SWNOVELS : Chapter 68
I looked Baron square in the eye and shook my head slowly from side to side, no longer able to contain my feelings of annoyance, disgust, and disapproval.
“You are a piece of work, Baron,” I began, clenching my fists at my sides. “All of these things that have happened were no one’s fault but your own. You have no right to come here and ask me for any favor, let alone something so ridiculously undeserved.”
Baron’s jaw dropped. Apparently he hadn’t been expecting a negative response to this unwelcome visit and unmerited favor, which did not make a lick of
sense to me. Did he really think I would be happy to do this for him? Lobby on his behalf to my current fiancé, who might hate him even more than I do?
“Come on, Fiona,” Baron pleaded. “Please. You and I have history. We have known each other since we were children. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“Wow,” I breathed. “Did that history count for anything when you cheated on me the night before our wedding? Did it count for anything when you told me that I disgust you?”
He lowered his eyes to the floor. “I’m so sorry about all that, Fiona. But it’s in the past. Please, you can’t let hurt feelings keep you from setting things right for me, just because I said something stupid. My whole life is falling apart here.”
Another cheerless chuckle came spilling out of my
lips. “I can’t believe you’re able to say these things with a straight face. Let me be very clear. My answer to your request is no. And your minute is well past up.
It’s time for you to leave.”
I approached Baron where he stood near the door, attempting to usher him out, and held the edge of the door with one hand, ready to push it closed it behind him. But Baron did not move an inch.
“Please, Fiona,” he continued, his voice growing whiny. “I am hardly asking you for anything. Please do this for me, for old times’ sake. We did have some good times together, you and me, remember? Can’t you just do this one little thing for me? It’d be so easy for you. All you have to do is ask him one little question.”
“My refusal is based on concerns other than the level of difficulty required to ask a question.” I glared at
Baron, daring him to say something like that again, to speak to me like I was an idiot. He’d regret it.
He was dumbfounded.
He was dumbfounded.
I began moving the door as if to close it, making very clear my desire for him to exit my office immediately.
“You told me you would leave me alone after I allowed you to say what you wanted to say,” I said plainly, my voice still confident and even. “I held up my end of that bargain. Now it is time for you to leave.
Goodbye, Baron. Do not ever come back here again.”
Catching sight of movement in the hall in my peripheral vision, I worried lunchtime had my colleagues up and about already, and grimaced as I anticipated the questions I’d be hearing from any nosy
coworkers that might spy my ex as he departed the office. Baron took the opportunity of my brief distraction to clasp my free hand in his.
“Please,” he whimpered yet again. “Please Fiona, be reasonable. Just talk to Alexander for me. I am begging you. Have some sympathy.”
The feeling of Baron’s touch was revolting. I tried to pull my hand away, but he held onto it tightly.
I clenched my teeth, suddenly so angry that I could not even make my mouth form the words to tell him to get his hands off me. I took my other hand off the door and started to pry the captive one free from his desperate grip.
Alexander
I hated to interrupt Fiona while she was working, but I
did know she took a lunch break midday and thought I might be able to catch her at a rare free moment.
I just had to ask her what was going on. I needed to know what I had done to upset her. Otherwise, I was going to be gritting my teeth all afternoon and evening, distracted, waiting and wondering how things were going to turn out when she got home from work, which might be very late once again.
It was a long ride up to the top floor of Crescent Ventures headquarters, almost ninety stories. My anxiety rose right along with the elevator. I stretched my jaw and swallowed hard to pop my ears as the elevator finally slowed to the last stop, and took a deep breath before the doors rolled open.
I gave a small, casual wave to the secretary at the reception desk that faced the elevator straight-on.
She was of course familiar with me from my frequent, albeit not recent, visits with my uncle. She lit up when she recognized me, flashing me a bright smile and blushing before then averting her eyes in a hurry.
Heading to the opposite end of the eighty-ninth floor, I probably looked like I was on my way to Conrad’s big corner office. Fiona’s office was right across from the CEO’s, though. That was my destination. I expected I would find my workaholic fiancée inside, toiling away on her important project.
What I did not expect to find was a man standing inside Fiona’s office with her, holding one of her hands in both of his own.
I glimpsed the sight dimly through the tinted office windows first, and it stopped me dead in my tracks.
From the angle where I stood, I could not see Fiona’s face. But I did see the man’s, and I recognized him. It was Baron, Fiona’s low-rent ex-fiancé.
Wishful disbelief had me questioning, for a second, whether I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. I rubbed my eyes. Wondered if I might be dreaming, even. Because witnessing another man touching Fiona was feeling like a scene out of a nightmare.
Baron was leaning in close to Fiona and saying something to her very passionately. I could not quite make out the words from my distance, but I heard urgency in his whisper. And I also heard my own name, which did not sit well with me. My skin was crawling and my blood was starting to run hot.
When I reached the doorway, I got a clear, plain view
of the full nightmare scenario before the two of them noticed me. Fiona now had both her hands on Baron’s.
That’s when I started seeing red.
Fiona noticed me first, her eyes going big when they locked on mine. Then Baron wheeled around next, dropping Fiona’s hands when he saw me. He looked shocked and guilty as hell, staring into my eyes with a look of terror that told me he could accurately read the level of anger in mine.