Emberly's POV:
I shook my head and went ahead stapling the papers together. The room was a mess right now and if Arran ever saw the state of his room he would have a mini meltdown. I was humming along with the song playing on the radio when I accidentally dropped one of the file and all the pages fell out of the folder.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Double shit!
I was on my knees collecting the paper when I heard clicking of heels against the marble floor. The red heels stopped in front of me. I followed my gaze and met with grey eyes.
My eyes widened when I realised who it was.
Sophia.
She was dressed an elegant white dress from Chanel's upcoming collection and red Givenchy heels. I know how crazy Cherry has been over the shoes. She told me only few people in the world had these heels and looks like Sophia was one of them. Her once long blonde hairs were now cut in a sleek bob. Her skin was blemish free and she wore very little make up. I could tell because the freckles on her nose and cheeks were visible. She was just adorning dark red lipstick and looked stunning. She was really beautiful. I could see why Arran fell in love with her.
I fisted my shaky hands, my heartbeat going crazy and found some courage to stand up. Is this really happening? First his brother and now her!
"Hi, how can I help you?" I beamed a smile and said in an over cheerily voice.
"I'm looking for Arran. The receptionist told me this way. Is he out for a meeting?" She carelessly roamed around the room touching his things. I had an urge to slap her hand away but I remained calm.
"Yes, he cleared his schedule for the rest of the day. I can convey your message to him." I kept my tone high; her eyes roamed everything in his room. She looked lost in her thought for moment before her eyes snapped to mine.
"I'll find him myself. We have a lot to catch up."
"Do you want me to book in an appointment?" I kept my tone professional.
"When is he next available?" She raised her eyebrow in question.
"In 6 months time." I deadpanned.
Honestly, I wasn't making it up. He is that busy,
She stopped what she was doing and eyed me carefully.
"Time never mattered before. He will always have time for me." Her eyes were staring at mine, challenging me. I glared back.
"Mr Raymond is a very busy person. Not everyone who wants to meet him gets to meet him." I replied.
Her expressions changed into amused one.
"We have history. Arran always have time for me."
"I am sorry but I've met everyone in his priority list and I don't remember recalling your name."
A muscle ticked in her jaw. She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, how rude of me! I didn't introduce myself. I'm Sophia. You'll see me around a lot from now on." She smiled, although it did not reach her eyes.
"I'm Emberly, nice to meet you." I lied.
My heart was still thumping loudly against my chest and my mouth felt dry.
"Pleasure is all mine, Miss Rae. I've heard a lot about you. I had to see it myself and I have to say I am disappointed." Her tone was clipped.
"Why is that?" I momentarily let my guards down.
"I thought it will be hard to break you but I was wrong." She smirked, now picking up Arran's nameplate from his desk.
Again, I had a strong urge to slap her hand but I was left confused at her words.
Break me? What in the actual world!
"Excuse me?" I asked, confusingly.
"Oh, I'll admit, it's actually cute seeing you all over him when you're just a flavour of a month for him. Do you even know who I am or more importantly what I am to Arran?" She raised her eyebrow.
How I wish to wipe that smugness out of her.
"You must be mistaken. You don't know anything about us." I briefly closed my eyes to contain the anger. She is really starting to piss me off.
"So you do know me. Do you know how many girls he dated after me? Or how many girls he fucked after me?"
My face paled.
"Do you know how many of those he fucked again? So what makes you think you're so special? I'll admit you're pretty, you have this whole I'm innocent but wild in bed kind of look and it's working in your favour but for how long though? As soon as Arran sees you're just like the rest of the groupies he'll dump you faster than you would've anticipated. Make your days worthwhile.
Make sure you max out as much as you can because the day he will leave you, you'll have nowhere to hide your face. If I were you I wouldn't bother showing up to work tomorrow. Here, let me do you a favour. Fill it in as much as you want. Don't worry about security, the bank already knows. Run while you can. Capiche?"
My eyes followed her movement as she took a blank cheque out of her purse and placed on the table. She began to walk away.
"I always wondered what type of person you were?" I spoke calmly much to my own surprise.
"Why is that?" she turned around and arched a perfect eyebrow.
"I wanted to know what type of girl Arran fell for. She must be special if he loved her unconditionally. She must have been different than the rest if he is not able to get over her. He is in so much pain that he isolated himself from his loved one. What kind of person made him that way? I wondered what is holding him back. Why couldn't he move over someone who stomped on his heart? Why does he hate the person he is supposed to love so much? More importantly, what made him fall in love with a person like you?"
"Now you know." She had an audacity to smirk at this.
"Yes I do. I can see it clearly now. There is no way he would fall in love with someone like you. He fell for what you showed him. A mirage. Someone that you desperately wanted to be in order to win his heart but you failed didn't you? It was becoming hard for you to conceal your true emotions or shall I say yourself and in end you showed your true colours."
"What the fuck..." Tears fell out of her eyes.
I looked at her once again. She may be beautiful but she was ugly from inside.
"You thought that I would be scared? Guess what... you can try harder. Try whatever you have planned but I will not let you hurt him anymore. Capiche?" I said with a deadly tone and she visibly stilled. I scrunched the blank cheque into a ball and threw it away.
She was stunned and silent for a moment but that vanished instantly and her face scrunched in anger. She had her fist curled in to a point where you could see her knuckles turn white. She opened her mouth but another voice interrupted us both.
"Mom... lets go." A small boy pulled her dress and she quickly wiped her tears.
My eyes were glued to the little kid. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. For a minute, I felt I couldn't breathe.
Impossible. I could not look away from the kid. He had same feature as Arran, same high cheekbones, full lips, same strong jaw but his eyes were different, lighter, more like....
No!
My chest tightened and my heart pounded painfully against it.
"I clearly underestimated you but remember this. I am here to claim what is mine." Her tone was final and she followed my eyes on the little boy and an ugly smirk appeared on her red lips. "Oh, didn't Arran tell you that I married his brother? Well now you know." With that she walked away.
My body felt numb and I felt too weak to stand up.
Sophia and Adrian.
No... way.
God cant be this cruel. Why... why does it have to be his own brother.
I could finally put all the pieces together. No wonder he hated his brother so much. How can someone be so cruel to their own blood. My vision blurred and tears formed in my eyes. No wonder he would not allow anyone to get close to him.
Arran... I need to see him. I picked up my phone and tried calling him. His phone was unavailable. I noticed the time; we only had half an hour left. I began organising the files hastily.
One call with the security guard and he confirmed Arran was home.
As I was driving, I could not help but think how much it must have hurt Arran to see the love of his life to be with his own brother.
"Have you ever been in love?" He once asked me. "It's a horrible feeling. It makes you so vulnerable."
My eyes were burning again.
'I'm not ready to accept the reality. That person... meant a lot to me. I can't seem to move on. Whenever I try, I feel like giving up already. I am tired of struggling...'
I couldn't take it anymore. I parked my car on a safe place.
'He isn't how he seems. He has been through a lot, that's why he made himself like this.'
'Love is the most overused concept in life.'
Stop Emberly, this isn't about you but it felt so raw. His haunting eyes whenever he talked about his past. The anger that rolled off his body whenever he thought about her.
'What if someone you love hurts you and leaves you in pieces, so many pieces that your hands prick when you are trying to put yourself back together?'
Damn it. My throat felt constricted and it was hurting like hell. Tears were now freely rolling from my eyes.
'You... loved her?" I asked him once. "Still do.' He replied.
I had to get hold of myself but my heart hurt for him. I wiped my tears and took deep breath. Once I had my emotions under control, I started driving again. I parked my car outside and went inside. The guards never tried to stop me anymore.
I knew where to find him. My heart broke in million pieces when I saw his shoulders hunched in resignation. He was pouring himself a drink. I could see the bottle half empty. I opened my mouth call him but he beat me in that.
"Get out. I don't want you to see me like this." His tone was low but icy.
"Please! I've seen worse." I tried keeping my tone light.
"I mean it, Emberly." He warned, not looking up.
"Then... let me join you." I sat on a stool, next to him and poured him a drink.
I scrunched my nose at the strong smell. The corners of his lips quirked up ever so slightly. He lifted his head to look at me. His eyes were sad and resigned and it shattered my heart once again. His eyebrows scrunched when he met my eyes, which were no doubt bloodshot. I looked away. He sighed softly and poured me a drink.
"I can't believe she's back. I knew she would be but a part of me hoped she wouldn't." He whispered.
I don't say anything. He knows that I know but I didn't wanted to push him. Week ago... hell even days ago I would've done anything for this information. Now that I knew, I just felt numb and in pain... lot of pain but not only for myself but for him too.
"And to make it worse she comes back with a son. A fucking son." He said bitterly and my heart clenched painfully.
"It's not his fault." I said quietly.
"Don't I fucking know that? I can't even look at both of them and they expect to be normal. Like they didn't fucking betray me." He said bitterly.
Anger was flaring inside me. I wanted to go back and ask them the same question? What the hell was wrong with them? How could Adrian do this to his own brother? Everyone knew how much he loved Sophia and yet still... how can they expect everything will be fine?
"I don't know what to do, Emberly." He meant to say that as whisper but I heard him clearly.
That moment I thought, this is exactly what they wanted. They wanted to catch Arran off guard. They knew their reappearance would cause the distraction they wanted and it worked but what they failed to realise is there were people who will not let that happen. I knew what to do.
"Do you want me to hit them? I can throw a mean punch." I stood from for the stool.
He snorted. "I'd like you to try but no, I don't want you to get involve in this. They are not fucking worth it." His voice was betraying him.
"Then it's decided!" I clapped my hands together. I grabbed him by his waist and spun him around and placed my hands on his shoulder. I bent down a bit so I could look straight in his eyes.
"What is?" He questioned, raising one of his eyebrow.
"Listen to me carefully, Arran. Don't let them cloud your judgement or let them take what is rightfully yours. I am yet to meet someone with the same work ethics as you hold. You work so damn hard and you deserve all the credit you get. I know for a fact. I have seen it. You don't work fourteen hours a day for them to belittle you. Fight for your company. Keep your feelings at bay and fight for what is more important.
Right now, her coming back, your brother coming back to the company or their son shouldn't matter. What matter is that project and your right on the company. Drink as much as you want tonight and tomorrow show them the person you've become!" I stood straight and held my breath.
Arran was in deep thought and I prayed my words to have just 1% effect on him. That's all he needed to get Arran back in the game.
"I guess you're right. Tomorrow will be a new beginning." He nodded thoughtfully and I sighed in relief.
That's the Arran I knew!
"Here's to the new beginning!" I poured a little of whiskey and drank. It burned my throat and I coughed immediately.
"Shit...I'll book an appointment for you for that liver of yours. This is strong!" I coughed again. I was about to walk away when he held my hand.
My heart may or may not have missed a beat. Who was I kidding; I felt my heart skip a beat! He stood up, pulling me in a hug and kissed my temple. I felt a whoosh.
"You seriously need to stop doing this to me. There is so much my heart can take." I mumbled. I hugged him back, locking my arms around his waist.
"Are you sure you are okay?" I searched his eyes and asked worriedly.
"We will be." He replied, determined and I smiled at him.
And I believed him.
We will be.
â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦
So, I kept my promise and ta-da... here you go!
I am trying my best to update this story as frequently as possible.
Once again, apologies for any mistakes. Feel free to point out and I will correct it.
How was this chapter? Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I did. :D
I will come back with the next chapter as soon as possible.
Enjoy, vote and comment.
Ameerah x