Chapter 32 #2
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were involved with Anthony Sweeney?” I’m unable to keep the accusation out of my tone and she pales, accentuating the soft caramel freckles across the bridge of her nose.
Silence bleeds into the room, gaining weight and intensity until finally she opens those plump lips. “Because it’s none of your business.”
I explode. “None of my—” The shout dies in my throat as she visibly flinches back a few inches.
I need to get it together, but I don’t know what’s up and what’s down.
Left and right are abstract and the woman in front of me is doing nothing but staring at me blankly.
I force myself to sit, taking a moment to try and compose myself while I gather the file into my hands and tap it onto the desk so that the papers within are shuffled neatly back into place.
“You pretended you didn’t know him at the gala. ”
“Yes,” she whispers, her teeth worrying at her plump lower lip.
“We agreed not to see other people while we were engaged.”
“Yes,” she replies again, slowly this time, a crease forming between her delicately arched caramel brows.
“So why have you been pursuing Sweeney behind my back? You didn’t think that would breach the terms of our agreement?” I spit, placing shaking hands down flat on the top of my desk.
“I’m sorry?” she splutters, her deep blue eyes flaring wide.
Oh, she’s good. So good that she’s completely blindsided me. Stupid, I berate myself. How could I be so fucking stupid? “Don’t play coy with me, Chloe. I’ve got a dozen phone records of your cell number calling his phone and CCTV images of you showing up at his apartment.”
Her jaw swings, her face chalk white as she clasps the arms of her seat so hard her knuckles blanch. “I-I didn’t,” she stammers, her throat working to swallow.
“And the court papers. You admitted to stalking him.” I watch as I lay brick after brick of evidence upon her shoulders.
“Zeke, it’s really not what it looks like. I had to—”
“You’re seriously going to deny it in the face of all this?” I huff, incredulous as I scoop up the file and hold it up a few inches off the desk.
Her shock morphs into anger right in front of me and she snaps her jaw shut with an audible click of teeth. “Yes,” she growls.
“And then there is the little matter of the code you stole from this company and gave to him,” I snap, anger sluicing through my veins.
Lifting a small hand to her head, she presses her fingers against her brow. “This can’t be happening again,” she mutters weakly. Her eyes fly back to mine. “Zeke, I swear to you none of this is true. Yes, I kept the past relationship from you, and I know what it says in those documents, but—”
“You keep saying this isn’t true, but I’ve yet to hear an explanation that makes sense,” I cut in, nostrils flaring as I suck in a cooling breath.
“He set me up! He set this whole fucking thing up! That’s what he does, Zeke. I didn’t realize until it was too late, I—”
“What did you need the money for, Chloe?” A deathly silence falls over the room, sucking out the air through the vortex my question just punched through.
Tears fill her eyes, and they act as gasoline to the fire that is my rage.
I want to burn down the world with us in it, just to stop those tears as one rolls down her pale cheek.
“I snuck into his apartment and took a baseball bat to everything I could reach. He threatened to sue me for the damages,” she whispers, another tear falling right as the first drops off the curve of her jaw.
And there it is, some small parcel of admission that cements her guilt in my mind. “Go home, Chloe,” I hiss, rising from my seat.
Her eyes follow my movement and then she leaps to her feet. “You think I’m going to live with you still?” she gasps, her lips parted.
“We signed a contract, and I expect you to fulfil your obligations under it,” I turn away from her because I can’t bear to look at her face for another second.
The thought of being in her orbit is almost as infuriating as not.
But I gave my word to myself I would not let my father decimate my mother’s final resting place and I’ll do whatever it takes to see that through.
I have the information I need, and it will only take me a matter of days to press Miguel and put this whole shit storm behind me.
I should have done this weeks ago. Something deep in my chest warns me it won’t be that cut and dry.
“This is all about money for you, isn’t it? You’ll stop at nothing to get your hands on your father’s company. Even live with someone you think so lowly of.”
I whirl around, thrusting one hand into my hair. “How can you say that when the only reason we’re here is that you wanted fucking money from me!” I yell, the last tethers of my strained control snapping and withering away to dust.
“I had no choice! I— Do you know what? I’m not doing this.
” She swipes a hand roughly over her cheeks, wiping away the tears and straightening her spine.
“I’m not going to waste my time. You should know me better by now, Zeke Guerra.
” She balls her fists and turns on her heeled court shoes, heading for the door.
“We have a contract, Chloe!” I bark, but she flips a middle finger over her shoulder without breaking stride.
“So sue me!” she yells as she yanks open the door. “And by the way, I fucking quit!” She throws one last withering, watery look my way and tugs the ring off her finger, flinging it in my direction without looking before she storms off without bothering to close the door behind herself.
The carpet swallows any noise the rock makes as it hits the ground. My instincts scream at me to go after her, to shove that ring back on her finger and drag her back here, but the weight of the information in my hand anchors me to the spot.