جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

Marie's POVMy phone had been buzzing nonstop since daybreak. I had blocked all of Mark's numbers. And now, he was using different, new ones to call. I ignored every one, letting the calls go to voicemail, but his persistence was starting to wear me down.I was at work, grateful that I hadn't come to meet a sack letter on my desk. The conversation we had last night was still fresh in my memory and I kept replaying it at odd intervals, giving myself more reasons to not take his calls.The phone on my desk rang a few minutes after I finally had some reprieve from Mark's incessant calls. I answered, my eyes still glued to my computer. "Marie Anderson speaking.""Marie, please. Can we just talk about this like adults?"My grip tightened on the phone in anger. "You've got some nerve," I seethed. "You're not too busy or tied down at work to text me anymore?""I was out of line last night, I admit it. But ignoring me isn't going to fix this. I wasn't thinking clearly and...""Oh, you were t

Marie's POV The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that I was stark naked. No gown, no underwear. Nothing. That got me sitting up in bed so fast that my head felt like there was a rock on it, worsening the hangover headache I was already having. I held my head in my palms, wincing. I needed to get some Aspirin and fast. My entire body felt sore, my mouth felt dry and raw, and moving suddenly felt like a chore right now. I spotted my phone on the bedside table as I turned to come out of bed. And beside it, was a glass of water and a saucer containing two pills. I had had enough hangovers to know what an aspirin pill looks like, even when it's not in the pack. So I picked it up and swallowed straight away, before laying down again for a bit. As the headache started to subside, I raised myself up from the bed again. My eyes wandered around the room as I tried to figure out where I was. Memories of last night were a bit foggy right now. The only thing I

Marie's POV I had over a dozen missed calls from Sarah and Mark by the time I had made my way out of Andrea's palace home. They'd also left messages asking me to call them once I got the messages. Lily had also dropped a message informing me that Dad had been given an ultimatum at the care home. I called Sarah first as soon as I got home. "Marie, thank God!" She shrieked into the phone on the first ring. "Hey girl." "Where the hell did you go? One minute, you were at the bar. The next you'd disappeared." "I was...hey, forget about where I was. I'm fine. And that's all that matters." "Did something happen, Marie? Why do you sound so tired?" "Nothing happened. I'm perfectly okay. I just bumped into someone I never expected to see last night and that got me out of party mode very quickly. I'm sorry. I should have given you a heads up but I didn't want you deciding to leave with me in solidarity." "Speaking of bumping, you won't believe who I bumped into at Vault

Andrea's POV "No," Marie said firmly, rising from her seat.I raised a brow at her. "No, I will not be attending a family dinner with you."I chuckled, sliding my hands into my pockets. "It seems you're not entirely familiar with the duties of a personal assistant.""That's right. I'm your personal assistant, not your fake wife or pretend girlfriend. I made it explicitly clear in the text message I sent you last night. The text you didn't even bother to send a reply to...""Oh, sorry I didn't reply. I was busy with my girlfriend," I cut in calmly. "You had HR throw me off guard this morning and..." her voice lowered a considerable bit as my words registered in her head. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"I resisted the urge to laugh out loud. "What did I say when?""You said you were busy with...your girlfriend?""Does that bother you?" I asked, moving closer to her. I could see that she was visibly shaken and taken aback. Exactly the reaction I had been gunning for when I let the wor

Marie's POV I dialed Mark as soon as Andrea and Darlene were out. To my annoyance, he didn't pick. It wouldn't have bothered me. But right now, I needed to hear his voice. I needed to hear him tell me Andrea couldn't and wasn't going to come between us. I needed to convince myself that I wasn't jealous that Andrea was now with someone else, and that I was glad that I could now finally be with Mark. After trying his number a third time with no answer, I began gathering my things. Andrea had already said I could close for the day since he wasn't coming back to the office after lunch. Where was he going to take Darlene to after lunch? His house? A hotel?"Stop thinking about them, Marie," I scolded myself. They were somewhere feeding themselves dessert and laughing. Now I needed to go chase my own happiness. And hope to God that I remained happy with him. *** I pulled up in front of Mark's apartment building after being unsuccessful in trying to reach him over the phone. His ca