MARCUSThe first week was the most brutal. I felt like I was walking on eggshells. Emily hadn’t spoken a single word to me since I walked into her room after she woke up. She hadn’t even looked at me at all, and she simply kept a blank express on her face. Getting out of the hospital was the first sign that things were not going to work out. There were dozens of photographers camped outside the hospital, waiting for the lovely Reynard couple to show up so they could spin the story even more. “Get her out through the back entrance,” David advised me. “There’ll be less paparazzi there, and you can sneak her out in an ambulance or something.”That did not sit right with her. When the nurse told her how she would need to leave the hospital, she threw and said she would be walking out of the hospital with her head held high. And as much as it pained me to let her do that, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. So I had to stand there and help her out, pushing her out on a whee
Somehow, the universe always knew when things were starting to look up for me, and it would completely wreck my plans. Every good thing had to be followed immediately with a terrible event, and I was used to it by now. I should have seen that coming after my date with Ethan. Because the very next day, Rachel went missing. When I returned to the hotel last night, I checked her room to see whether she'd returned from her date. But when I saw that she wasn't back, I assumed she was simply having the time of her life and she probably wouldn't want to be disturbed. So I went back to my room, showered and went to bed. But then I woke up the next morning and found that she still hadn't returned. That was odd. Rachel never slept over at a guy's place, no matter who he was. I tried calling her, but her phone was switched off. That was when I knew that something was wrong. I went down to the reception desk to ask if she'd returned at any time last night, but they confirmed that she hadn't r
Taking care of Rachel became my main priority. After the nightmare of the last few days, things were starting to look up. Neither of us had gone out at all, and we simply stayed in the hotel and binge-watched reruns of Friends. We ate together, braided each other’s hair and just talked. It was just like old times, back when we were in college together and I would sometimes sit with her and talk when Emily was off at a frat party or something. “You know, I wish my parents named me after Monica,” she said on our last day in Paris. We were curled up together on the couch, eating ice cream and watching an episode of Friends. It was still early in the morning, and we hadn’t even packed yet. I wasn’t going to ask her to do it, so I intended to do all the packing myself. But being the procrastinator that I was, I wanted to leave it until the very last moment. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “You don’t like Rachel?”“She’s such a spoiled little princess,” she said. “And the woman doesn’t kn
I stared at him blankly for a full minute, not really sure what I was supposed to say to that. The silence was deafening, and I knew that I should say something. But I just couldn't think properly and I didn't know what to say."You're quiet," he said, tilting his head to the side. "Are you okay?""I-I don't know what to say," I replied. "I've just never had a guy ask me to move to a different country with him.""I understand that this is crazy," he said. "But just hear me out for a second."He leaned forward slightly, and if it wasn't for how completely thrown off guard I was, I would probably have marvelled at the boyish charm in his eyes as he said this. He looked so innocent and hopeful, while I was sitting there wondering if I could just turn around and flee from the table. "The thing is," he began, "I haven't felt this way about someone in a very long time. Obviously we're just starting to get to know each other, but there's a part of me that feels like I know you already. I fe
ETHANI’m an idiot. I’ve always known that, and I guess you could say that I always find a way to put myself in these situations. But it’s not like I actively try to do it. It’s not like I want to be idiot. It just happens. I knew I shouldn’t have asked Liv to move back to the States with me. Even as I was about to say it, there was a voice at the back of my mind telling me that it was a stupid move. What sort of woman would drop everything in her life and move with someone? I knew she would say no. I was bracing myself for it. But I would have hated myself even more if I didn’t ask. I knew we were still just getting to know each other, but it still felt like I’d known her for a very long time. Being with her was just so comforting, and it made me realise just how much I had craved this. I hadn’t been in a relationship in over a decade, and I knew that maybe that was part of the reason why I felt so compelled to pour all my attention on the first woman who even looked in my directi
ETHANThe funny thing about your home is that it will never change, no matter how many years you spend without coming back. You might think things are different, until you open the door and realise that everything is exactly as you left it, and that familiar smell will always be there. I didn't realise just how much I'd missed being here until I was standing in the middle of the hallway, looking around and taking it all in once again. I remembered spending most of my life in this building, running around the hallways with Marcus and spraying each other with our water guns, playing hide and seek in any of the twenty-five rooms in the house, or trying to sneak into our father's office whenever he was on a business trip because we knew he had a stash of cigars that we could steal. But that was a lifetime ago. Gone was the warmth of our childhood, or the moments of laughter which would occasionally break through the silence. Now, the house felt dead and empty, like a relic forgotten in
“Okay, spill,” Jess said, leaning over my desk and narrowing her eyes at me. “You’ve been acting weird ever since you got back from Paris. Did something happen out there?”I looked up and simply smiled. I’d been trying not to think about Paris ever since I got back, but that was easier said than done. Even though it had been three days since I came back to London, I still hadn’t gotten back to normal. I thought I was hiding it well, but apparently that wasn’t the case. “It’s nothing, Jess,” I replied. “I’m just exhausted.”“You’ve been exhausted since you came back,” she said. “Even Joanna mentioned that you don’t seem like yourself anymore. Is something wrong?”“I appreciate the concern, Jess,” I said. “But I’m fine. Really.”She wasn’t buying it, so I pretended to focus on something on my screen. Her desk was all the way across the room, so she had to walk all the way back there. But I could tell that she really wanted to keep pressing the matter. She must have realised that I wasn
“So, are you going to do it?” Rachel asked. “I don’t know,” I replied. We were sitting on the balcony, eating a pizza and listening to the neighbours arguing over the broken sink. “It’s a fucking big deal,” she said. “You’ll be Joanna’s equal, and you get to run your own branch however you want it. You get to have subordinates who will fear you, and you’ll have business meetings with influential people. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”“But it’ll also mean I have to go back to New York,” I said. “It would mean going back to my past, and having to deal with the knowledge that Marcus and I are in the same city.”“Fuck Marcus!” Rachel said. “This is about an opportunity falling into your lap, and you can’t let it pass you by. If you don’t do this, then they will simply choose somebody else. Do you really want Jess to take this position over you?”I didn’t know what to say, so I held my tongue. It was true that this would be a huge opportunity, and I would be taking a huge step f
MARCUSI didn't want to do it initially. He didn't deserve a quick death, after all. But sometimes, when someone pisses you off too much, you just have to take care of things. And when you find out that the bastard who tried to harm the woman you love was only going to a mental institution instead of the jail he deserved, you just have to take care of things yourself. I stood on the balcony and stared down at the city sparkling beneath me while a cold breeze swept past. The sun had already set, but Manhattan was still as loud as ever, with horns blaring down below, people yelling constantly , and the wailing of a siren in the distance. No one would notice me up here, staring down at them and savoring my latest victory. I took a slow sip of my whiskey, letting the warmth roll down the back of my throat as I leaned on the cold steel railing. The evening was perfect, and I couldn’t have been happier after getting the call. Chris was dead, just like I intended. The report said he’d be
From the moment we pulled up in front of the mansion, my mouth fell open and it stayed like that permanently. The house looked like something out of a movie. It was so huge, and my eyes nearly rolled back into my skull as we walked in. There was a grand staircase which swept upward like it belonged in a castle, and sunlight streamed in through the large windows which made everything look so bright and golden."You've got to be kidding me," I whispered, taking in the beauty of the house. "This is actually insane.""Wait til you see the kitchen," Ethan said as he walked up behind me and took my hand in his. "You could set up a football game in it"When we walked into the kitchen, I knew he wasn't exaggerating. There were two kitchen islands which were so far apart that you probably couldn't even smell what someone was cooking from across the kitchen. There were so many shelves and drawers that it looked more like a convenience store than a home kitchen. Every room we walked into fel
Ethan was discharged the very next day, and I took him back to my apartment. Rachel had traveled down to Miami for a conference, so it was just the two of us in the house. After he’d taken a shower and eaten the lunch I prepared, he immediately sat down to call a real estate agent. “Is that really necessary?” I asked as I packed up the plates from the dining table. “Shouldn’t you be getting some rest?”“I’ll rest once we have our new home,” he said. “Buying a house usually takes a very long time to process, and I don’t have the time nor the patience to wait too long. The sooner we get started, the quicker we can be done with this.”I left him to his phone call, while I washed up in the kitchen. I could hear him talking in a sharp tone, using his CEO voice where he made it obvious that things were going to go his way, no matter what. I could have sat down and stared at him for hours when he talked like that, but I had other things to do. Like calling Richard Jones and telling him wha
I'd thought about seeing Marcus face to face again for a very long time now. I'd imagined standing across from him, looking dead into his eyes and showing him that I wasn't afraid of him anymore. I'd thought about how I was going to stand my ground, and not let him see the fear he'd once inflicted upon me. But standing right there in front of him, looking into those malicious eyes that had tormented me for years, I just couldn't do it. My knees began to shake, and I almost buckled to the ground in terror as the world fell away and it was just the two of us.And then he started to walk towards me. It took every bit of strength in me to not turn around and flee. I visibly shrank the closer he got, and a wave of panic washed over me as I realized that I had nowhere to go. If I turned and ran now, then I would be running for the rest of my life. And that was the last thing I wanted. So I stood my ground, stuck out my chin defiantly, and looked him dead in the eye. I took a deep breath
For a while, I just sat there and stared at Nate. I couldn't process the fact that he was here, and as my brain slowly booted up again, I felt Ethan tense beside me. "Nate, what are you doing here?" I asked. "Offering my condolences," he said. "I heard about the accident, and I just knew I had to come here as soon as I returned."He was more tanned than the last time I'd seen him, and his hair was a little bit longer. He looked like he'd come straight from the beach, in his plain white shirt and khaki pants. It was so different from the man in the tailored suit who strutted about like he owned the building. And yet, even now, there was an air of confidence about him as he stood in the middle of the room and stared at us. “Why the long faces?” he asked. “Did someone die?”“What the fuck are you doing here?” Ethan asked, attempting to stand up before I held him down. “I heard you were sick,” Nate said. “Oh, I mean shot. It’s all over the news. I just got back from Paris, so I though
Ethan ended up taking longer than we expected to get discharged, and he ended up staying in the hospital for two weeks. During that time, he had to get a lot of therapy so he could move his left arm again, because some nerves had been damaged and they needed to heal properly. I stayed with him the entire time, only leaving to shower and get a new batch of clean clothes when I had to. But otherwise, we just sat together and talked. He wasn't in too much pain, so mostly we had enough time to just sit and talk about life. It was on the thirteenth day that we spoke about what he told me in the cabin. He didn't want to talk about it when I brought it up, but I managed to convince him that it was necessary. This was the only way to clear his conscience, so he could finally be free of the guilt that he had carried after all these years. "But what if we find out that I was the one who killed him?" he asked quietly, staring out the window. "What if it's confirmed that I'm a murderer?""I kn
MARCUSI swear I could smell the pig even from outside the door. My blood was boiling even before I walked into the room, but it took a monumental effort to keep myself in check. I had to be quick. It shouldn't take longer than five minutes. Thankfully, the cop standing by the door didn't say anything as I walked in. He just gave me a polite nod, and he stepped aside as I walked in and shut the door behind me.Chris looked like a man who’d gotten into a cage fight with a gorilla. He was bruised all over, and several parts of his face were swollen, with one eye almost completely shut. His bottom lip was split open like a rotten fruit, and both of his hands were cuffed to the bedrails as if he was some sort of rabid animal. It was an amusing sight, which perfectly suited the bastard who’d tried to take Olivia from me. He shifted slightly when he saw me, then he flinched in terror. I saw the recognition in his bloodshot eyes, then confusion as he blinked several times, then something
The first thing on my mind when I woke up was Ethan. I bolted out of bed instantly, and I had to grip the bed frame as I swayed and nearly toppled to the ground. I felt like my brain was trying to explode from my skull, and the ringing in my ear was constant. I had to sit down on the bed once again, and it took me a few seconds to regain my breath and take in my surroundings. The room was eerily quiet, so much so that I could only hear the low humming of the air conditioning. I shifted slightly on the stiff bed, and I cursed aloud as my joints aches from how long I'd been curled up. My mouth was incredibly dry, and my skin felt so clammy. Every inch of me felt like it was protesting the simple act of waking up, and it was like I hadn't slept at all.But the guilt cut through the fog. How long had I been out? What if Ethan had woken up already? And I was just sitting here like a ditz and worrying about something ridiculous like hunger. Slowly, I dragged myself to my feet and made m
ETHANThe first thing I heard was the beeping. As I tried to open my eyes, a blinding pain shot up my entire body, and I almost couldn't breathe for a second. I felt like someone had smacked me in the face with a sledgehammer, and then gotten several bags of cement and laid them all over my body. I couldn't even lift a finger, and I could barely drag enough air into my lungs as I slowly forced my eyes open. I was lying in what appeared to be a hospital room, and the brightness of the room made my eyes throb. There were several wires and tubes all over my chest, and a large machine which was beeping to the side. The bed was so hard that I felt like I was lying on a wooden plank, and it somehow caused the pain to multiply a million times over. I tried to remember how I got here, but I couldn't. The last thing I remembered was being in the cabin with Liv, and beating the shit out of the guy who broke into our cabin. I didn't remember anything after that, except the relief I felt when