Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sebastian
“I’m Sebastian Laurence. Who are you?” I frown at the man before us.
“I go by Clark Kent.” He darts his gaze over to Willow, and she’s still gawking as if she can’t believe what she’s seeing.
“Clark Kent, so what? You’re Superman?” I say through gritted teeth. This is the man Willow dated?
“No, my actual name is Benjamin Theodore Cornelius Montague III, and I own the Cornelius Insurance Company. You may have heard of it.”
I study him for a few moments as recognition hits me. The Cornelius Insurance Company. I nod. “Isn’t that a Fortune 500 company?”
“It is,” he says, smirking. “Who are you?”
“What do you mean, who am I?” I ask in an incredulous tone. “You came in and said my name.”
He chuckles. “True.” He turns his attention to Willow. “Hello, my dear. How is everything going?”
“What do you mean, how is everything going?” she hisses. “What the hell are you doing here?”
He frowns as if disappointed by her words. “That’s not the way to greet the love of your life.”
I stare at him in shock. Willow, though, is even more shocked than I am.
“What the hell are you talking about?” She practically screeches. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, Clark—I mean Benjamin.”
“You can call me Ben,” he cuts in, and she just shakes her head.
“But how do you know where I work?”
“How don’t you remember? You told me one of many times when we were chatting on the phone.” He smiles at her. “I figure you’ve had enough time to process everything.”
“To process everything?” she asks, scrunching her nose as if she can’t make sense of what he’s saying. “What do you mean?”
He frowns. “I don’t like to admit this, but… well, I am another victim.”
“Another victim of what?” Willow looks confused, but immediately my brain is ticking. Louisa mentioned that she and Charlotte had done this once before. Surely it wasn’t with Clark Kent, right?
I stare at him for a few moments. “Do you know Louisa and Charlotte?” He grunts and that’s all I need to hear.
My stomach drops. The betrayal goes deep.
I look over at Willow, who still hasn’t figured out what’s going on.
Though her eyebrows are furrowed and she looks like she’s slowly figuring it out.
“Your cousin, didn’t she tell you she won the lottery twice?”
“Yeah,” she says. “I mean, obviously she didn’t win the lottery, which I’m a dumbass for believing her in the first place, because I knew she didn’t play.”
“Think about it, Willow. Think about this really hard. The second time she won the lottery must have been when she got the money from Sergio.”
“Yeah, okay. And?” She frowns.
“Well, think about the first time.”
“What first time?”
“The first time she won the lottery,” I say patiently.
“But she didn’t win the lottery.” She glares at me and her eyes widen. She’s making the connection.
“Exactly. So that means there was another man. She met another man. She took advantage of—” Dawning hits Willow’s eyes, and her jaw drops. She looks over at Benjamin.
“Wait, were you in a relationship with—no. Were you in a relationship with my cousin?”
He presses his lips together, his face turning crimson. “She took me for two million dollars. She didn’t even do my laundry. What is up with you women these days?”
A slight giggle escapes Willow’s mouth and she rolls her eyes.
“How did you meet them?” I ask.
“I met Louisa first,” he says. “She’s a cute brunette.
I prefer blondes, but—” He abruptly stops speaking about his preference in women and shrugs.
“She told me that if I was interested in having some fun, she had a friend who would be willing to join. A friend by the name of Willow,” he says, looking over at my Willow.
“Well, I thought to myself, why not? I’m single, free, disengaged, and was looking to have some fun.
So, I met up with them, and for a month it was the best time of my life.
” He runs his fingers through his hair. “Hottest kinky sex I’ve ever had.
” He smirks at Willow. “But you can still change that if you want to.”
Willow starts coughing, and I can feel myself growing angry.
“Hey dude, show some respect.”
“I’m trying,” he grumbles. “Anyway, they said they had a business opportunity for me, which I then told them I wasn’t really interested in doing business with them.
But anyway, one thing led to another. They got a couple million, and then they disappeared.
I have an investigator, of course, because no one steals my money and gets away with it.
” He looks upset as he rakes his fingers through his thinning hair and curses under his breath.
“Anyway, the investigator tracked Willow down to the Whispering Haven Bed and Breakfast, and wouldn’t you know it?
She was on a dating site, and I saw the pictures on the dating site, and of course she looked different, but I figured it was just another scam.
” He shakes his head. “I spoke to you for two months waiting for you to meet me so I could see if you were the same Willow who stole from me—but you weren’t. ”
“Is that why you told me your name was Clark Kent?” she says slowly, rubbing her forehead. “Is that why you didn’t want me to know who you really were?”
“It was,” he says. “I figured if you knew my real name, you’d stop talking to me because you’d know I didn’t want anything but my money back. But then I met you, and well it wasn’t you.”
“Couldn’t you tell that from our conversations?”
He shrugs. “What do I know? Anyway, I figured you’re cute, blonde, bigger ass than I normally go for, but hey, maybe you were my prize for being taken.”
“Your prize?” Her jaw drops.
“Well, your cousin, who I now know is Charlotte, took my money, and I figured, what better way to get my revenge than to get her cousin.”
“But I have nothing to do with this.” I tense up as argue go back and forth. I want to punch the man in the face, but I hold myself back. I don’t need anymore drama at this point.
“I don’t know that you didn’t. All I have is your word and that doesn’t mean much to me, but hey, what does it matter?
My investigator came back to me and told me that Charlotte and Louisa were selling a bunch of shares in another Fortune 500 company that had two very rich board members, and we figured maybe she’d done it again.
So, I looked up the names of the board members—Sergio Laurence and Sebastian Laurence—and I figured if there was another scam going on this time, I wanted a part of it. But I guess I’m too late.”
Willow remains frozen, mouth parted in complete shock. She’s flabbergasted. However, all I am is angry.
“What exactly do you expect to happen here today?” I demand. I tower over him as he looks up at me.
“I don’t know. I figure maybe Willow would feel like she owes it to me to—”
“To what?” I say, voice dripping with venom. “Be in a relationship with you? Sleep with you?”
“What do you care?” he says. “Like, fuck off. This is my girl.”
“She is not your girl and never will be.” Ice drips off of my tongue. “That is my wife and if you continue to speak to her with disrespect, I will have to show you how a man protects his woman.”
“How can she be your wife, when she told me she wanted to be my girl?” I’m about to grab a hold of him, when Willow starts screaming.
“I’m not your girl, Clark!” she screams. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m not even interested in you?”
“Do you know how much money I have?”
“I don’t care how much money you have!” she shouts. “I don’t care how much money either of you have! I’ve never been about money. Yeah, money makes the world go round and it would make my life easier, but I don’t get into relationships for that reason. I want you both to leave.”
“Willow, I—” I start, panic rising up inside me.
“I don’t care, Sebastian. I’m tired. I’m fed up. Let Charlotte do whatever she wants. I’ll find a way. Brielle, Katherine, and I—we can all get other jobs.”
“But you want to open your own bed and breakfast. You want to—”
“And maybe one day it will happen, but right now all I care about is getting both of you out of my life.”
She walks over to Clark Kent. “I want you to leave me alone. I don’t know what happened between you and my cousin, but I have no interest in you. I don’t care about you. I don’t care about your money. Stop messaging me.”
“But what about the fact that I told people I’m going to have a date to a very special luncheon next week?”
“Then you need to get online and find another one. Please leave.”
He stands there, huffing. “This isn’t over.”
I grab hold of his arm and squeeze tight.
“That hurts,” he says, as he grimaces.
I squeeze harder. I’ll show him what real pain looks and feels like.
“Ow!”
“You listen to me, Benjamin Theodore Cornelius Montague III. I will ruin you and not just you. I will ruin your company. You ever come and harass Willow again in any way—in person, on the phone, via text—or you send anyone, you’re done.
If I even get a whiff of you Googling her, you’re fucking done. ”
He blinks up at me and swallows hard. “You’re bluffing. You—”
“I love that woman,” I say, looking back at her. Her face is white. “I would do anything for her, and when I say anything, I mean anything. I would rot in a jail cell for murder if I had to.” He swallows hard. I let him go and push him back. “Now, get out of here.”
“But what about Louisa and Charlotte and the money they stole?”
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll make sure they get their just desserts. But you need to let it go.”
“Fine,” he grumbles. “I don’t even care.” He looks over at Willow. “You weren’t even that hot anyway.”
We watch as he leaves the hotel. She’s shaking.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I stand next to her.
She nods slowly. “You don’t have to do that. I can take care of myself.”
“I know. But maybe I want to take care of you. Maybe I need to be there for you. Maybe—”
She swallows hard. “I think you need to go as well, Sebastian,” she says softly.