Chapter 50
Bryan’s POV
While I step out of the elevator into the company and walk past my secretary to my office, I can feel the eyes of the employees on me as I refuse to answer any of their greetings. I am furious to see Celine out with a man right in front of my home.
Can’t she accord me any respect? Is he her boyfriend? So she has a boyfriend all along?
I suddenly remember the man I saw with her the very day I went to get Jason from her. Is he her boyfriend? Are they staying together? Is he the same person as the one I saw today? I didn’t see his face but I have a feeling he is the same person I saw her with at the party the other day.
The thought of seeing her with a man is pissing me off and I want to tell her how mad I am. She is always doing one thing or the other to annoy me.
I enter the office and stride to my chair. Before I can sit in to get to work since I came in late today, the door opens after a knock. Stella peeks in.
“Boss?”
I am thinking she is here with my coffee so I utter softly. “Come in.”
She comes fully in without my coffee and I raise a brow at her. “Good morning, sir.”
She greeted me outside while I was walking in but I didn’t respond.
“What happened?”
“Someone is here to see you, sir.”
“Someone? Who?” I demand from her with a frown. I don’t have any appointments this morning. I came to the office because of the appointment I will be having from noon till the close of the day. I wonder who the person is.
“Yes. Emily.” She answers with a straight face.
“Emily?” She nods.
What the hell is she doing here again by this time of the day?
I glance at Stella and give her a nod for Emily to come in. I should have known she would come to see me again soon. Emily is not one to give up so easily.
Celine’s presence in my house after our marriage was what kept her away from coming back after Helena’s death. She was one of the reasons why I asked Celine to be my wife.
Stella takes the exit and I lean backward waiting patiently for Emily to come in and say whatever she wants to say so I can ask her out and get to work. I have a lot to do before my first appointment with the investors from China.
Without a knock, the door opens and Emily walks in majestically with a short red gown stopping below her knees and a black stiletto heels, red lipstick, and a black designer bag. Her hair is packed in a big high bun and she flashes me a smile when our eyes meet.
“Hello to you, Bryan”, she stops right in front of the desk.
“What are you doing here, Emily?” I ask her with a straight face.
She flops heavily to the chair and crosses her legs nonchalantly. “Isn’t it obvious that I am here to conclude our last discussion?” She bats her long eyelashes at me.
“I thought I told you we have nothing to discuss?” I lean forward with a deep frown.
“No, you didn’t”, she rolls her eyes at me.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
“But you threatened me, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did”, she grins widely, leaning forward.
“Then it’s done, we have nothing to talk about so I would advise you to go away from me before I involve the police.”
She laughs sarcastically. “You are not going to do that, Bryan. I have what it takes to ruin you.”
“You think I care? I don’t f***ing care about what you do…”
“Well, I am not here for that”, she stands up abruptly from the chair, interrupting me.
She drops her bag and comes round the desk towards me. “I am here to tell you I am still very much available to become your bride. I am going to forgive you for all you have done and I am going to pretend all of these didn’t happen.”
“Bride?” I scoff, making her stop walking towards me. She is just a few distances away from me and I turn my chair to face her squarely. “Do you even know what you are saying?”
She shrugs with her arms wide open. “Of course I do. Do you know how long I have waited for you? Do you know how many men I turned down because of you?”
“I didn’t ask you to turn anybody down, I told you right from the start that you can’t be my bride. I don’t love you.” She has a serious look on her face and I am trying to see if she is going to reason with me just like she did when I chose Helena over her.
“But I love you”, she grabs my chin and I turn my face away from her.
“Emily, we can’t be together”, I declare openly.
She needs to let go. I can never be with the same woman I cheated on my wife with.
The guilt will kill me. Besides, I don’t feel any form of attraction towards Emily. She is the last woman I would want for a bride.
She laughs. “Is it because Celine is back and with a child? That girl doesn’t fit into our category”, she bends down, emphasizing her statement and giving me a clear view of her cleavages.
She cups my face in her hands and gives me a pout.
I take her hands off my face. As much as I want to send her out of my office, I still think talking like two adults can make things clear between us and have her accept the reality of how I feel.
“No. There is nothing between Celine and me. Besides, I never told you the baby is hers”, I twirl my chair back to the front, facing the chair opposite me. I hear her sigh and go back to her seat.
“Well, for your information, Celine has a boyfriend and they are planning to get married soon”, she announce to my amazement, making me remember who I saw Celine with this morning on my way to work. I didn’t see his face and I wish I was patient enough to see his face.
Is he the boyfriend? Has he proposed to her already? When are they getting married?
Well, I don’t care but I will make sure she doesn’t take Jason with her when she is married to whosoever is the mother****er of a boyfriend that she has.
“You have no chance with her”, she jerks me out of my reverie.
“I am not rejecting you because of Celine or any other girl, I just don’t want to have anything to do with you again.”
“Really?” She is now sitting back on the chair. Her looks have changed into an angry stare. “Are you sure of that or you are just being a coward? Are you still guilty of what happened between us years ago?”
She smirks with pride. “Well, you don’t have to be, Helena is dead after all.”
“Don’t you dare call her name that way? Can’t you show respect to the dead? What is wrong with you?” I slam my fist on the desk in anger and irritation. I am done exercising patience with her already.
Emily has her own opinion and uninfluenced mindset about how things work and what she wants her world to be like.
She is obsessed with me and she won’t give up just like that. If she isn’t obsessed, she would have stopped throwing herself at me even after Helena’s death because of the guilt of what she did. But she isn’t remorseful, Instead, she is proud of it.
“Don’t be touchy, loverboy. She is dead after all and who cares whether she knows or not?”
“What?!” I exclaim loudly.
What is she saying? She is not just disrespecting Emily, she is also mocking her.
Why is she saying she doesn’t care if she knows? Isn’t she supposed to say since Helena is dead, she won’t get to know our secret?
Wait, did Helena know? Did they meet and talk about it? Is that why Helena was aggressive which led to our fight because she brought up the issue that always leads to our quarrels.
I am having jumbled thoughts about all of these and as much as I think of it all, I can’t find the answers. The person who can answer this question is the lady sitting before me and I know she won’t tell me the truth.
There is one more person I can ask and that is Camilla. Camilla knows almost everything about Helena’s movement.
I need to ask her if Helena saw Emily a few days before her death? I can remember how strangely Helena was behaving before the night of her death. I need to ask Camilla if she knows of anything that has to do with the affair between Emily and me which is meant to be a secret.
When Emily’s hand touches mine on the desk, I flinch and rise up abruptly in annoyance. I point to the door and command. “Get out this minute!”
“What?!”
“Get out, you bitch”, I growl in anger.
“Don’t you dare call me that”, she grit her teeth, fuming in anger too. Her presence here is suddenly irritating me. I grab the intercom and shout at her once more in a warning.
“Get out!”
She glares at me harshly, grabs her bag, and storms away. The moment she is out, I slump to the chair with a distant and guilty look on my face. I can’t go home now because I have a lot of appointments today. I keep looking into space, wishing I can apologize to Helena but I can’t.
My chest heave up in fear of what Helena knew before her death. I am scared of the unknown. I am scared I didn’t get to apologize to her before she died and I would never be forgiven.
As much as I try to fight back my tears, I don’t know when a tear rolls down my eyes.