Chapter 12 It’s Not Me, It’s You
IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU
Summer
When I woke up, sick to my stomach, I blamed it on Thaddeus’s presence at the bar last night and the fact that I was about to walk into Fitzgerald corporations as an employee—or maybe even the fried calamari I got from Kelly’s bar.
Daisy, who’d stopped by last night and slept over, now stared at me suspiciously.
“Are you okay?”
Before I could list all the reasons I wasn’t okay, I hurried to the toilet to hurl. When I returned, Daisy jumped to her feet and stood in front of me, eyes narrowed. “Are you pregnant?”
I burst out laughing at the absurdity. “What? I haven’t slept with anyone.” Just as the words left my lips, I lifted my hand to cover them. “No.” A wave of panic gripped me, bringing another surge of nausea with it.
“Did you and Thaddeus even use protection?” Daisy looked at me with sympathy.
I had no idea if we had, and my look must have told her that as she frowned.
“I’ll run to the pharmacy and grab a few tests.”
“It’s way too early to test,” I complained.
I lowered myself into a chair. How the hell did this happen? I was planning to kill the man, not start a family with him. “Shit.”
Daisy gripped my shoulders. “Summer, calm down. Maybe you aren’t pregnant.”
First, she pushed my mind off a cliff with wild ideas, now she was telling me to stay calm?
“Daisy, do you understand what you’re saying? I might be pregnant by a man I hate.”
“You wouldn’t be the first,” Daisy said, less gently than she usually would. Then she shook her head. “Maybe it’s something you ate.”
Thoughts raced through my mind. When was it that Thaddeus and I had sex? October 11th? How long had I been feeling queasy?
My track record with luck was clear. I’d have none if it wasn’t for bad luck. I was probably pregnant. Now that Thaddeus had made me a mother, what did this mean?
Could I murder the father of my child? He murdered my father.
If I did kill him, I now had a reason to be careful and not get caught. My maybe-baby would need a mother, preferably not one in prison. Fuck. Would I be robbing the child of a father then? Was it better to just pretend I didn’t know who the father was? A headache pulsed in my temples.
This was all his fault. Well, obviously, it took two to . . . But he was the one with a dick. He should have been more careful!
“Summer, whatever happens, I’m here,” Daisy said, wrapping a comforting arm around me. I dissolved into tears.
Nothing was going as planned, like fucking always.
Despite the possibility of pregnancy, I pulled myself together eventually. I dragged on my boots and pencil skirt with a white blouse and long cardigan, then waved Daisy goodbye. All I had to do was get through today and a few more days until I could take a test. My hands trembled around the wheel.
I stopped myself mid-spiral and pulled it together, then glanced at the clock on the dashboard.
“Shit!” It was already five past nine. I was late.
I parked the car in the lush employee car park and rushed into the building. Security took my fingerprints and driver’s license, stating that an employee ID would be available by the end of the week. The end of the week?
Wow, I had no idea what I’d know about myself by the end of the week. That I was pregnant or capable of murder? Maybe neither—or both.
My original plan was to kill Thaddeus as soon as I walked into this building, but now .
. . shaking my thoughts away, I hurried into the elevator, pressed the button, and the elevator moved.
As I reached the next floor, the door opened, and Melissa stood before me. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Really, your fiancé didn’t tell you?”
She entered the elevator and placed her hands on her hips. “Just answer the question. I heard you actually tried to murder Thad.”
Her use of his nickname irked me. “I work here.” This elevator ride was about to be the longest of my life.
By the way Melissa’s jaw fell open, I could tell she didn’t believe me.
“Oh, come on, why are you really here?” she snapped, finally erasing the shocked expression.
“Why would I lie?” I crossed my arms and felt a flicker of satisfaction.
Thad hadn’t bothered to tell her I’d be working for them.
She may have been super quick to become his evil little lap dog, but he obviously didn’t care enough about her to warn her I’d been hired.
I questioned if they even shared the same bed.
The thought caused something to shift in me a little.
Mimi stepped closer so our noses almost touched.
“Can you step back?”
“Oh, is this violating your personal space?”
I shoved her away from me. “Go ask your fiancé or father-in-law if you think I’m lying.”
“First you slither into his bed, and now the building!” Her eyes flashed with suspicion.
My cheeks heated. Shit! Thaddeus told her. Well, he was never a liar. Even I had to admit that. Back then, he never led me to believe anything untrue. No matter how I begged. There was a time I pleaded that we’d be okay, that we’d get through it together. Thaddeus said nothing.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she asked.
“Listen, Melissa, Thaddeus and I are over. We made a drunken mistake. Still, I’m not about to apologize that the man you agreed to marry for money and a ride to the top of society had sex with me.”
Perfectly timed, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. I sidestepped her onto the floor.
“I’m watching you,” Melissa hurled from behind me.
“Oh, so you finally joined us!” a voice yelled from down the corridor. I knew it was Thaddeus and turned around to see him seething. His nostrils flared. Even in my agitated state, I wasn’t blind to Thaddeus’s confidence as he stood in front of me in another well-tailored suit.
Man, I hated how good he looked.
The jacket hugged his shoulders, and I could see the crisp line in his sparkling white shirt beneath it. Even the tie I once wanted to strangle him with had the perfect Halloween-themed pattern: bats.
The very sight of him normally got under my skin.
Yet today, something was different.
I continued staring until I noticed Thaddeus peering back at me.
He lifted an eyebrow as if he could read my thoughts. I rolled my eyes, desperate to flee before he smugly asked what I was looking at.
“Your fiancée made me late. If I didn’t have to waste time explaining that I work here, I might’ve been on time.”
Thaddeus looked at me. “If you hadn’t snuck into my room that night, Melissa wouldn’t have any issues.”
I rolled my eyes. Thaddeus knew damn well I went to kill him. “Where do you want me . . .” I cleared my throat. “I mean, where’s my office?”
He let out a hollow chuckle. “Screw that. You can grab a seat at that cubicle. Offices are for those who earn them.”
“Like you did after your unjustified early release? Rumor is you walked right in and got a big office the next day.”
Thaddeus didn’t flinch at my snarky reply.
“Soon, I’ll run the whole company, and then you and the other idiots will have even more to gossip about.”
My feet hurried to the cubicle he’d pointed at, and my pulse matched their speed.
My nausea cared just as much as I did about my first day working at Fitzgerald.
I spent half the time in the bathroom throwing up, and the other half in Thaddeus’s office, surrounded by my new colleagues.
These were the people who got to decide what structure would sit on my once-favorite place in Tarrytown.
The day we got engaged, Thaddeus promised he’d restore it so we could have our wedding there.
Now, he had blueprints spread across his desk for the new structure.
Prison was starting to feel like a better option than helping build the monstrosity that would replace my once-favorite building.
“Summer, Melissa will deal with all the permits and important things. You can help these guys on the construction team. I recall you weren’t afraid of wrecking balls.”
Ignoring his reference to my previous comment, I turned to the others in the office. “I’ll do my best.”
My best not to jump over this desk and smash the nearby lamp over his head.
Thaddeus
This morning, I flew out of bed and then smiled deliriously into my bowl of oatmeal. I’d almost finished eating when Aston commented on my strange behavior.
“Why do you look so happy today?”
Fixing my expression, I stared at him. “Who, me?”
Aston glanced around the empty dining room and narrowed his eyes at me. “I don’t see anyone but us in here.”
“Very funny,” I snapped, then chewed while I thought. Why was I in such a great mood? Nothing was happening today that didn’t happen any other day. I glanced at my watch and stood quickly. “I have to go. I don’t want to be late.”
“Since when?” Aston called after me.
I hurried away before he reminded me I’d only ever been on time for my first day reporting to work.
Since then, I’d been anywhere from three to five hours late.
What was my deal today? I took the key to the black SUV and then drove the backroads, staying up in the hills, passing Benedict Street and a few others until I was on the other side of town and at the office.
When I exited the car, I straightened my new black suit.
Inside, I alerted security of Summer’s employment.
“Mr. Fitzgerald already told us.”
I nodded as everything was already set. Then, I turned to walk away until my feet froze. “Oh, by the way, make sure that particular employee walks through the metal detectors daily.”
As expected, the security guard’s eyes widened. “Do you expect trouble?”
“If you do your job properly, there shouldn’t be,” I said, not wanting to go into details, and went to the elevator. Inside the box, I saw my reflection in a mirror, and the smile I had over breakfast had returned. What was up with me today?