Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
He gets up and starts walking slowly up and down the conference room. “But you didn’t.”
I point to the door. “You were called away because of an emergency news flash, and then you were in meetings, and . . .” I laugh. Jesus. “Well, I’m no longer seeing Mr. Harrison, and I expect he’ll find alternative arrangements for his millions.”
Gary flinches at the mention of millions. I’m just making this worse. But then something comes to me. “Wait. How did you know I was seeing him?”
“You know I can’t divulge that, Amelia.”
I laugh under my breath. “Of course.” Anger is rising. Leighton. The fuckhead. “Look, Gary, I pride myself on my integrity.” I dig deep to remain calm. “You have to believe me; I would never do that.”
He slows his pace and looks out of the corner of his eye. “I really don’t want to take this to the board.”
“Then don’t. They never have to know.”
He looks up at the ceiling, sighing. “I told them about Harrison, Amelia. They know he was here to meet you.”
“Fuck,” I hiss, losing control for a split second and hitting the table. I immediately apologise for it, taking some deep breaths.
“Look, leave it with me.” He pulls his glasses off and rubs his eyes. “You’d better get back to work.”
I nod and stand, my mind bending, leaving Gary in the conference room. I’m raging. And the control I was fighting to keep escapes me, my unstable emotions letting me down. I stalk to Leighton’s office and burst in on him. “You fucking snake,” I hiss.
He does a terrible job of hiding his smirk, sitting back in his chair casually. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You know what.” I walk towards his desk, my fists bunched. “How did you know I was seeing Jude Harrison?”
“Oh, you’re seeing him?”
“Was,” I reiterate. “Briefly.”
“Oh, you broke up?”
“How did you know?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure.” I place my palm on his desk and lean over it. My move seems to increase his amusement, therefore increase my fury. God, I’d love to smash his face into the wood. “You’re a sad, desperate creep, Leighton Steers.”
“Ouchy,” he says, pouting.
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Ouchy, ouchy.”
I push myself up and leave before I follow through on my desire to cause him physical pain, my emotions needing an outlet desperately.
“Is someone on their period?” he calls, making my heels skid to a stop.
“Fuc—” My mouth snaps shut.
My period.
My stomach turns when my heart drops into it, my mind frantically working through the dates. I’m suddenly cold. So fucking cold. “Off,” I whisper.
“And good to see you got your fancy new car repaired.”
I exhale sharply, staring forward, another bombshell getting me. I look over my shoulder at him. “You?”
“Me, what?” he muses, kicking his leg up on his knee, reclining back.
Gold digger. But, crazily, I have something more important to deal with than Leighton and my vandalised car.
My period.
“I hope you’re happy,” I say, picking up my heavy feet and walking back to my office. I get to my desk, pulling my calendar up, and count back to my last period. Twice. Three times. “Shit,” I breathe, counting again, hoping by some miracle I’ve miscalculated by a week. “No, no, no.”
I’m a week late.
I grab my handbag and pull my makeup bag out, searching for my pills. My hands land on a pen.
I’ve got you. Jude xxx
Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I toss it aside and find my pills, counting through the empty holes in the foil. “No,” I whisper when I discover two more pills than I should have. I drop the packet on my desk and stare at them.
This can’t be happening.
Chapter 25
They’re not, but paranoia—and maybe the anxiety too—is making me feel like everyone in the pharmacy is looking at me. I smile tightly at the lady as she places the box on the counter. “Thank you.”
“Anything else I can help you with?”
I look at my bandaged hand, and then extend it towards her. “I cut it nearly two weeks ago. It’s not healing very well.”
“Did you visit a hospital?” she asks, taking my hand gingerly and feeling the skin around the bandage.
“Yes. It was stitched up.”
“You should make an appointment with your doctor. It’s hot to the touch, maybe infected.”
“Right. Okay.”
“The pregnancy test is twelve ninety-nine.”
I tap my card and stuff the box in my bag before my payment’s authorised, picking up Clark’s call as I’m hurrying out. My heart is still in my stomach, my tummy still churning, my anxious shakes not improving.
“Hey,” I say, breaking free from the stifling space and dragging in air. I take a moment under a tree to switch my heels for my trainers. “What’s up?”
“It’s been bugging me,” he says, his breathing a little laboured. He’s walking to the Tube.
“What’s bugging you?”
“Nick. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of planner who’d fuck up so monumentally. Because it would have to be monumental to spike such an act of revenge, right?”