Chapter 96

Chapter 96

The guards grabbed Thomas by the arms. He did not put up a fight. He continued to stare at me. his intelligent eyes calculating, as they dragged him toward the SUV that had pulled up.

“Think about what I said,” he told me. “Think about the other Lunas.”

I shivered, though from the weather or from what Thomas had said, I couldn’t tell.

I jumped as Jeffrey placed a firm hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t listen to him,” Jeffrey said, staring at the advisor as he was shoved into the vehicle. “He’s lying about the Lunas. What happened to them… that wasn’t Andrew’s fault.”

I looked up at Jeffrey, but he would not meet my eye.

“What did happen to Andrew’s Lunas?”

“That is Andrew’s story to tell.”

I nodded, accepting his answer. Andrew would tell me the truth when he was ready.

“What will happen to Thomas?”

“Andrew will interrogate him and then punish him as he sees fit.”

“You won’t turn him in to the police?”

That will be up to Andrew.”

I watched the SUV’s tinted rear windows as the vehicle drove away, unsure of what would become of Thomas, the head advisor.

Andrew paced the length of the interrogation room. It was a room in the subbasement of his main office in the city, one that he did not like to use often, but there was no better room for an incident like this. Soundproof, bulletproof, overall secure, it was the only place where he could talk to a traitor about something this sensitive and personal.

The man before him was one of the last people he would have suspected to betray him. Thomas, his head advisor and, arguably, his best friend. Of course, Thomas had been one of the few people to know the truth of what had happened at The Masque, so it had been likely, but Andrew hadn’t wanted to believe it.

He stopped pacing in front of the table separating his seat from Thomas’s. Thomas stared back up at him, unblinkingly, unyieldingly. There was no remorse in his eyes.

“What do you have to say for yourself, Thomas?” Andrew asked, his voice level.

Chapter 96

“Nothing.” Thomas replied, his tone matching Andrew’s.

“Nothing at all? No regret, no explanation?”

“My only regret is that it had to come this far.”

“That what had to come this far?”

“I thought that maybe you would understand once you saw how much you were shirking your responsibilities for her-”

“What are you talking about?” Andrew raised his voice, then forced himself to calm down once more. “You are not making sense, Thomas.”

“I did this so that you could see what’s going on, Andrew, between you and that woman, Crystal. It’s not healthy. It will ruin your reign–and both of you.”

Andrew blinked, but he did not let himself react otherwise.

“What do you mean, Thomas? You were the one who encouraged me to pursue her in the first place.”

“That was before I saw how your relationship with her affected you. You would do anything. for her, including destroy the both of you.”

“I would never do anything to hurt her-”

“But you would hurt others for her. You proved that at the club. How can you say that know for sure that you would be able to control yourself the next time that and stop yourself from hurting her in the process?”

you

you go wolf–man

Inwardly, Andrew cringed. Outwardly, he remained stoic. He would not let Thomas shake him, even if he was pushing all the right buttons.

“Did you act alone?” he asked, changing the subject.

Thomas stared intensely at Andrew for a moment, then nodded.

“Yes, I acted alone.”

Andrew stared back at him, assessing the truth of his statement, digging deep into the other man’s mind.

“I believe you.”

“So, what are you going to do with me?”

Andrew rubbed his chin.

“You’re fired, effective immediately. However, it will be framed as an early retirement for the

Chapter 96

public. I don’t want to raise any suspicion.”

Thomas nodded, as though in approval.

“Very pragmatic, Your Highness.

Andrew glared at Thomas as he backed towards the door.

“I don’t need your approval anymore.”

It came as no surprise to me the next day when I saw news alerts announcing that Thomas had “retired” as Andrew’s top advisor. I had thought that, perhaps, he would have given Thomas a more severe punishment. but it made sense that he didn’t want to do anything to draw attention to Thomas’s misdeeds. Anything to keep what had happened at The Masque quiet.

Even with Ever After Weddings all atwitter with this latest gossip, I didn’t have long to dwell on it. We had a wedding next week, and I needed to confirm all the details.

Everything seemed to be in place, until I called the florist.

“Fiori di Maria, how can I help you?” a cheery, if slightly accented, feminine voice answered the phone.

“Hi, this is Crystal Blanchard from Ever After Weddings. I wanted to confirm that you our order ready for next Saturday’s wedding.”

“Hello, Crystal! Let me check.”

have

There was the sound of clicking on the keyboard, and then a humming came across the phone.

“I am sorry, but we do not seem to have an order for

you.”

“What? Are you sure? It would have been made by Fabian Gallo.”

“Yes, I am sure.”

“Well, is there any way that you could arrange a dozen red rose bouquets, three pink rose bouquets, and one bouquet of red and pink roses next Saturday at 5 p.m.?”

“No, I am sorry. We just do not have the resources for that. I am sorry.”

I shook my head and tried not to groan.

“No, no, I understand. You can only work with what you have. Thanks anyway.”

Thank you for calling, Crystal Good luck.”

12.46 F, Jan

Chapter in

I laughed dryly.

“Thanks. Bye.”

By the time I hung up, I was seeing red. I had told Fabian to place that order weeks ago. Now, we were going to have to find the flowers for an entire wedding on a week’s notice.

Before I could go and chew him out for his negligence, I had to fix this dilemma.

I called all the florists that I could think of. None of them could fill the entire order on their own. However, among four of them, I was able to arrange orders that covered all our needs for the wedding.

The entire process took me over two hours to complete, but my anger still burned brightly ast Thung up

with the final florist. The crisis averted, I went into the storage area, where I knew that Fabian was supposed to be taking inventory,

I found him leaning against the shelves, texting on his cell phone. I planted my hands on my hips and waited for him to look up at me. When he didn’t, I cleared my throat.

“Fabian, what are you doing?” I asked.

“I finished early, so I’m catching up on some texts,” he said, still not looking at me.

“Well, I’m glad that you finished this early because you forgot something else.”

“What’s that?”

“The entire flower order for the Rodriguez–Perez wedding next week!”

He shrugged.

“I’m sure that you’ll take care of it.”

I dug my nails into my hips, trying to not take out my frustration on him.

“Yes, I did, but that’s not the point. I told you to take care of it weeks ago-

“Yeah, was that before or after you got Samantha fired?”

He glared up at me. Heat rushed into my face.

“So, that’s what this is about? Samantha?

“Yeah. She deserved to be Head Wedding Planner, not you. You’re just some ex–con that Lily took in off of the street, and yet you sauntered in and got the position-

I worked my butt off for this position!”

Ridic

Chapter 96

I’d had enough of Fabian’s attitude.

“Let’s settle this with Lily right now.”

I pulled out my phone and dialed Lily’s number for a video call.

“Hello? Crystal?” Lily answered. “Is something the matter?”

“Yeah, there is.” I looked pointedly at Fabian. “I’m having a problem with one of the other employees.”

“What is it?”

“He refused to order flowers for a wedding, like I told him to weeks ago, and I just now caught it, a week before the wedding.”

Lily’s eyes widened.

“Is the issue resolved? Will there be flowers?”

“Well, yes, I made sure of that before confronting him.”

*Good. Always handle the immediate problem first.”

“Yes, but the problem now is that Fabian doesn’t seem to want to do what I tell him to just because I was made Head Wedding Planner instead of Samantha.”

“I see.” Lily sighed. “Look, you two, I don’t have time for these petty office politics.”

Fabian smirked at me, as though he thought that he was going to be let off scot–free.

“Fabian, you need to listen to Crystal. She’s in charge, whether you like it or not. If you don’t, you are going to lose your job.”

The smirk ran away from his face, replaced by a scowl.

“And Crystal, you should have checked on the flowers before now.”

My heart sank.

“Yes, Lily,” I said. “I’ll be better about that.”

“You also need to be more assertive and on top of the other employees. Some of them look to you for guidance, and others will need you to force your guidance upon them. Don’t forget, you are the alpha here.”

I nodded, feeling like a child being reprimanded by her mother,

Yes, of course. I’ll work on that.”

Good Now, get back to work, both of you.”

Chapter 96

I hung up the phone without so much as a “goodbye” for my friend. That hadn’t gone quite as I had expected, but at least Fabian had been chastised, too.

When I looked at him, he was smirking at me once more.

“What are you looking at?” I asked. “You heard Lily. Get back to work.”

He sneered at me as he left the storage area.

This was far from over.