25. She said, “I’m Eden fucking Phillips.”
25
She said, “I’m Eden fucking Phillips.”
Eden
“When can we leave?” I whispered to Zach.
I gulped another sip of champagne, hoping the fizz would numb my boredom. The yacht club was so exclusive someone had forgotten to invite the fun. The splattered red flowers on my dress were the most interesting thing to look at in the sea of greige.
I glanced over Zach’s shoulder. Even the birthday boy wasn’t having fun. Chris kept his poor fiancée leashed to his side like he was worried she’d flitter away on the ocean breeze. I scoffed into my champagne glass. Lola should flitter away. Run . I’d known too many men like Chris. That guy was one hundred percent bad news.
“I thought you liked parties?” Zach teased.
“I love parties,” I said. “This is no party.”
“There’s food and booze and way too many people. It’s a party.”
“That’s also the perfect description for a wake, which, by the way, would still have more life in it than this shitshow.”
“The venue’s good, though, right?” Zach didn’t sound convinced.
I rolled my eyes, lowering my voice to imitate one of his greige colleagues. “Oh, look at me,” I crooned. “I’m a rich, fancy lawyer in a fancy yacht club. Listen to me talk about boring paperwork and my new sports car because I’m overcompensating for having no personality.”
“The truth’s out, huh?” Zach smirked. “That’s what you think about me?”
“Nah.” I kissed his stubbly jaw. “You don’t drive a sports car.”
He laughed. “I promise we don’t have to stay much longer.”
“Just here for appearances?”
Zach dipped his chin in a solemn nod. “The partners are meeting tomorrow.”
“Almost there.”
“Almost.” His nose found its favourite spot under my ear, and the warm, minty press of his lips landed there next. He responded to my shiver with a sigh. “I can think of a thousand things I’d rather be doing right now.”
“Are we naked in any of them?”
“Behave, Eden.”
I pouted. “Make me.”
Zach’s cheeks turned pink, his expression shy as his finger drifted along the lacy seam hidden under my dress. A spark zipped up my spine, and I squeezed my thighs together. This naughty game was more fun than the party. Was Zach remembering, too? Before the party, when he’d bent me over his sofa, slipped down my knickers, and fucked me so rough and so good I’d sobbed into the cushions? After that, when he’d gently dabbed me clean and glided my knickers back up my legs as if nothing had happened?
“Later,” he said.
“Tease,” I huffed. “If we’re not playing our naughty game, I’m going to dash to the ladies and freshen up.” I smoothed my hair. “I don’t want to be all messy when the cameras come out for the cake cutting.”
“I prefer you messy.” Zach bent down and guided me into a long kiss too intimate for his boss’s birthday party.
“That wasn’t fair,” I whispered against his lips.
He eased back, drooping eyes barely there behind fogged glasses. “All’s fair in love and… schemes …”
I laughed, and he sent me on my way with a party-appropriate squeeze of my booty.
He should’ve sent me with a packed lunchbox and a map.
The elusive sign for the bathroom led into a rabbit warren of confusing corridors and dead ends. I turned. Stopped. Turned again. Annoyed, I marched along the hardwood floors, clicking up a frenzy, finding nothing but blank white walls.
The hiss of a man’s voice stopped me. Old fears clawed around my lungs.
“—Don’t you dare embarrass me again—”
The unmistakable sound of a slap on skin. A gasp.
My hand flew over my mouth to cover the cry begging to escape. I crept along the corridor to where struggling shadows spilt around a corner.
“Do you hear me?”
A whimper.
“Do you?”
I’d heard him loud and clear.
My father had made his demands in the same menacing voice with the belt wrapped around his hand. It didn’t matter whether you answered yes, no, or said nothing at all; the outcome was always the same. I’d wished a million times for someone to save me from him.
My heart slammed in my chest, cold sweat sticking my satin dress to my spine, but I wasn’t about to turn my back on someone who needed help.
I edged around the corner.
Lola cowered against the wall, the telltale mark of a slap hidden behind the slender fingers fanned on her cheek. Chris towered over her. His hand jerked away from her arm when he heard my footsteps on the hardwood behind him, but the reminders of his grip still dented her pale skin.
That evil bastard.
Not that he seemed at all bothered to see me. He casually buttoned his jacket and flicked back the strands of blond hair that had fallen across his forehead.
“A pleasure to see you again, Eden.” His lips twisted in a smile as if nothing had happened.
All the fancy canapés I’d scoffed sloshed around in my stomach. My mind screamed at me to walk away. Their relationship was none of my business. Chris held Zach’s future in his hands—but those were the same hands he’d used on the woman cowering in the corner.
Maybe I should’ve walked away.
But how could I?
How could I?
Out came my dazzling smile. “Lola! There you are!” I sang in my best performance yet. “I’ve been looking absolutely everywhere for you! You won’t believe the gossip I just heard on the deck.”
Chris scoffed. He’d bought the act. Not surprising—that jerk had pegged me as a bimbo since day dot. Towering over her, he murmured, “Run along,” and pecked a frosty kiss on her cheek.
I clenched my fist until my fingernails bit into my skin.
Lola peeled herself off the wall, shrugging the delicate gauze shawl into place over her shoulders and knotting it tight so the bruises on her arms disappeared. Before her head could turn to seek his approval again, I’d already huddled her to my side.
“Come on,” I urged her away from him. “Let me fill you in on all the details.” About how to leave that man.
I hurried her down the corridor, constantly checking over my shoulder, my hip bumping into the wall because I was moving too fast and not paying enough attention. Another dead end. Another turn. The restroom. I nudged open the door with my shoulder, ushering Lola through a small crowd of women to get to the basins.
“W-Where’s y-your”—I took a deep breath—“makeup bag?”
She bit her lip. She didn’t have one.
“Ladies!” I called to the women milling around the basins. “Makeup emergency!”
Women rushed over, tipping out their foundations and powders for us to test until we found the perfect match. The hot red handprint scorching her pale cheek blurred behind the tears in my eyes. I tried to distract myself by tucking wisps of blonde hair behind her ears only to see the bruises dotted on her neck. My heart squeezed so tight I couldn’t breathe.
“Thank you,” Lola whispered.
Frantically, I dabbed at her skin to cover the marks. “We need to get you out of here.” Hoarse words rushed out of my mouth. “A taxi—or—”
“But i-it’s Chris’s b-birthday.”
“So bloody what! He hurt you!”
“He didn’t mean to. I’m sure Zach’s told you. They work so many long hours. It was my fault for—”
“It wasn’t your fault!”
“He’s been under so much pressure.”
I forced down gulps of air, trying to stop my hand from shaking as I dusted a coat of powder on her face. “Take it from someone who grew up around a man like him. Chris won’t change. He’ll get worse. It’s not the hours. Or the pressure. It’s him. Lola, please, I know people. I can help you find somewhere—”
“N-No. Thank you. I appreciate you helping me with this.” Her fingers hovered above her cheek. “But I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”
“Please,” I begged. “Let me help.”
Lola’s head bowed. She wasn’t ready for this conversation yet—not from me, anyway. I wasn’t a superhero. I was a stranger. As much as I wanted to swoop in and save her, that wasn’t how life worked.
“No matter what that bastard says, you don’t deserve it,” I whispered. “I know you’ll find your strength one day. And if I can do anything to help you get there, just ask. Everyone knows where to find me.”
Lola nodded. She rose to her feet and carefully checked her shawl in the mirror. She was going to walk out that door. Not to escape, but to stand beside the same man whose handprint was hidden under the makeup I’d applied to her pale skin. Me. I’d hidden it.
My heart cracked down the middle.
I couldn’t stay.
I couldn’t stand there knowing what would happen to her tonight…or tomorrow…or every day until she left him.
With a sad smile, I edged away and… I ran.
I flew out of the door, stumbling down the suffocating corridors until I burst back into the function room. My eyes desperately searched the crowd. I needed to find Zach. The partnership announcement was so close. He needed to know the truth about the man he idolised. Even if Lola wouldn’t listen, he would. I needed his arms around me so I could crumble into a fit of tears. He was safe. Home . The opposite of the monsters who walked around in the world undetected until you stumbled on them in a corridor.
Where was Zach?
I rushed onto the deck, the salt breeze a relief on my burning skin. I leant over the railing, sucking down breaths, trying to dull my anger—and the fear it masked—by watching the swell of the ocean bobbing to the horizon.
I’m…done.
Done with small talk. Done pretending Chris wasn’t the boss from hell. Done seeing another broken woman who hadn’t found her wings. I growled. I’d left her in the bathroom! I should’ve dragged her into a taxi! I should’ve—
A hand palmed my backside. I swallowed down my emotions, plastered on my bravest face, and, shimmying a little, turned around to sass Zach.
“So,” I drawled. “We’re back to playing this ga—”
My smile vanished. Chris stood eye-to-eye with me. I considered Zach’s promotion for less than a nanosecond before my fight instinct flew out with a vengeance, and I smacked that smug bastard’s hand away. Hard.
He laughed.
Laughed.
“Keep your fucking hands off me,” I hissed at him.
Chris was too close to my ear and stinking like the expensive alcohol boring bastards like him preferred drinking. “Is that the best you’ve got? I’m disappointed.”
“Step away, old man,” I warned him. “This ain’t happening.”
“Rugby players more your thing? I remember you had quite a thing for musicians back in the day.” A blond eyebrow arched. “You certainly get around, Eden.”
I lifted my chin. Please . Slut-shaming? Nothing emasculated a man like him more than a woman who enjoyed sex on her own terms.
I restrained my anger under the fakest of smiles. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”
“Oh, I’ve heard plenty.” Chris’s eyes locked on my chest as his fingers reached for a feel, but I was even quicker. A harsh crack rang out as my hand connected with his cheek. Chris’s eyes flashed. Not with anger. He was laughing again.
“You’re fucking perfect, Eden.”
“You’re fucking disgusting , Chris,” I seethed. “Take your drunk arse back inside and find your fiancée. If you can find her. One day soon, she’ll realise she can do a lot better than your abusive arse.”
Saying those words was a mistake.
The mask slipped. Chris’s face twisted to reveal the monster he was, and his fingers clawed around my arm. He yanked me closer. The pressure digging into my skin was so punishing the blue ocean blurred to black, and I fought with every ounce of strength inside me to hide just how much it hurt. The bruises all over his fiancée told me he was capable of worse. It was the same story of every girlfriend my father had ever had. Of me.
Defiant, I hiked my chin and stood even taller. “Is this how you convince the pretty doctor to stay with you? What a man you are.”
Sneering, he shoved me. My back bounced off the railing, and I yelped as the pain snapped up my spine. His hands were off me, but he stalked closer and crowded me into the corner until there was no escape.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” he spat.
“I’m Eden fucking Phillips.”
He smirked. “White trash who jumped on every eligible dick in this city to make some money.”
“Oh, honey, is that what you need to tell yourself to feel better? Can’t handle a woman who sees opportunity and takes it?” I fluttered my eyelashes. “Or are you disappointed that even after taking all that dick, I still wouldn’t be caught dead on yours?”
His lips pressed into a straight line.
“I can’t wait to tell Zach all about the piece of shit you are,” I said. “He will end you.”
“Is that what you think?” Chris barked a laugh. “Zach’s career ends with a snap of my fingers. It wouldn’t take much to convince the other partners to hold him back for another few years while he sorts out all his… problems .”
My bottom lip caught in my teeth.
Chris smirked. “How do you think Zach will handle that?” His head cocked. “After everything he’s been through… We both know it’d destroy him. But… I’m sure we could come up with some kind of…arrangement.” My bones chilled when his fingers ran down my arm. “You’re a savvy businesswoman, aren’t you? You know how to negotiate terms. Make…deals…” He slurred over the last two words because he was too busy leering at my boobs. “You keep your mouth shut about me, and I’ll make Zach’s dreams come true.”
“That’s blackmail.”
“No, honey, that’s business.” Chris’s mocking voice chilled even more. “Do you really think he’d believe a bit of trash like you over me?”
I shoved him off me.
“You may think you matter,” Chris said, “but you’re not more important than the future Zach’s been working for his entire career. He owes me everything. He chose me over his own mother . I suggest you choose your next move very fucking carefully.”
His smug smile was the last thing I saw as he left.
My hand trembled as I fumbled to steady myself on the railing. My breaths were shallow and shaky, and every emotion I’d been holding back threatened to flood out of me. Fear. Anger. Humiliation. Devastation.
But I forced everything behind the walls I’d built in childhood. Barely. I held myself together. Somehow.
What the hell was I going to do?