Rubbing my eyes, I looked up at the carousel with my flight information on it. I was already holding my hard case with my bionic arm in it. I found out it was much easier to carry on my arm than it was to wear it in the airport. Most of the time, they made you break it apart anyways to look at it since they can’t wand it because it’s full metal. So, it’s just better that it goes through the machine like an instrument. It was a pain to be one handed, but usually airport staff were nice enough to help. There are always exceptions to that, and New York was one of them. It was absolute chaos trying to get through this airport. Finally, one of my fellow passengers, a doctor out for a conference, was nice enough to help me when I needed it. I knew I would be going from the airport to my hotel, then directly to the office because the flight landed on time but took an extra twenty minutes to get unloaded. Sighing, I set my arm down between my legs and leaned over, eyeing my bag. Quickly grabb
His back was turned to me and he was looking out the window. I thanked the gods that I didn’t meet his eyes. I think right there I would have crumbled. But seeing his back, being reminded that all I would ever see is this man’s back made me angrier. It helped me look back down at the page and fight through the pain that now hammered in my heart. Reading over the first couple pages, I went back and started crossing out paragraphs. Fifteen million. They were offering me fifteen fucking million and part of me wanted to be a petty bitch and take them for all their pennies. I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t even take them for more than what I was thinking to help Elliot in the future. Reading through more of it, fifteen million wasn’t even all of it. They also added in a trust of five million, which I crossed out and put one million. That would cover all of Elliot’s college and then some if he wanted to invest in something for his future. Everything else I crossed out. I came to a fun clause
***Zachary’s POV*** “She crossed off all the money.” I didn’t move from where I had fallen back. My hand had touched her shoulder, or what was left of it. Suddenly all her movements with only her left hand made sense. She lost her arm, her whole right arm, saving me. It was enough to do so much damage they just removed it. We also weren’t in Vegas. We were in Greece, for our honeymoon. Not only had we signed the marriage certificate sober but then we had a honeymoon. “What do you mean she crossed off all the money?” Jason grabbed the papers out of Derek’s hands. “Shit. Everything but one million put into a trust account. Literally everything.” I looked at them before racing down the hallway. Jason was behind me, but I didn’t know if Stacy had also made it out. Almost sliding to a stop, I saw her, standing in front of the elevators. Every time I laid eyes on her my heart did flips. When I walked in and looked at her, her head down reading the document, I thought I was going to los
Peeling my eyes open, I was met with the familiar throbbing headache. It hit differently with an extra burn in the stomach and throat. Slowly sitting up, I looked around. I was in bed, which I didn’t remember being in. Hell, I didn’t even remember coming inside. The last thing I remembered sitting out in the rain, strumming and singing. I felt better. I felt better minus the copious amount of whiskey that was burning its way through my veins. Sitting up, I was still in my dress shirt and slacks. I discarded them and pulled on some sweats. Making my way down the stairs, I opened up the fridge and grabbed some milk. I needed something to coat my stomach at this point. I didn’t even know what time it was. There was still an edge of fuzziness that confirmed I’d drank enough that I hadn’t slept it off. “Welcome back to the land of the living.” Spewing milk over the counter, I nearly jumped out of my skin as Adrian popped his head up over the couch. “Fucking hell. Dumbass, don’t scare th
“When did this article go live?” “A few minutes ago.” Stacy was trying to find the initial source of the video and article, but it was blowing up so many places that it was hard to track exactly where it was coming from. Lately, more stuff had been posted by fans on social media platforms when articles picked them up. “Stop. Don’t. It’s not worth it. If they had sent an email out before it got posted, we could have stopped it. It’s already up on TV and it’s all over social media. She is a social media whore. We won’t make a dent. Even with the whole social team working on it.” I rubbed my temples. I picked up the phone on my desk. My personal cell was off since yesterday and now I really didn’t want to turn it on. Dialing a number I loathed to remember, I leaned forward in my chair, with my elbows on my desk, putting the call on speaker as it rang. “Claudia Anderson here.” “Hi, Mother.” I heard a scoff in the background. “Zachary, what a surprise. To what do I owe this pleasure?
“Are you sure you want to continue?” I laughed through the tears. “I mean, it can’t hurt any worse than it does, right?” “I think we need Jason and more liquor, though.” Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes. Fuck, when was the last time I cried like this? College maybe? No, before that. High school after my dad told us that he didn’t care that Adrian and I didn’t approve of Claudia. He had married her already and so she was our mother whether or not we liked it. “Adrian was with him, so I guess we get double trouble. But that means double the liquor.” I sighed. “I didn’t tell Adrian yet. He kept asking questions but I didn’t say.” “It’s fine. I’m sure Jason already spilled the beans. He sounded drunk already.” “Great. Now, I’m never going to hear the end of this.” Stacy laughed. “What? Them catching us sitting on the floor of your office, looking like a mess because we just cried through those photos and that was the smaller of the four folders? Yeah. No doubt. How old are we
The last two videos were of the last day in Vegas, apparently. One I had set up her phone against the car I had rented, the same convertible that she was standing in with the photo I had taken of her. The sun was dipping low and she was leaning against the railing somewhere out further in the desert to where you could see the lights of Vegas far off in the background. “You know, these past few days have showed me there are still parts of Vegas that aren’t the gross seedy underbelly of the strip.” She turned back and smiled, a smile that threw my heart for a loop. I walked back in to the frame and I took her hands. “I can’t lose you, Evie. I feel like the moment I let you go, you will disappear out of my life and I can’t let that happen. No matter what my parents think or what the world thinks. I need you by my side. My grandfather taught me more than I will ever be able to thank him for, but he also warned me that there might be a time my soul would find its match. He told me to do
We spent another two hours going through photos and videos of Greece. I started to recognize more places. The last few of my memories that I had slowly recovered over the past few weeks had the setting correctly backdropped. Some of the photos I knew were direct from the memories I had already recalled. Everyone was in tears after seeing the seventy or so photos that I had apparently taken. Evie’s photos and videos were more candid, but there were fewer of them than there were at Vegas. We sat in silence, finishing our drinks as I closed the laptop. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes. Stacy was right about one thing. After looking at these, even if I never got my memories back, this fundamentally changed me. The path going forward for my life was now altered. I could never go back. Not after seeing these. Knowing what I had and what I lost, I never wanted to love again. Everything would pale. Even Adrian was struggling with the concept of it. I knew I would never love Jennifer.