Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 44

Chapter 44

KISAREL.

“Can you stop already?” I pressed my palm against my forehead as I reached for the coffee

pot.

“Non.” Elgin followed me into the kitchen without missing a beat, barefoot, still in his oversized sleep shirt. He had obviously woken up this morning and decided that today was the day he was going to finish the conversation, regardless of whether I wanted to have it. “Not until you actually listen to me. And I mean listen, Arel. Not just hear and dismiss.”

“I am listening,” I said, pouring my coffee without looking at him. “I have been listening since last night. I have listened so thoroughly that I could recite everything you’ve said back to you in chronological order.”

“Then why aren’t you seeing it?”

“Because it doesn’t make sense, Elgin.” I turned to face him, mug in both hands. “You’re talking about Ocean Stark. Cold, ruthless, unfeeling, heartless, gets–out–of–bed–in–the- morning–and–chooses–violence Ocean Stark. The man who took me apart in front of people. The man who

I me a few necessary fucks to my face.” I shook my head. “You want me to look at all of that and conclude that this man is in love with me? Tell me the moon has

turned red first. That would be more believable.”

“I’ve seen these signs before.” He settled onto the kitchen stool and folded his arms.

“Jesus, Elgin. You’re so impossible!” I rolled my eyes.

“I know men, chérie.” He insisted. “I know exactly what a man looks like when he is losing his mind over a woman and doing everything in his power to make sure nobody notices. Including himself.”

“Oh, really? Then why hasn’t he called me back since I left his company?” I countered.

“He’ll call you. We could even place a bet, you know?” He said, like the whole idea was so exciting.

I would be a fool to take any of this seriously.

I heaved a long sigh, “Look. Whatever we had was just a moment we both agreed to have. Nothing more attached to it,” I picked up my mug and turned to the door.

He followed me.

We had been doing this since we woke up – me moving through his apartment trying to start my morning like a normal person, him appearing at every turn like a very persistent,

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Chapter 11

slightly underdressed philosopher who had decided my emotional state was his primary project for the day. The kitchen, the hallway, the living room, and now back to the kitchen again.

I should have been irritated, but I wasn’t.

Because the alternative to Elgin following me around his apartment and refusing to let me sit inside my own misery was Elgin sitting alone in his grief with nobody to follow around, and I would take being argued with over that every single time without question.

“Has Marcus gotten back to you yet?” I switched topics immediately.

“Wait… What?” It took his brain a second to catch up. “Oh. Yeah. He says he needs some more time. He says that number is almost not traceable, and that whoever it belongs to, isn’t just a random person.”

I had compared the number to the strange one that had called me yesterday, but they were two different numbers.

I was a bit worried. It sounded like a call from… I don’t know… Someone who used to know me? I really can’t tell, but there was something unsettling about that call.

“I got a strange call yesterday,” I said, pulling his attention.

I told him all about the call and how I felt about it, and he was quiet for a while, deep in thought, before he finally said, “We’ll send it over to Marcus. He might be able to find out

who it was.”

I sighed. “What if it’s nothing… I mean, what if I’m just overreacting or something?”

“And what if it’s not nothing?” He countered immediately, “We have to be very sure.”

I nodded slowly, “Okay.”

Speaking of calls, my phone rang as soon as a little silence settled between us.

My heart skipped a beat at once as I reached for it, half expecting it to be the strange caller, and half expecting it to be… Anyone else.

When I saw who the caller was, I was thankful it wasn’t the strange caller. But on the other hand, I was disappointed it wasn’t ‘Anyone else.‘

“Who is it?” Elgin asked when he sensed my hesitation.

“Jace,” I mumbled.

“Not in the mood to talk to him?” He asked, and I shook my head. “Then, ignore it.”

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Chapter 14

When the call ended, I immediately switched off my phone,

I knew Jace so well.

One call was never enough.

****

OCEANS.

She had been unreachable for two days.

Two days of her phone going straight to whatever void phones go to when someone has decided they don’t want to be found, and two days of me telling myself with decreasing conviction that this was a woman throwing a tantrum and it would run its course and she would surface when she got tired of being dramatic about it.

I hit the bag.

The gym was the only room in this house that felt like itself right now. Everything else had developed an opinion about her presence that I hadn’t asked for and couldn’t seem to override – the bedroom most of all, which was why I hadn’t been in it except to sleep, and even sleep had become a negotiation I was losing.

I had moved my morning routine to the guest bathroom. I had eaten at the kitchen island instead of the dining table. I had reorganized my evening around the intentional avoidance of any space that had developed the habit of reminding me of something I was working very hard to be done with.

The gym had no such associations.

I hit the bag again. Harder.

The rhythm of it was the only thing that had made sense since Monday. Left. Right. The satisfying, grounding impact of something that pushed back exactly as hard as you hit it and didn’t have feelings about it either way. No complications. No history. No particular gift for walking out of rooms and leaving more of itself behind than it had any right to.

I hit it again.

Women’s drama. That was what this was. She had quit in a moment of anger understandable, if misguided – and now she was somewhere letting the feeling run itself out, and in two days or three she would look at her bank account or her situation or both and arrive at the Stark’s office was considerably more comfortable than whatever the alternative was.

Same conclusion anyone in her position would arrive at, which was that Ocean

She would be back.

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12:01 Fri, May 22

Chapter F

Bullshit. I was done telling myself that.

I caught the bag on the backswing, held it, and breathed. I unwrapped one hand, picked up my phone from the bench, and pulled up her contact.

It was still off.

Fuck it.

I opened the app my thumb had been hovering over all day- the message app.

I typed the message before I could deliberate over it and have a rethink.

‘If you aren’t at your desk by nine tomorrow morning, consider this your formal notice. The job and everything that comes with it is gone. Your choice.

I hit send, flung the phone on the bench, and punched the bag harder. As if that would erase the feeling that came with admitting that I couldn’t let her leave just like that.

Probably because no one walks out on me.

Or, maybe because this was all just temporary. Because the moment we both say our vows to the people we are committed to, everything else would stop being a problem.

I just needed her to come back to work first.

曲

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