Chapter 7
ETHAN
I still have work at the office, but my hand doesn’t reach for the key in the ignition.
It’s been two hours now, and I’m still parked in the lot across the road from Natalie’s building.
The sounds of her wretched sobs from the other side of the door ring in my ears like a haunting echo.
My injured hand aches from how many times I’ve slammed it against the steering wheel in my frustrated anger.
I shouldn’t have left. I should’ve let her hit me or scream at me, but I shouldn’t have left her alone.
The humiliation in her eyes, confusion mixed with hurt, was infuriating.
If I could, I would have reached through the phone and wrung her mother’s neck.
Who speaks to their child like that? I’ve met the woman.
Back in college, she attended Lucas’s graduation.
She had seemed like a doting mother then.
Was this affection only a front, or was it reserved for her son?
Closing my eyes briefly, I lean my head against the headrest. When I had Jake write up the contract, I had done some research.
It didn’t take too much effort to find out her finances weren’t the best. The car she had bought a year ago was secondhand.
She always cashed in her vacation days. I had simply put two and two together, deducing money might be an incentive to convince her to sign such a shady contract. Now, I feel like an asshole.
Her mother’s been taking money from her. It’s obvious from the message.
And I used this against her.
A sharp rap on the passenger side window has me turning my head. It’s a woman, much to my surprise. Her hair is a bright pink, lifted in short spikes, and she’s wearing an oversized t-shirt with shorts. Despite the late hour, she looks wide awake and determined.
Before I can react, she’s opened the car door and is sitting down.
“Excuse me?—”
“You’re Ethan Wilder, aren’t you?” She offers her hand. “Sarah Brown, Natalie’s friend. I also happen to be her flatmate.”
Alarm fills me. “Is Natalie?—”
“She’s fine,” Sarah reassures me. “I put her to bed, and she’s sleeping. I saw you parked out here when I came back from work. I can also see you from my bedroom window, so I just came to check.”
“Oh.” I tap my fingers on my thigh. “I wasn’t stalking her?—”
“I know.” Sarah shrugs. “She already told me. She was a bit of a mess. Natalie has her pride. Having you hear the message?—”
“It doesn’t reflect anything on her!” I snap. Natalie must be close to her to have told her about it.
“I never said it did.” Sarah lifts her hands in a placating manner. “Look, I just came out here to tell you to go home. I’ve got her.”
She reaches for the car door handle, and I stop her. “Natalie’s relationship with her mother. What is it like? ”
Sarah gives me a disgusted look. “I’m not going to spill Natalie’s secrets to the man who broke her heart. You and her family have done enough damage to her to last a lifetime.”
She tries to open the door, but I immediately lock the car.
Her eyes widen. “Don’t even think about?—”
“You said I broke her heart.” My head is spinning. “It was a one-night stand. How did I break her heart?”
I always thought Natalie was just angry with me for bruising her pride all these years. Was I wrong? Was it more?
Sarah tilts her head, evaluating me with sharp eyes. “It was a one-night stand? Really? What are you doing parked outside her apartment at two in the morning?”
I press my lips together before sighing, a wave of resigned clarity washing over me. “I see your point.”
“You were her first,” Sarah says abruptly.
“In every sense of the word. After the kind of family life she has had, you were a stark contrast. You saw an opportunity, you seized it, then you crushed her spirit. Her family told her she was unwanted and unloveable, and you reinforced it. She was only good enough to be used. That’s not something one can come back from so easily.
She cared for you. In her own way, she felt seen for the first time, and?—”
As she speaks, her words grow agitated by the second, her face turning red with anger. Finally, she holds up her hand, cutting herself off.
“Unlock the door. I might just kill you, I’m so mad.”
Reluctantly, I reach my hand to the panel and flick the button.
The sound of the lock mechanism makes Sarah let out a gust of air before cracking open the window.
She turns her head to look at me. “I don’t have a habit of spilling my friend’s business, so I’ll be square with you, Ethan Wilder.
You may be hot as sin, but you’re a horse’s ass.
You’re a jerk for what you put Natalie through.
In my opinion, neither you nor her family deserve her.
Natalie is sweet, hardworking, and a fucking gem of a person, and in my eyes, you’re all trash. ”
My jaw clenches. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” She gives me a piercing look. “At the same time, I have a gut feeling you care for my friend. You wouldn’t have sat here for two hours like an idiot if you didn’t.”
“I don’t care much for insults, Miss Brown.”
“Well, if you want to get your girl, you’d better suck it up, Mr. Wilder.”
I glare at her. “I really don’t like you.”
“Oh, no,” Sarah retorts in a mocking voice. “How will I live with myself now? Ethan Wilder doesn’t like me.”
“If you have a point to make, Miss Brown,” I say through gritted teeth, “now would be the time.”
“Fine,” she snaps. “You’re clearly interested in Natalie. I want to know your intentions.”
“And I should share them with you because—?” I sneer at her, my dislike of the woman growing with each second.
“Because you need me on your side if you want to get anywhere near her heart. I have Natalie’s ear, and unlike her, I know the world isn’t filled with jerks. So if you can convince me, I can work on her.”
“What do you want in return?” I eye her coolly.
Her expression turns frosty. “As much as I like money like every other person, Mr. Wilder, Natalie is my best friend. Her happiness is more valuable to me than anything you could give me.”
I examine her, feeling a reluctant amount of respect building. “I’m not in the habit of sharing my personal business with anyone. But I do want to know about Natalie’s finances.”
Sarah bristles. “Her finances are none of your business. If you’re trying to label her as a gold digger, I clearly made a mist?—”
I cut her off before she offends me again. “I can’t protect her from her mother until I know how deep the woman is involved with Natalie’s finances.”
“Who’s to say she has any involvement?” Sarah shoots back.
“Miss Brown, don’t insult me. Her mother is taking money from her, and I have a feeling it’s not the first time.” My voice is hard, an icy rage seizing me. “I’m not going to let anyone take advantage of Natalie.”
“You took advantage of her once.” Sarah observes me carefully. “Why shouldn’t she be fair game for everybody else?”
I clench my teeth, shame and regret coursing through me. “You don’t know anything about what happened.”
“I know what Natalie told me. You took her virginity, then you tried to get her brother’s business secrets out of her. When you found out she knew nothing, you told her you wasted your time and left her in the hotel room. Did I miss anything?” she asks harshly.
I hadn’t known Natalie was a virgin until she had been under me.
Regret had been instantaneous, followed by shock.
Taking her innocence had rattled me to the core, and it had opened my eyes to what I was doing.
But it had been too late. The words that had come later had been self-loathing, not directed at her. But how was she to know that?
I gaze ahead at a red car parked a few spots in front of me, trying to get my emotions in check. “I wasn’t trying to steal her brother’s business secrets. I was trying to get back what he had stolen from me.”
“That’s not what Natalie?—”
“Natalie wasn’t privy to her brother’s affairs.
Her brother stole from me. He caused me a considerable amount of loss.
” I pause, attempting to sort through my own conflicted feelings.
“I do regret what I put Natalie through. And I returned to the hotel room an hour later, but she was gone. By the time I managed to find out where she lived, she had already moved out. ”
“Not by choice,” I catch Sarah muttering under her breath, and my eyebrows lift.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
She glances at me. “Natalie is sure you want to hurt her again. Or that you want something from her.”
“I told her I don’t want anything from her?—”
“Oh, yes,” Sarah drawls. “Because you so clearly stated your intentions the first time around. I have a feeling you didn’t even get to know her all that well.”
“That’s not?—”
“What I mean to say is, Natalie has changed. She isn’t going to let herself be burned twice. It doesn’t matter if she wants you; she won’t act on it.”
Sarah crosses her arms over her chest. “Maybe instead of trying to drag her into your bed, try getting to know her. She’s smart, funny, and hardworking.
She likes cats. Did you know that? She never got one because her mother never allowed her to get one.
She likes blueberry muffins, but she hates chocolate.
She’s allergic to peaches. She hates the color orange.
Can’t stand it. I have to peel mandarins for her because she doesn’t like doing it herself. ”
I’m looking at the woman sitting beside me now, fascinated. These are things I never knew. Why didn’t I know them?
“My point is, get to know her, or you’ll get nowhere with her.”
“Why are you helping me?”
She scoffs. “I’m not helping you. I’m helping her.”
“I thought I had to convince you of my intentions.”
She gives me the side-eye. “Court’s still in session, but you did injure your hand for her. And you took her home to meet your mother. Natalie may not realize what that means, but I do. However, I’m not answering any questions about her relationship with her family. I’ve already said enough. ”