Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Once I’m inside, I inhale and force out a breath, forcing myself to calm. The floors tick by and I exit, entering the office lobby, but I don’t stop. I cut left and walk past the bullpen of cubicles to an office on the right where Eric and the guard are waiting. “Is she in there?” I ask.
“She is,” Eric says.
I start forward, step inside and Eric and the guard flank me, then step to my side. Becky is behind her desk, her hair now neatly pulled back at her nape, a look of shock crosses her face, rocketing her to her feet. “What is this?” she demands.
“Pack up and leave,” I say. “You’re fired.”
She blanches. “What? No. You can’t fire me.” Her voice lifts and takes on a desperate quality. “I’ll claim sexual harassment.”
I lean on the desk, my fists on the wooden surface. “If you just made me lose Mia, I’ll destroy you and enjoy it. Hell, I’ll destroy you and enjoy it just for making her feel what she’s feeling right now. So you want to sue me? Bring it the fuck on, but get out.”
Chapter sixteen
Mia
The past, a year ago
Idon’t know how I make it out of the office building without crying. I don’t even know how I get blocks away on foot. I search the area around me and I don’t even know where I am. A cab with a light on drives by and I chase after him. He stops. For once a New York City cab driver actually stops for me. I climb inside. “Just drive,” I say. “Just drive and there’s a big tip in it for you. And ignore me back here.” The minute the car starts moving, the inevitable happens. I burst into tears, a fierce, body-quaking explosion. I cry and cry and I don’t even try to hold back.
“Big tip,” I call out when the driver looks back at me. “Just drive.” My phone starts ringing again and I know it’s Grayson. Of course it’s Grayson. He’s busted. He’s so very busted. I don’t look at my phone. I want to throw it out of the window. I have nowhere to go. I can’t go home. It’s his home that was clearly never mine. That’s what I get for moving in with a man at three months and then accepting a proposal at nine months. “Out—out of the city,” I sob to the driver. “A hotel. Queens or Brooklyn. I don’t care which. Just take me. A hundred dollars on top of your fare.”
I sink back against the cushion and look at my gorgeous special ring that seemed to have so much thought behind it. It meant something. Now it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean anything. I squeeze my eyes shut and the image of Becky pressed to Grayson, no, her breasts pressed against Grayson, twists me in knots. He fired me from the case and gave it to her. Now I know why. My phone rings again and I grab it, stare at Grayson’s number and turn it off. It’s off. We’re off. We’re over forever.
I start to cry all over again and curl up against the door behind the driver’s seat. I lose time inside the tears until finally, the driver stops. “Holiday Inn, sweetheart,” the driver says. “That’s as good as it gets right now. I’m done driving.”
I open my purse, glance at the meter and toss him cash; I always have cash because Grayson always worries I might need it. Or he did. Those days are over. Maybe he didn’t worry at all. I exit the car and try to pull myself together. I have to walk into this hotel and get a room without blubbering. I shut the cab door and it races away. I glance around and the airplane overhead tells me I’m close to the airport. Maybe I’ll just fly away and go somewhere. It’s not like I have a job now. Grayson owns that, too. I think I let him own everything I am and that was okay when I thought I had everything he was, but I was wrong. I didn’t have all of him. I had nothing and I have nothing.
I swipe at my cheeks and walk into the hotel lobby. I actually hold it together. I’m proud of myself. I grab my key and once I make it into the room, I’m done holding it together. I melt down right there at the door. I sink to the floor. I lie there. Time passes and passes and I just don’t stop hurting. I don’t even know when I come to enough to realize that I’m in the dark. I don’t care, though. I dig in my purse and turn my phone back on. Grayson calls immediately and I hit “decline” and dial my friend, Courtney, because now I have to admit my hell to someone, and who better than my best friend since childhood?