Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 72

KISAREL

The car drove off before I could attach more meaning to it. And when I looked, it was an aged man and his aged wife. It wasn’t even a flashy car. Just some old, beat–up car.

I stood on the verandah for a second and felt the tension leave my body in one long, embarrassing exhale.

I was definitely losing my mind.

I pressed my hand flat against my chest for another second and waited for my heartbeat to return to something reasonable before opening the door.

Elgin was on the couch.

He had the blanket pulled up to his chin, his knees drawn toward his chest, and the television on at a volume that suggested he wasn’t watching it so much as using it to fill the silence.

“Elgin. What’s wrong?” I dropped my bag and sat beside him. “Talk to me.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“Marcus called.” He finally spoke. “He can’t trace the number.”

“What? Why?” I asked softly.

“It was a burner, and it’s untraceable.” He pulled the blanket tighter. “That’s it. That’s all we’re going to get from it.”

I couldn’t help the hollow feeling that took over me as I watched the door closing on the only lead we had on whatever happened to Gerald the night he died.

“Elgin-”

“He’s gone, chérie.” His voice cracked slightly on the last word, and he pressed his lips together and looked at the television. “And I can’t even find out why”

I took his hand under the blanket and held it.

We sat like that for a moment as realization began to dawn on me.

The strange number from ‘Minnesota‘ had not reached out to me in a while.

I didn’t know why that thought came up now, or how it even had anything to do with any of this, but I couldn’t help the uneasiness I felt at that thought.

I didn’t know if I should be grateful or worried.

The heaviness and worry weren’t something I wanted to dwell on right now. It was filling me with something slightly close to dread.

I exhaled. “I’m going to talk to Marcus myself. There might be something else he can try. Another angle we haven’t considered yet.”

Elgin said nothing. He just kept his gaze on the television with those tired, red–rimmed eyes.

“But first.” I stood up and pulled the blanket off him.

22

16:37 Fri, May 22 d M

Chapter 72

“Arel-”

“Get up.”

“I don’t want to-”

“Elgin.” I stood in front of him with my hand extended. “Do you remember the cheese place you kept talking about when you were in Lyon? The one where you said the fromager knew things about aged comte that most people would never understand in their lifetimes?”

He looked up at me, and something shifted in his face.

“I may have found its New York equivalent,” I said. “And I am not going without you.”

He rolled his eyes, “Arel…

“I know you can’t resist this. Don’t make me change my mind.” I teased.

“If it’s disappointing,” he said, letting me pull him to his feet, “I’m going to be very upset with you.”

“If it’s disappointing,” I said, already steering him toward the hallway, “I will personally write a strongly worded letter to the fromager on your behalf.”

He giggled.

“Go and get dressed,” I said. “Fifteen minutes.”

***

The cheese shop was the kind of place that made you lower your voice when you walked in.

The space naturally demanded it warm lighting, dark wood shelving that reached the ceiling, wheels of aged cheese displayed behind a long glass counter, and the complex smell of something extraordinary.

Elgin stopped in the doorway, looked around, and then looked at me.

“Arel.” His voice had become more lively. “This is serious.”

“I know,” I said, steering him toward the counter.

What followed was approximately fourteen minutes of Elgin and the cheesemonger

a compact, serious man in his fifties

who clearly took his work the way surgeons took theirs – conducting what I could only describe as a bilateral negotiation conducted entirely in French, with hand gestures that suggested lives were at stake.

I put my hand over my mouth, unable to contain the laughter anymore.

“Elgin,” I said, through my fingers. “Other people are in this shop.”

He waved a hand at me without turning around and continued with his friendly argument.

He left with six types of cheese, a baguette wrapped in paper, and a bottle of something the cheesemonger had recommended.

Elgin was vibrating with restored energy, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

We found a bench outside, and in less than 3 minutes, our space looked like we were having a mini picnic.

Elgin cut the baguette and unwrapped the cheese.

22

O

• 00

16:37 Fri, May 22 M.

Chapter 72

I took a piece, and the taste of it was divine. But no matter how hard I tried, my gaze kept drifting to the building directly across the narrow street that had a discreet brass plate beside its entrance.

Harrington & Associates. Estate Law.

My late father’s attorney.

50

I had been here several times. And all of the times, I had been turned away before I made it past the first pleasantry I tried to exchange.

It was already past six. They must have closed for the day. Otherwise, I was already feeling the strong urge to barge in there right now and demand what’s mine. And I wasn’t going to take ‘no‘ for an answer.

“You know what the difference is,” Elgin said, cutting a thin slice of the aged comté and examining it with focused attention, “between hunger and appetite?”

I pulled my eyes from the brass plate.

“Hunger,” he continued, without waiting for my answer, “is the body telling you it needs something to survive. Appetite-” he held the slice up to the light briefly, then ate it, and closed his eyes for two seconds, “is the soul telling you it deserves something worth having.” He opened his eyes and looked at me. “The attorney’s office, chérie. I saw you looking.”

“Three more months,” he said gently. “The hunger can wait. Feed the appetite.” He cut another slice and held it out to me.

I took it and let the taste of it pull me back to the bench, the baguette, the cool evening, and the bottle of wine Elgin was now opening.

We ate in comfortable silence for a while.

“Something happened today,” I said eventually.

Elgin looked at me sideways.

“With Oceans?”

I nodded and told him all of it… Everything that had happened at the office.

And when I got to the part where Oceans said he had fallen for me, something shifted in Elgin’s eyes.

When I finished, he was quiet for a long moment.

He picked up his wine, took a slow sip, and set it back down.

“Mon Dieu,” he said quietly. “I know I teased you a few times about your boss being in love with you. But…” He turned to face me fully. “Men like that don’t fall easily, Arel.”

I narrowed my brows.

“But when they do, they fall hard. And they crash really hard. And everything in the vicinity when they crash-” he paused. “-doesn’t come out of it undamaged.”

“What does that mean?”

He shrugged and sighed.

“It means you are getting married in four months,” he said. “To Jace. Who is terrible, but that is beside the point.” He glanced at me. “And Oceans is getting married. To Moonie. Who is also terrible, which is also beside the point.” He reached for the baguette. “The point is that this was meant to be fun, A temporary, mutually beneficial, emotionally uncomplicated fun. And now he gestured vaguely, it is none of those things. And the man on the other end of it is not the kind of man who

O

22

O

治

16:37 Fri, May 22 M

Chapter 72

does uncomplicated feelings” He broke a piece of bread. “He is the kind of man who, when he decides something is his, becomes-” he searched for the word, “–dangerously single–minded about it. To the point of madness, cherie. I have seen it in the way he looked at you the day he came to the house.”

I was quiet, processing every truth that came out of his mouth.

“I think,” Elgin said, gently, “that you need to start pulling back.”

“Elgin…” I exhaled.

“I’m not saying it to hurt you. I’m saying it because I know Oceans isn’t the kind of man whose falling is going to look, very soon. like something you won’t be able to manage.” He held my gaze. “And I love you too much to watch that happen without saying something first.”

I was about to defend whatever this thing between Oceans and me would never be, when the attorney’s office across the street turned its lights on.

I paused.

Two men stepped out from a car that had just pulled up

and the blood didn’t drain from my face slowly. It left all at once,

like something had pulled a plug somewhere at the base of my throat.

I recognized them immediately.

Jace and Fred.

Walking side by side into Harrington & Associates like they had an appointment.

My mouth went dry.

What the hell were they doing with my father’s attorney?

AD