Chapter 5

Caspian;

I stare at the woman standing in front of my desk, her underwear still gathered around her ankles, and wonder how someone can spend five years surprising me in all the wrong ways.

Olivia Bash has always had a talent for turning the simplest situations into spectacles. One day it's a missing button, the next it's coffee down the front of her blouse or her skirt caught in an office chair. Every time I think I've seen the worst of it, she proves me wrong, but even I wasn't prepared for this.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" The question is out before I can decide whether it's any of my business.

Olivia doesn't answer, she remained rooted to the spot, staring at the underwear around her ankles for longer than she should. I clear my throat. It's only then that she seems to remember where she is. She bends, scoops them up in a rush, and straightens so fast she almost loses her footing, still clutching them in one hand.

I look away.

This woman is exhausting.

Anyone else would have been fired years ago. The only reason she still has her job is that nobody else does the job as well as she does. By the time I ask for something, it's already on my desk, and in five years she has yet to give me a reason to question her work, even though her appearance doesn't suit the job description.

However, she does look different now, thinner than when I left for Tokyo. There are faint shadows beneath her eyes I don't remember seeing before.

Whatever the reason, she has made more mistakes this morning than I've come to expect from her, and that's the part I find difficult to ignore.

I raise a hand toward the door without looking at her. "Go."

The silence stretches long enough for me to know she's about to say something.

"Just go." I cut off whatever she wished to say.

I hear her take in a deep breath, then comes the sound of the door closing.

After the door closes, I turn back to the report on my desk and read the same paragraph twice before realizing I haven't taken in a word.

I lean back in my chair and press my fingers against my temple, hoping the brief silence will be enough to clear my head. It doesn't.

The Tokyo trip has left me with more problems than I took there. Lumi has spent the better part of the last few weeks finding fault with almost everything I do, trying to make our relationship complicated.

Too many issues that I’ll need time off for some matters.

I sigh, and turn my attention back to the report on my desk, but the first thing that comes to mind is an image I'd rather forget.

Image of my secretary standing in the middle of my office with her underwear around her ankles.

I pinch the bridge of my nose before forcing myself to look back at the report.

I am halfway through the last report when my phone lights up on the desk, Lumi's name appearing on the screen.

I let it ring once before picking it up.

"We need to talk." Those are the first words out of her mouth. There was no greeting, or asking whether I'm busy.

I glance at the remaining documents on my screen and then at the clock. There is still work that needs to be finished, but I know better than to refuse her outright when she is in this mood. I tell her I will meet her later once I am done here. She does not argue, but the silence that follows makes it clear she is not entirely satisfied. The call ends shortly after.

I place the phone back on the desk and look at it for a moment before setting it aside. Whatever is on Lumi's mind can wait until I've finished what's in front of me. There are still reports waiting for my approval, and I have no intention of leaving them until they're done.

The last report takes longer than it should, and by the time I send it back, I've spent enough hours behind this desk for one day. I close the laptop, reach for my phone, and leave the office.

Adjusting my suit, I find Olivia still at her desk.

I go to give her an instruction, but stop when she notices me, and suddenly lowers her head, burying herself with the papers in front of her, as though they suddenly require every bit of her attention. It's an unconvincing performance. In five years, I've never known her for pretense, acting busy when there isn't enough paperwork on that desk.

Never mind.

I shove my hands into my pockets and head for the elevator.

Whatever embarrassment she's feeling after this morning's display is hers to deal with, and there's nothing to be gained by making her any more uncomfortable than she already is.

My attention shifts back to the meeting waiting for me with Lumi as I take the elevators to the ground floor.

***

The restaurant is one Lumi has always liked. It's private enough that conversations stay between the people having them, which suits her whenever she has something on her mind. When I arrived, she's already seated, one hand resting against the side of her glass. The water in front of her hasn't been touched.

I take the seat across from her. "You sounded serious on the phone."

Her fingers slip away from the glass and fold together on the table. She says nothing, just watches me as though deciding how much she wants to say before finally asking, "Who was the woman in your suite the night of our engagement?"

Of all the things I expected her to say, that wasn't one of them.

My brows crease. "There wasn't another woman."

She holds my gaze without speaking, and the silence between us pushes longer than it should. She wears the same expression she always does when she's trying to decide whether to believe me, but this time there's something different about the way she's looking at me. It's as though she's already reached her conclusion.

"Don't lie to me, Caspian."

"That wasn't a lie." I lock gaze with hers. "The only person who came to my suite was Olivia. She brought the report I asked for, and after she left, I was alone."

The corners of her mouth tighten, disappointment settling across her face before she slowly shakes her head.

"Someone saw another woman leaving your suite the following morning."

I search her face, trying to work out why she's so certain. The accusation makes no sense to me. What does is the fact that she believes every word she's saying.

"They're mistaken,” I respond.

"They're not."

"Lumi—"

"They have proof."

I frown. Until now, I'd assumed someone had filled her head with gossip. Evidence is something else entirely. I search her face for some sign that she's bluffing, trying to understand how a conversation that should have ended with my answer has somehow turned into this, but I don't find one.

"Then let me see it," I say at last. "Whatever someone has shown you, bring it to me. I know exactly what happened that night."

"I wanted you to tell me the truth before it came to this." She lowers her eyes briefly, drawing in a slow breath before looking back at me. "Do you know how many times I've defended you this past week? How many times I've told people they were wrong because I believed the man I agreed to marry would never do something like this?"

I don't interrupt her. There isn't much I can say when I still don't know who has filled her head with this nonsense.

"When I come back,” she says. “… I’ll bring the evidence with me. If it proves what I think it does, there won't be another conversation after that."

She reaches for her handbag and rises from the table. The legs of her chair scrape lightly against the floor, drawing a few curious glances from nearby diners, but she pays them no attention as she walks away in anger.

I remain where I am after Lumi leaves, my eyes resting on the chair she abandoned while her words continue to linger in my mind. ‘Someone saw another woman leaving your suite the following morning’. She hadn't sounded like someone repeating a rumour. She had sounded like someone who had already spent days trying to convince herself it couldn't be true.

My thoughts drift back to the engagement celebration. I remember accepting more drinks than I usually would because everyone insisted on celebrating. I remember leaving the ballroom when the noise became too much to tolerate, and I remember Olivia bringing the report I'd asked her to deliver before I left for Tokyo. I looked through it, signed the last page, handed it back to her, and watched her leave.

After that, my memory offers me nothing that joins one moment to the next. The following morning is as clear to me as the beginning of the night. I remember waking with a pounding headache, sunlight forcing its way through the curtains, and wondering why I'd allowed myself to drink that much in the first place. Everything in between has always seemed too unimportant to think about again because, as far as I'd ever been concerned, nothing worth remembering had happened.

That is still what I believe.

I know I did not betray Lumi. Nothing she said across this table has changed that certainty.

Even so, as I stand up leave the restaurant, making my way to my car, I find myself returning to the same thought of the engagement night over and over again, not because I believe another woman was in my suite. But because I cannot understand why there are hours of that night that exist only as empty space in my memory when everything before them, and everything after them, is as clear as every other day of my life.