Chapter 50
The intel came through on Friday morning.
I was in my office, half-listening to Romano drone on about shipment routes, when my phone buzzed. A message from my source inside Elera's office. Short and precise. The kind of message that made my blood run cold.
Anne Parker had caused a public scene in lobby. Accused Elera of having a sugar daddy. Called her names. Sienna Wilson had intervened.
I stopped listening to Romano. I stopped thinking about shipments. I just stared at the screen, reading the words over and over, feeling something hot and ugly curl in my chest.
Anne. That pathetic, jealous, backstabbing woman had the audacity to humiliate Elera in public. After everything she had done. After sleeping with Oliver. After pretending to be Elera's friend for years. After I had already warned her.
Romano was still talking. "So if we reroute the shipments through the eastern docks, we can avoid-"
"Get out."
He stopped mid-sentence. Looked at me. Then at my face. Then at the cracked screen of my phone.
"Boss-"
"Out."
He left. Alex was standing by the door, his face pale. He had seen my expression. He knew what was coming.
I held up my phone. "You were supposed to handle this."
Alex didn't pretend to misunderstand. "I thought she understood. After the warning-"
"She didn't understand." My voice was quiet. Too quiet. "And now Elera had to stand in the middle of her office and get called a sugar baby because you were too soft."
Alex flinched. He wanted to defend himself. I could see it in the way his jaw tightened, the way his hands clenched at his sides. But he didn't. Because he knew I was right.
I stood up and walked to the window. The city stretched out below me, grey and indifferent, full of people who had no idea what happened when you crossed someone like me.
I thought about Elera's face when she walked out of the building last night.
Her slumped shoulders. Her hollow eyes. The way she hadn't even looked for my car.
Anne had done that. Anne had taken the woman I loved and made her feel small.
"I'll handle it," I said. "Personally."
Alex nodded and left without another word.
Friday evening, I am walked Elera home.
She was quiet, still drained, but she smiled when she saw me. A small smile, tired but real. It made something in my chest ache.
"I won't be able to see you tomorrow," I said as halting to her building. "I have some things to take care of."
She looked at me, her brow furrowing. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah." I reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just work stuff. I'll see you Sunday."
She nodded slowly, instead of pulling away she leaned into my touch. Maybe exhaustion... But it was a first in a very long time that she accepted my touch.
"Be safe..." she said.
I watched her walk inside. Then drove to Anne's apartment.
The door was cheap. A single kick and it splintered open, slamming against the wall.
Anne was on her couch, a glass of wine in her hand, some garbage reality show playing on the television. She screamed when she saw me, the glass slipping from her fingers and shattering on the floor.
I stepped inside and closed what was left of the door behind me.
"What the hell-" She scrambled back against the arm of the couch, her eyes wide, her chest heaving. "How did you get in? What are you doing here?"
"The door was in my way." I walked toward her slowly. "I moved it."
"Who the hell do you think you are?! I'll call the police!"
"Go ahead." I pulled out my phone and tossed it on the couch next to her. "I'll wait."
She didn't move. She just stared at me, frozen, her hands shaking.
"You humiliated her." I said. "In front of her colleagues. You called her names. You accused her of sleeping with me for money."
Anne's mouth opened and closed. "I didn't-"
"Don't." My voice was still quiet, but something dark was creeping into it. "Don't lie to me. I have witnesses. I have footage. I know exactly what you said."
"Do I look like an old man to you?" I asked.
She blinked. "What?"
"The man who sends Elera flowers. The man she's been seen with. Do I look like a sugar daddy?" My voice was quiet. Controlled. The kind of quiet that made people nervous. "Because I heard you have theories."
Anne's face went pale. Her mouth opened, then closed. She looked at the door, then at the window, then back at me. Calculating her options. Finding none.
She swallowed hard. "She... she deserves it. She walks around like she's better than everyone. Like she's so special with her flowers and her mysterious admirer."
"And why should matter to anyone?" My voice was steady but there was annoying slipping slightly.
"It matters to me." Her voice cracked. "I tried to talk to you. I tried to be nice to you. And you ignored me. You chose her." Her eyes were wet, her mascara smudged. "What does she have that I don't?"
I stared at this pathetic, jealous woman, and I felt nothing. No pity. No anger. Nothing.
"Everything," I said. "She has everything you don't."
Something ugly flickered across Anne's face. "She's not that special. She's ordinary. She's boring. She's never going to be enough for someone like you. You'll get tired of her eventually, just like Oliver did. And then she'll be alone again. Alone and pathetic and-"
I didn't let her finish. I pulled out my phone and made a single call.
"Bring the car."
Anne's rant died in her throat. "What? What car? What are you doing?"
I didn't answer.
Two of my men stepped inside a minute later. Anne screamed when they grabbed her arms.
"Let go of me! You can't do this! This is kidnapping!"
One of them taped her mouth shut. She thrashed and kicked, but they were stronger. They pulled a black sack over her head and carried her out.
I stayed a second longer to observe the room where Elera must have stayed several times.
She woke up on the floor of a storeroom.
The sack was gone. The tape was gone. But her wrists were bound, her ankles tied, and the room was cold and damp and smelled like old wood and mildew.
I was sitting on a crate across from her, my elbows on my knees.
She tried to scream, but her voice came out hoarse. "Where am I? What did you do?"
I didn't answer.
"You can't do this!" Her voice rose. "People will notice I'm gone. They'll look for me."
"No one will look for you." I said. "No one who matters."
Her face went pale.
"This is a bar," I continued. "Somewhere in the mountains. The highway is miles away. You won't find it on foot. And even if you did, you wouldn't make it."
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Please. Please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"You meant every word." I stood up. "You've been waiting for years for her to fail. And when she didn't, you tried to make her fail yourself."
I walked to the door.
"Wait!" she screamed. "You can't leave me here! Please!"
I turned back to look at her. "If you want to eat, you'll work. The manager will tell you what to do. Mop the floors, wash the dishes, serve drinks to men who won't care about your manicured nails."
She sobbed. "I'll find a way out. I'll go to the police. I'll tell them everything."
"You'll be grateful that you're alive." My voice was cold. "Because I could have done much worse."
I walked out. Her screams followed me down the hallway, muffled by the walls, fading as I walked further away.
There was no need to look back.
The estate was quiet when I got home.
I was still angry. Not at Anne anymore. At myself. For not handling it sooner, for letting it get to the point where Elera had to be humiliated. For being too scared of scaring her away to act like myself.
I showered and changed into comfortable black t- shirt and grey sweatpants and Walked to the kitchen.
I hadn't eaten all day. My stomach was screaming at me, but I didn't feel hungry. I just felt empty.
I opened the fridge, grabbed a bottle of water, and drank half of it standing at the counter. My eyes drifted to the oven. The stove. The spot where Elera used to sit at the table and pretend not to watch me cook.
I remembered the cake.
That weekend. Her small apartment. The way she had shoved the whisk at me like it was a weapon. The way she had laughed when I cracked the first egg too hard. The way she had tasted the frosting from my finger, her tongue warm, her eyes dark.
The cake hadn't been sweet because of the sugar. It had been sweet because I had eaten it from her lips.
The memory made my chest ache. But it also made me feel something other than rage.
My stomach growled again.
I pulled out some rice and vegetables and started cooking. Nothing fancy. Just fried rice. The way Nonna had taught me. The way I used to cook for Elera when she was too tired to make her own dinner.
The movements were automatic. Familiar. They didn't require thinking. They just required doing.
By the time I finished, the kitchen smelled like garlic and soy sauce, and my stomach was growling so loud I couldn't ignore it anymore.
I ate standing at the counter. The plate was warm in my hands. The food tasted like nothing, but it filled the emptiness.
I washed the plate, set it on the rack, and walked to my room.
The bed was cold. It had always been cold. But tonight, it felt colder.
I lay down and stared at the ceiling. I thought about Elera's smile. The small one. The tired one. The one that made me believe I could be something other than this.
Tomorrow, I would see her. Tomorrow, I would walk beside her after putting away theoat prominent thorn in her side.
Tomorrow, I would try to be the man she thought I was.
I closed my eyes and waited for sleep.
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