Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
I could have looked her up, but it felt wrong, so I left it. I had no real right to do what I did that night.
There’s a burning accusation in her eyes that says if she had the power to give me stubborn warts on the spot, she indeed would, including a rather large, nasty beast at the end of my nose.
She recovers before I do, stalking out of her office on towering heels, her hips swaying in a black pencil skirt. She’s not even going to pretend she’s not riled. Her shoulders and breasts heave under her light blue blouse, and at her throat, a choker with a little star rapidly winks as she swallows convulsively.
She stalks right over and doesn’t hesitate to grasp my arm.
Today, I’m wearing my normal businessman uniform of a tailored suit, but her touch scalds straight through all those layers of fabric.
I’m twice her size, but she has no difficulty in pulling me into her office.
The doors are glass, so there is zero privacy. But she’s well aware. She points a threatening finger at me, silently demanding that I sit in one of the black modern chairs in front of her edgy modern desk. She remains standing, her hands behind her back, but they’re balled into fists. She’s radiating tension, though if anyone looked in here, they’d see what probably passes as a semi-normal meeting.
I mean, maybe.
Weddings get tense, don’t they?
“I know what you’re doing here,” she hisses, her eyes throwing ultra shade and quite a few wishful curses at me. In her mind, I’m a cheating, disgusting pig of an asshole. I fucked with her, and now the universe has distributed me right into her wrathful sphere so she can dish out justice.
“I can explain…” I realize this is what every single douchebag has said. Ever. But I truly can. “Just give me two minutes. Please.”
Her eyes flash, and they sweep outside the office while her jaw sets in an even harder line. “You have thirty seconds.”
I do my best to relate the details to her in half a minute. She knows who I am. She read the story. Or rather, stories, because once the first news agency picked it up, all the other outlets, no matter how big or small, followed. I was always okay with having money as long as I never became famous. I have zero doubt who leaked the story. Geneiva’s father.
Suddenly, people care who I am when they couldn’t have given two rat’s behinds before. The past few days have been nightmare fodder.
When I’m done outlining my arranged, on paper only, I’ll only meet the bride maybe once or twice more in my life marriage, Bellatrix surprises me by letting out a gusty sigh and sinking down into the large black chair behind her desk. She swivels once. Twice. Left. Right. And then she comes back to the center and nails me with a hard stare.
“You do realize this is the most messed up thing I’ve ever heard.”
I have my hair carefully arranged into the token, boring man bun at the nape of my neck, so people don’t even realize it’s all that long, but I ruin it by raking my fingers through it roughly. “Don’t be afraid to tell it like it is.”
She pulls a face, wrinkling her nose. “I’m not. Obviously. Aside from me feeling like an imbecile for not knowing who you were, how could you do this to yourself?”
Mika asked me the same thing, but she’s my daughter. She has a right to question my choices. I was floored when she started to cry. I had no idea she cared about me as anything more than a passing person who should have been in her life but wasn’t. I have no excuse. Yes, it was complicated. Yes, I believed I was doing the right thing. Do I wish I could take it all back? Every. Single. Day.
This woman? Despite the weird connection we shared, she’s basically a complete stranger. I can’t believe the way she’s staring through me. It’s as if she can see straight through to the secret essence inside me. One I don’t even know exists.
“I don’t know what’s blinding you or what happened in your life to get you to this point, but just giving up like this seems like a piss-poor option.”
The whole it’s a good thing I’m sitting down because I’d definitely fall over if I weren’t thing definitely applies right now. “Excuse me?”
She crosses her arms and gives me a good hairy eyeball. “You can’t just assume life won’t get better.”
“You mean that I can’t discount love. What part of this being fake didn’t I make clear?”
“The part where you had a look on your face that says this is the easy way out for you. Once you’re technically married, you can remain faithful to the idea of it. It’s a nice out to never have to put in any work or any risk.”