
We go to Ulta Beauty and Sephora. We pay for everyone’s purchases for the next thirty minutes in each store, making it rain for the girls.
We hit up Nordstrom’s next and we go up each floor, pointing at random items all the way to the top floors.
After a quick smoothie break, we go over to the farmer’s market in Brooklyn and purchase all the produce there and have it sent to the soup kitchens in Brooklyn.
Not only that, Scar and I make sizable anonymous donations to a few orphanages in the inner cities before we head to the small business bookstores in Brooklyn and Manhattan and buy books like no man’s business.
“Ty, have them send Emmett’s dusty ass books to the dungeon. Put mine in.”
Scar laughed so hard, I had to hold her up as we hit up the next bookstore. We even pay for everyone’s purchase and leave credit running for readers that come in until its used up.
I have no idea how much any of these things cost. I just tap, sign and move to the next store in my thigh high boots, shorts and hoodie.
We leave all the shopping bags for Ty and his men. I’m hoping they report all this to their boss.
“You know what, Scar? I don’t like any of Emmett’s properties.” I’ve actually only been to the one in Westbrook Blues and the residence here but who cares?
“Oh, Ivy, I didn’t think you had it in you! What do you have in mind?”
“How do I go about purchasing my own?”
“Apartment?”
“Building. My own fancy, high-rise apartment building.”
The shit-eating grin on Scar’s face when she tells me she knows a guy is enough to make my little heart sing.
“Let’s go!”
We spend the next few hours being shown all the rich-people apartment buildings from all boroughs in New York, then it expands to California, Chicago, and even some overseas. The guy is overly excited to help us that he goes above and beyond with the service in his office.
We’re given all the VIP works. Champagne, caviar, a whole lounge room and shit while we browse.
The ease at which Scar does all this tells me everything I need to know.
This girl grew up around money! So, I let her teach me the ropes, but the irony is not lost on me.
I always advocate using a sound mind. I quite literally never do this. Recklessness is not my forte, but I think I’m pretty good at it.
So, without blinking, and my beautiful cheerleader by my side, I pick three buildings.
One in Cali, another in Singapore and lastly, one right here in the Big Apple.
After signing some papers that I don’t bother reading, they’re put in a very fancy like envelope-box thing I’ve never seen before, and Ty picks it all up without batting an eye.
Yup, tell your boss about that!
When we’re done, Scar drags me to go buy some dinner gowns and get our hair and makeup done by experts, but first we get massages and fancy body treatments before we get dressed and head to dinner at some fancy no-name restaurant.
Well, at least I don’t see the name but, my God, the vibes are immaculately elegant.
“You spent close to a billion today,” Scar says laughing happily.
“Shoot?” I’m stunned. “I meant to make it more. Oh, guess I have to improve my performance.”
Scar throws her head back and laughs, drawing attention to us.
“But seriously, I didn’t think it would be that much.”
She eyes me over the rim of her cocktail glass with a fond smile. “Mrs. Easton, you are literally the wealthiest woman in this city right this moment. I’m an Easton but my net worth is several billions less.”
My jaw drops to the floor.
“But I like your style! You spent more on others than you did on yourself! Your husband is like that.”
My husband.
Emmett is now my husband.
It’s something I’m also not used to, just like being called Mrs. Easton.
“He is?” I croak.
“Yup!” she says, delicately cutting into her fancy meal that I can’t name even with a gun to my head. “He funds boarding schools for kids all over the world. And it’s not because he feels sorry for them either, it’s because he genuinely wants to do that.”
I stare at my plate of smoked salmon and some sauce I want more of, but now my mind drifts back to him.
“Where is he?”
“I have no idea,” Scar answers softly. “Grandfather wasn’t at the residence either. All I know is security has been beefed up. Even my brother has been put on lockdown.”
“That night, what happened?”
“You mean the night of your spectacular wedding?” Scar wiggles her eyebrows. “Well, besides the drama, your pseudo father died in the dungeon.”
“What?” I gasp. “Did… did Emmett…”
“No, he was killed by someone else and that person is on the run now.”
“Is it Vaughn?”
“I’m not sure, but it can’t be him since he’s around, just hiding away, and well, processing all the big purchases you did today, most likely.”
I’m stunned by this.
“He does that?”
“Kinda, but maybe it’s different for you and my cousin. I have no idea how the upper, upper echelon live their lives,” she says with a chuckle. “But seriously, Vaughn is being kept under watch somewhere, not at the residence.”
“Uh, Scar,” I start hesitantly. “Do you know what Emmett meant when he was taunting Vaughn about his father?”
“Oh that is drama!” Scar’s eyes grow wide. “It turns out Emilio stole Uncle Angelo’s first love while she was pregnant and passed off the baby as his.”
“Oh God, why?”
“Because Auntie was pregnant with Emmett at the same time! It was a race to for the next generation of power.”
Jesus.
“Why did Angelo go along with it?”
“Fear? No guts? I’m not sure but Uncle Angelo was pretty young when his girlfriend fell pregnant.
Now, you have to understand, Grandpa already couldn’t stand his sons, so their mistakes enraged him,” Scar muses.
“I think Uncle Angelo went to his older brothers for help, but they saw it as an opportunity. Emilio took Vaughn’s mother as his own and lied to Grandpa about it. ”
Wow.
I always knew the love for power makes others evil, but to such an extent? Poor Vaughn.
“What about his younger brother?”
“Lucien’s mother is some other model. The two are not close.”
“I heard you have a brother. Are you two close?”
“Hmm, he’s my baby brother but he’s favored by my father more. Even my mother loves him more so whatever.”
I see I touched a sore topic, so I switch to something else.
“Scar, do you know what happened to my… uh, my…”