Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I don’t want him to wake up, so I hold my breath and creep quietly through the penthouse toward the elevator doors behind the vast kitchen. I wince at the ding the doors make as they open, and I step inside the elevator.
Certain Lev would’ve heard the doors and will appear any second, I suck in a deep breath and pray for them to close quickly. I don’t want the awkward morning after conversation.
When the doors finally close, I exhale roughly and relax my shoulders.
Passing by the reception desk, I don’t make eye contact with the doorman and keep walking. It’s not until I step onto the street and into the cold, early-morning light that I realize I’ve been holding my breath. I let it go and hail a cab, grateful to find one so quickly.
But as the cab makes its way through the pre-dawn streets toward my hotel, I recall how Lev called me Miss Masters, and an uneasy feeling shivers down my spine.
Because I never told him my last name.
12
BROOKE
Four weeks later.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Elsa asks.
She’s sitting up in the hospital bed nursing her two-day-old daughter, Emily, while I rearrange fresh flowers in a vase at the bedside table.
“It will do me some good to get out of town for a bit. It’s only a six-month tenure, so if it doesn’t work out, I can always come back.”
Returning from New York City and my honeymoon, I’d been promptly fired from my job at Wilson’s club, which was fine by me. Wilson had left a lot to clean up in his wake, and apparently, I was one of those things. If they hadn’t fired me, I would have resigned.
Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long to find a new job. I received a job offer from ZeeMed, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, asking me to interview for a senior marketing role in the company. Which just happens to be the exact job I did at Wilson’s club. It is only for six months to cover a maternity leave, but there will be an option to stay on in a new role for the right applicant. The interview was via Zoom and went so well, I was offered the job on the spot. I couldn’t believe it. The only downside was I would need to move to New York. But to me, it was like the stars were aligning. Time to move forward, Brooke. I hated the idea of leaving my friends for six months, but I knew the change of scenery would do me good.
Elsa pouts. “I’m going to miss you.”
I give her a reassuring smile. “It’s not forever, I promise. I’ll come back, but I need to get away for a while. Let everything die down a little. Besides, New York is only a two-hour flight away, which makes it easy to come back once a month for cocktails and shenanigans.” I sit on the bed beside her and brush my fingertips over Emily’s little fingers. “And you know I will, because someone has to show this little princess why her Aunt Brooke will be her favorite aunt in the whole entire world.”
“Make sure you do. I couldn’t stand the idea of Emily not getting to know her Aunt Brooke.”
I wink at her. “It’s just six months, I promise.”
Elsa nods. She, of all people, knows that when I make up my mind, wild horses can’t sway me.
“Are you going to rent out your apartment?” she asks.
I’m fortunate to own the apartment Wilson and I used to share. My parents bought it when they were first married, and when they passed away, I inherited it.
I shake my head. The idea of anyone else living in the apartment I grew up in makes me feel weird.
“I’m going to leave it vacant.” I shrug. “Who knows, I might be back next week if New York doesn’t work out.”
“Or you get a mad case of homesickness for your best friends.”
She’s right—leaving her and Henry and Sam and Chloe is going to hurt. But it will make those monthly cocktail dates even more special.
“Still no word from Wilson?” Elsa asks.
“No, he’s long gone.”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “I really thought he’d come crawling back with his tail between his legs after a while. But you know, I really think he’s gone, and he’s not coming back.”
“Good riddance.”
It doesn’t hurt to say that now. It’s weird, but for all the humiliation I faced after his disappearance, it’s like he was just someone I used to know a long time ago.
I haven’t heard from him since the phone call I took from him in the bathroom of the first-class lounge. The awesome conversation where he called me vanilla and predictable.
In the week following his disappearance, I went over a million theories in my head about where he was and what he was doing. I considered the million-dollar question of why he left until I was sick of thinking about it. Oh, he blamed it all on me and how boring and predictable our life was, but I don’t believe for a second that’s why he vanished like a puff of smoke. If it was all about me, why not just break up and move on? Why give up everything?