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“Yeah, it is one of the biggest and most expensive builds I have done. The quality of it is amazing. Okay, I’ve got to run. Are you all good with everything else?”
“All good. Thanks, Griffin,” I say before we end the call, and I grab my pen and continue taking notes like a madwoman so I don’t forget anything from our conversation. I then spend the next hour sourcing products online that I know will take a long time to get here, like the soft rugs from Switzerland that I plan to have on the floor in front of the open fireplace and the chandeliers from Austria that I know will sparkle at nighttime, giving both an elegance and a feminine touch to balance out the large spaces.
Hearing a car pull up outside, I lift my arms, stretching out the kinks in my back from sitting for far too long before I get up and go to the front door. I am already smiling as I step out, assuming it is Tanner, but my smile drops and my mouth gapes as soon as I see who it is.
“Josh?” I ask, dumbfounded as he hops out of a black sedan in his suit, holding a large bouquet of red roses. The bunch is large, ostentatious, and months ago, it would have had me breathless at their beauty, but now they just make my skin crawl and I swallow bile.
“Hey, Victoria,” he says with a wide smirk, puffing out his chest.
“What are you doing here?” I ask incredulously. He’s here. In my space. Uninvited.
“I told you the other week I wanted to come and see you.” He looks confused, like he wasn’t expecting a frosty reception.
“But how did you know where my place even was?” I removed all locations from my social media, and I know Fiona wouldn’t have told him.
“I asked around. Pretty easy to find, actually. I just had to ask for Marie’s place,” he says, and I internally curse.
“But what are you doing here? We are over. Have I not made that clear enough?” I state, my shock now giving way to anger.
“I came to beg for you to come back. I miss you. We were good together. I want you back in the city with me.”
I frown as I look at him.
“Why? What happened to Natalie?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest, as I have absolutely no intentions of going back to him or the city. He takes a step closer to me, and instinctively, I take a step back.
“I love you, Vic. It's always been you. You are the one for me.” He says the right words, yet the way they fall from his mouth sounds deceiving.
“Not when you fuck someone else, I’m not,” I tell him straight, not falling for his bullshit.
“I’m sorry. It was one time, a stupid mistake. Everyone is asking when you are coming home.”
I tilt my head in confusion.
“Everyone?” Fiona is the only person I am still in contact with back in the city and she hasn’t said anything.
“George, Trevor. The guys.”His bosses.
“Oh yeah, what are they saying?” I ask, trying to understand what is happening here because I know there is an ulterior motive. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t take care of me. He has never put my needs first, never looked after me when I was sick, never supported my dreams of design. He never took an interest in me at all.
“They just want to see you again, that's all.”Weird. I met them a few times, but we are not friends.
“I’m not coming back, Josh,” I tell him calmly. After Griffin saying there could be other jobs, I am excited to have Whispers as my home now.
“Fuck it, Victoria!” he yells, jolting me as he throws the flowers down on the ground, his pleasant façade now all gone. This is a new side to him I haven’t seen before. “You need to come home. Now,” he grits out to me, and my eyes thin.
“Why?” I push him, knowing something is not right. I want to know his motive.
“I might miss that promotion,” he says, seething.
“Promotion?” The penny drops. “Ah, so your bosses want to see me before you get your promotion?”
He remains silent, his teeth grinding together almost comically.
“I’m right, aren’t I? They won’t give you a promotion unless you showcase that you are on your way to happily married bliss. Shit, why didn’t I see this earlier,” I say, chuckling to myself. I am such an idiot. “That is why you proposed New Year’s Eve, isn’t it? In front of all your bosses. Not because you loved me, but because you need to portray a happily married life in order to get your VP status at work.”
He may work on Wall Street, but the company he works for is very family oriented and they have a clean public image that I suspect they want to keep.
“I’ll pay you,” he says, and I huff another laugh before extreme anger overtakes me. The nerve of this man.
