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“I mean what I said. They’re mine, and they’ll do what I say.”
I sigh. “Okay.”
“Thank you.” He checks his watch. “Will you cook this evening?”
Cooking helps me unwind from the day, and it’s unsatisfying for me to cook only for myself, so I make enough for at least four people. In the morning, I find the empty dishes and rarely any leftovers. Corrado likes my cooking. I like that he likes it.
“I’m trying a new lasagna receipt. No ricotta cheese in this one.”
He pecks my cheek. “Looking forward to it.” With that, he leaves.
34
SOME DAYS I WANT TO SHAKE HIM!
MICHELA
The moment Corrado steps into the elevator, the staff hurries over to Evans’s office, swarming him with questions about his well-being. I sit behind my desk and drop my face into my hands, waiting for them all to leave before I appear in front of Evans and apologize for whatever Corrado said to him.
I think he might’ve punched him in the face.
If Evans and Corrado only got into a shouting match, then Helen, a senior designer who I think is into Evans, wouldn’t be hurrying over to him with a bag of ice from the break room while also giving me the stink-eye. Granted, she often looks at me with distaste. I don’t know why since I barely know her.
Maybe because she thinks I’ll steal her man. I most certainly won’t. I have my hands full with my husband, who managed to fire me without even being my boss.
My inner critic makes me feel bad for bitching about Corrado, because I’m living much better than I was living with Mom in the shitty apartment that smelled like stale beer and cigarettes.
But living with him comes at the price of freedom. He’s called me an angel and a bird, and it’s fitting since he treats me like a winged creature in his cage. He decides when I get to play outside and when I must stay put. He decides everything.
When I signed the agreement with him, I didn’t know he was such a huge control freak and that he’d interfere in my life on all levels. I’m hoping that his jealousy means that he cares about me. I’m not sure where that will lead, but his giving a shit about me makes me feel less stupid for missing him when I don’t see him.
I wait a few minutes for the crowds to clear from Evans’s office before I walk in. Evans is sitting on the sofa, his head thrown back, a towel over his face, a bag of ice on top of it.
“Are you okay?” I ask. When I walked by, I didn’t see bruising on his face. When Corrado’s in a room full of people, it’s difficult to notice anyone or anything else. He’s a lighthouse, and I’m the boat finding my way to him.
Evans lifts his head, making the towel and the ice fall.
I gasp at the damage to his cheek and eye and rush to his side. “Oh my God, Henry.” His eye is swollen shut! I want to help, but when I sit by him and pick up the ice, he scoots to the edge of the sofa. “Stay away. I need my other eye.”
“Corrado left.”
“He might have left, but he installed cameras everywhere the day you started working and has been monitoring us ever since.”
I gape.
Evans nods. “It’s true.”
“That’s absurd. Are you sure?”
“Certain. He told me himself.”
“Is that even legal?”
Evans snorts. “No, which is why I’m having them removed. I don’t need multiple lawsuits, especially not from Chris over there, who’s been banging Nancy in accounting, and now Corrado is threatening to send the images to Chris’s wife.”
“This gets better and better. What else has he done?”
“Gotten you fired from my team.”
