Chapter 104: Lucas: Sick asshole
THE PRINTER ran in the background m, filling the deadly silence in my office as I stared at Bella who was now seated across from .
She kept fidgeting with her cup, tucking hair behind her ear here and then as if to calm her nerves more than look pretty. I stared, no, glared at her from below my eyebrows, letting her know I wasn’t about to take any of her social dia shenanigans today.
I had reached the last straw of the social dia wars. Right now we were on a tightrope, and I was the only one who could change the course because I wasn’t the main center of attention glued to the rope. One word from
and the dia would go wild.
"So, how are you coming along with the magazine publishing?" She made small talk, avoiding eye contact with .
I almost hissed but stopped myself and decided to be the big guy and wait for her to be direct. "Fine. We have already started printing and the online articles are already doing a countdown to publication. Preorders are already being made too."
"Yeah, I already brought a copy. It seems the sales are skyrocketing from what I overheard the marketing departnt say in the cafeteria."
Those blabbermouths. Wait until I beco the Vice President of this place then I’ll have them know when and when not to spew company secrets.
"Hmm. This might be our best month yet."
"And you might leave the departnt after fulfilling your wish."
Dad told her. I scrunched my eyebrows, rubbing my nose bridge as all my focus was withdrawn from the speech I was writing. The printer stopped running the bond papers through it and I took them out, feeling the warmth on them as an almost intoxicating sll of ironed paper fills my nostrils.
Placing them next to my keyboard, I turned my attention back to the woman sitting before .
"Spill it. What do you want Bella? Why did you want to talk to
at a ti when most of my team has already gone back ho?"
She chuckled silently, the sound coming out suppressed and sad. "They don’t like . Your young apprentice even went as far as telling
to stay away from the offices or he’ll expose
to the dia."
My heart raced at the thought of Keith defending Iris. I even considered hiring him on a whim and making him stay close to Iris at all tis. After all, I won’t be in the departnt forever, and the two are closer than any brother and sister I’ve ever t.
"Makes sense after what you did to their favorite person." I retorted. "That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To talk about this drama?"
Bella nodded, relief washing over her rigid body when I assisted her with giving us the main agenda to talk about. Her stiff posture relaxed, followed by her wiping her eyes as if she had been crying a while ago.
"I don’t know what you have to say, but I think you need to say it all in person," I said folding my arms.
Bella nodded once again like those toys with a jiggly head placed in so cars by the dashboard. "I know, but how can I when she’s not coming to work?"
Glad we’re on the sa page, I imdiately started packing my bag. "If we leave now we’ll have enough ti for you to apologize and be returned here before the sun sets."
"Wait."
I pause mid-packing, furrowing my brows at her. "What is it this ti? Are you playing gas again to see where my limits reach? I promise you Bella, this is the last chance that I’ll ever give you. Fuck this up and I’m going to the newspaper houses and on the radio to expose all this charade."
Bella’s eyes widened with fear at my outburst. It’s a given since I’ve never really been angry with her nor have I ever threatened to fuck up her life.
"T-that’s what I wanted to..." she stuttered, trailing off so she could take a deep breath. "I wanted to apologize to you too. I ssed up the deal we made to keep our relationship private to the world and to break up once we found lovers."
"I just thought there was a possibility you felt sothing for
after, you know...all these years of being..."
Sigh. I sat back down, watching her break because of . The heavy weight of what I did to her kept hitting
for the last few days, but it hits harder now that I get to hear her point of view.
I think I subconsciously knew Bella liked
all these years and yet, I didn’t let her go. How selfish and stupid could I be? I am no different from the guys Iris said she hates—pitiful womanizers who play beautiful won and ditch them once they get what they ca for.
"You don’t have to feel guilty. It was consensual, we both agreed to it and you kept your end of the deal. I was the one who went overboard."
Double on the guilt.
I suppressed the sudden urge to groan, sitting up straight and finally looking at Bella without all the hate blinding my eyes. There before
is a woman who wants peace. The glimr in her eyes that she used to have whenever she saw
is gone and now replaced by a teary filter.
I don’t know what’s behind that filter, but one thing is certain—once it disappears, she won’t be the sa Bella I knew again. She might probably cut
off from her life, or even hate . There’s nothing I can say right now that can turn back ti and reverse all the mistakes I made, but apologizing is still an option.
"I’m sorry," I said, not able to look her in the eyes. "I was an asshole."
Silence. Then the sound of Bella sipping her coffee. "Yeah. A sick asshole."
Ah, so she does hate .
"Drink up fast, I have an apology to make and a house to go back to."
Following her command, we were in my car the next second and being driven to the villa by Paul. By the ti we arrived ho, I expected Iris to be back from the backyard sauna, and I was right because the mont I opened the door, she did her daily routine.
Jumping on
and asking how my day was. Like a wife.
★★★★★
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