Chapter 3 #2
Before I can stop her, she’s abandoned me in the kitchen to go search for something.
“Sarah?” I call out, eyeing her half-finished bowl. “If you’re not hungry, can I have your pasta?”
When there’s no answer, I shrug, muttering to myself, “I’m going to take that as a yes.”
I pull her bowl toward me. By the time she returns, I have demolished its contents.
“That was my dinner!” Sarah protests, a glossy magazine clutched in her hand. “There’s barely anything left.”
“Sorry,” I say without an ounce of sincerity. “Let me get you that takeout.”
Glaring at me, she pushes her empty bowl aside. “Never mind that. Look at this.”
She sets the magazine down on the counter with dramatic flair. “‘Most Eligible Bachelor and Businessman of the Year: Ethan Wilder.’ He’s on the front cover, Natalie. Is this your boss?”
Tall, broad-shouldered, and impossibly composed, Ethan’s mouth is set in a hard, unreadable line, a hint of arrogance in the tilt of his jaw.
The photographer for Business Monthly has posed him with his hands tugging at his cufflinks, his dark hair neatly combed back.
His eyes—cold, sharp, assessing—stare straight into the camera with the confidence of a man who owns the world.
He looks unapproachable yet devastatingly sexy in a way I know will have women drooling over him.
I make a face. “Unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately?” My friend chokes on her wine. “You get to work with that face and that body every day, and you think it’s unfortunate? You and I have very different definitions of the word.”
I flip the magazine over, not wanting Ethan’s smug picture shoved in my face. “He’s the reason I fell out with Lucas and my mother, if you must know. So, yes, unfortunate is the only word I’d use for him.”
Sarah goes completely still. “No.”
I sigh heavily. “Yeah. He’s the one I slept with.”
“What?!”
“It was one night. I thought he had feelings for me. He had me half-convinced that what we had was real.”
“But he didn’t?” Sarah asks slowly, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper.
I wet my lips. “He, uh, took my virginity and then tried to ask me questions about my brother’s client list for his new company.
Love-struck as I was, I wasn’t completely braindead.
I figured out he was fishing, and I asked him about it.
He never denied it. He thought that he could get secrets about Lucas’s new company from me. ”
Sarah just gapes at me. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Maybe you should sit down,” I suggest as she begins pacing around the kitchen like a caged animal.
“I have an even better idea.” She opens the fridge and begins taking out eggs, her voice fierce with anger. “Let’s go egg his car. Rich businessman like him, I’m sure he drives some fancy-schmancy car whose insurance I can’t even afford. Let’s egg it. ”
She reaches for her wallet, which is lying on top of the microwave.
Juggling seven eggs in one arm, she’s counting bills with determination.
“I think I can afford two dozen more eggs. Or maybe three dozen if I use my credit card. But if we use the card, we’ll get traced.
” Her head lifts, eyes glittering with vengeful intent.
“Better yet. Let’s just get red paint. The super is getting the basement painted. I saw some cans lying around. We can?—”
“Sarah.” I hold up my hands, affectionately amused by her enthusiasm. “We’re not egging his car or throwing paint over it.”
“Why not?” She demands, practically vibrating with righteous fury. “The bastard screwed you over. Let’s go destroy something he likes.”
“First of all, I don’t know what car he drives.
Second, I don’t think that’s necessary, while I do appreciate your willingness to break the law for me.
” I walk over to her, wrapping my arms around her in a grateful embrace.
“Thank you. That was the reaction I needed from someone. I wish you’d been there back then. ”
She sighs, putting the eggs down one by one into a bowl and hugging me back fiercely. “You don’t mean that. I would probably have stabbed him.” Pulling away from me, she searches my eyes with concern. “He broke your heart, didn’t he?”
I huff. “I was an idiot.”
I’ve never talked to anyone about what happened. Five years is a long time to hold something like this inside, and it feels both liberating and terrifying to finally voice it.
“Ethan and Lucas were friends from college. Lucas introduced me to him in passing. I thought Ethan was attractive, and when he started showing up at places I was at and treating me like I mattered—I didn’t even know they had fallen out until I went to Lucas after what happened.
When he found out that I had slept with Ethan, that’s when he exploded. ”
“But why?” Sarah asks as I straighten up. “You didn’t know. And Ethan had manipulated you.”
I lift my shoulders, turning the magazine over and looking at his picture, my heart feeling hollow. “Lucas didn’t see it that way. I slept with his best-friend-turned-business-rival.”
A shuddering breath escapes me as I tilt my head back to stare at the ceiling, willing the tears away. The vicious scars he left on my heart have never fully healed.
“Anyway, it’s in the past. Ethan showing up like this.
.. There was a contract I signed with the company three months back.
I needed the money for Mom’s debts. I’m stuck for four years now, and I can’t leave.
I think—” I look at my friend. “Sarah, I think Ethan had something to do with that contract.”
“I thought the takeover happened recently.” Sarah picks up the plates and puts them in the sink.
“Braxton, the previous CEO, stopped all contracts from being renewed a few months ago. I should have wondered why that was. The ones that were renewed were made out to be temporary ones. I didn’t think much of it because, well, the guy was temperamental.
When my contract was up for renewal, he called me into his office and gave me the one I ended up signing.
If the money issue hadn’t been hanging over my head, I wouldn’t have signed it. ”
Sarah looks thoughtful. “I think you mentioned it. But if you don’t want to stay, can’t you just break the contract? What’s the worst that can happen?”
“I’ll go bankrupt,” I reply tightly. “Ethan’s assistant told me that all contracts issued around that time were through Ethan, and I have a feeling he was the one who had my contract drafted. Or maybe it’s paranoia. I just can’t shake this feeling.”
“He doesn’t want you to leave,” Sarah murmurs, realization dawning on her face.
“He’s up to something.” My fingers pick at the sleeve of my blouse nervously. “I don’t know what it is, but he’s being less than professional with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“He took my hair in his finger and was playing with it.”
The smack I receive on the back of my head makes me jolt as Sarah scolds me. “Why did you let him get that close to you in the first place?”
“What did you want me to do? Sucker punch him?” I retort, rubbing the back of my head.
Sarah hesitates, examining me with sharp eyes. “Has he said anything else?”
“He’s been polite but a little close, if you know what I mean. He did say something that had me on edge.” My friend leans forward expectantly as I admit slowly, “I thought he was trying to become another Braxton, but he said that he was only interested in one woman.”
Sarah’s eyes widen at my words. “Well. The man’s making a statement.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t you go falling for it. He’s up to something.”
“Does he know you and Lucas aren’t on friendly terms?” my friend questions.
My jaw twitches. “No.”
A small ache blooms in my heart.
Is that what this is? Is he here for round two?
Is he trying to use me again? I’ve kept away from every mention of Ethan and Lucas, walking away when their names reached my ears. I’ve lived with the pain of betrayal for so long that my heart didn’t feel like taking any unnecessary lashing.
Ethan was my first in every way, and what he did to me scarred me in a way where I have never been able to trust another man. I realized there was no one I could ever turn to, no one I could fully trust and lay bare my soul to.
So I chose my work. It’s the only thing that holds me together, that tires me out enough so I’m not reminded at night of how alone I am in this world.
If Ethan is trying to find another way to hurt me, he’s perilously close to succeeding.
Sensing my distress, Sarah says darkly, “Egging his car is still an option, Nat. Just say the word. You don’t even have to join me. I know some people who owe me a favor. They’ll do it. Nobody will be the wiser.”
I blink slowly, Sarah’s voice dragging me back to our warm kitchen where I’m not alone. Mustering up a smile, I pat her shoulder. “Ah. No thanks, Godfather.”
Sarah narrows her eyes. “If you want to leave the job, why don’t you just let the quality of your work decline? At some point, he’ll have no choice but to let you go.”
“Yeah.” I shake my head in exasperation at her schemes. “And my reputation will be in the gutter, and I’ll be unemployed for the next decade. Solid plan. 10 out of 10.”
“Hey, at least I’m trying. And I’m getting pizza now.”
As she picks up the phone, I wash the dishes. “I’ll deal with this. I’m not twenty-four anymore. Whatever he’s up to, I can handle it. Either he thinks I’m easy and he’ll get me in his bed once again for old times’ sake. Or he wants something from me.”
My palms rest against the edge of the sink as I consider one other possibility. “Do you think I could be overthinking this? Maybe he was just testing my boundaries, and that was it.”
“Is that what you really think?” my friend asks cautiously.
I take a minute to answer. “I don’t know what to think. I just want to stay away from him.”
“Natalie,” Sarah begins warily, “don’t tell me you still have some lingering feelings for hi?—”