Egotistically Yours by Hayley Faiman

Chapter Thirty-Three

BETHANIE

“Hello?”I greet after I slide my thumb along my phone’s screen and answer the UNKNOWNNUMBER.

Normally, I wouldn’t answer a number that was unknown, but Laurent is already ten minutes late to get me, so I hurriedly answer, in a panic, thinking that something has happened to him. The person’s voice that greets me is not his. Instead, it’s a voice recording, asking me if I would accept a call from Susan Astor, from prison.

I say yes, mainly because I don’t know what else to say. Do I tell her to fuck herself? Do I tell her to kick rocks? I’m not sure because at the end of the day she is Laurent’s mother. I’m sitting in the lobby of LoneSTAR Investments, Tucker in his car seat, waiting for Laurent who is late and Susan is on the other end of my phone.

This is officially the weirdest few days of my entire life and this moment is nothing but the icing on the cake.

“I hear you’re fucking my son,” she sneers.

Blinking, I swallow the lump in my throat, then I start to speak, but she’s faster than I am. She continues and as she speaks, I feel my heart slamming against my ribcage. It’s not enough that Cody informed me that Melody was at Laurent’s office yesterday, now Susan is planting seeds of doubt in my mind as well.

Doesn’t she know that I don’t need any more doubt? Doesn’t she realize that I’m already terrified of tomorrow, let alone five, ten, fifteen years from now? She doesn’t need to remind me or plant a damn thing, I already have all my own shit swimming around in my mind.

“Laurent deserves better than you,” she announces. “He needs someone who can be his partner, someone of equal standing and breeding. What he doesn’t need is someone who is completely and totally dependent on him.”

I want to tell her that I’m not dependent on anyone, but that’s a total and complete lie.

I am dependent on Laurent.

I don’t have my own place, I don’t make enough to completely support myself and Tucker if I worked anywhere else but Astor Investment.

Honestly, it’s a hell of a lot easier being with Laurent than doing it all on my own. I don’t think that I should be ashamed of that. We’re in a relationship, that’s what being in a relationship is.

“I am dependent on him, but I also work full time at my own job. It’s not as if I do nothing,” I explain, though I’m not quite sure why I feel the need to explain anything to this woman.

I saw what she tried to do to Tennessee and I know that she would do this to me a million times worse. It was only a matter of time before she came after me and now that time has come.

Susan Astor is a mean bitch, she’s vindictive, and cruel too. Prison won’t stop her, nothing will stop this woman from attempting to get what she wants, whatever that is. And right now, she wants me out of Laurent’s life.

“If you choose to stay, then you’ve made your decision.”

“I have,” I snap.

My anger and irritation rising with her threats. I don’t know who she thinks she is, but she’s not going to do anything to me. If Laurent wants to walk away, I’m not forcing him to stay. Hell, I’m not even pressuring him to marry me. I’m fine with living together and being committed to one another for the rest of our lives.

“Then don’t be upset when you suffer the consequences.”

The call ends and I stare at my dark screen, then I decide that yeah, I will suffer the consequences. Whatever those are, I’m fine with it, because I’m not going to change my life, take my son out of his father’s life, for a threat.

However, this threat makes me wonder if she’s somehow sent this man to stalk me. Maybe he is the consequence? Maybe his threats are what she’s talking about. Maybe she’s going to let him loose on me. Whatever the case, I don’t care. She can do her worst. I’ll survive and not only that, Tucker and I will thrive.

The door to LoneSTAR Investments opens and I look up to see if it’s Laurent. Smiling, I watch as he walks toward me. He doesn’t meet my smile with one of his own, instead, he is frowning as he walks swiftly toward me.

“Laurent?” I ask.

He shakes his head once, then reaches for Tucker’s car seat. “We’re going out to dinner,” he growls.

“Laurent?” I snap.

His eyes lift to mine and he blinks. He watches me for a moment, then he clears his throat. “I had a really bad day at work,” he confesses.

Standing, I lift my arm and wrap my fingers around the side of his neck, squeezing him gently. His eyes stay connected to mine, then he searches my gaze with his. “Baby,” he murmurs.

Shaking my head, my lips curve up into a grin. “I had a beautiful lunch and coffee delivered to me. Thank you for that,” I breathe.

His lips curve up into a grin. “Yeah, you deserve more.”

Laughing, I rise to my toes and touch my lips to his. “I don’t, but I love that you think that of me. Let’s just go home,” I exhale.

He grunts, then he nips my bottom lip. “Yeah, let’s do that. We’ll get some takeout.”

Wordlessly, we walk to the car, but I know that something is up. He came into the building with something on his mind, something bothering him. I can tell, but I don’t want to talk about it here, not now. Maybe later, maybe never. I just want to go home to our bubble, where all of this shit doesn’t affect us.

Except, it does.

It knocks on our door, it calls us on the phone and I hate it. Every damn second of it.

LAURENT

Grabbing takeout,we head home. Tucker starts to get restless by the time I pull into the garage, but otherwise he, as always, is a trooper. Gathering the food bags, and Tucker, we head toward the elevator and let out a sigh as the doors close and it starts to climb up toward the penthouse floor.

I need to tell Bethie about my visit with Melody, about Zara, and then about my mother. It’s never fucking ending and I have a feeling that this shit is going to get worse before it goes away.

Once we’re up in the apartment, I plate the food while Bethie feeds Tucker. Once the table is set, she is finished and I slip him from her arms and hold him so that she can eat before it gets cold.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” she asks after she’s taken a few bites of her salad.

Picking up my wrap sandwich, I take a bite and chew, thinking about what I’m going to say. Honest to fuck, I don’t want to tell her any of it. Not a single fucking part, but I know that I need to.

“I had to let Zara go today,” I say.

Her eyes widen and she sucks in a breath. I don’t want to tell her why, but I know that I need to. There’s just no getting out of it. Clearing my throat, I continue.

“She started coming on to me. Started dressing differently, acting differently. I had to let her go. She would walk into my office, lock the door and try…”

I don’t continue. I can see the color has drained from Bethie’s face. She’s no longer eating, her fork suspended in the air.

“You fired her?”

“Called HR, called security. It’s done. She was trying to blackmail me. I think she was influenced by my mom, maybe? I’m not sure, I just know that she was becoming a problem and I need to focus on work, on us, on Tucker. I cannot worry about her, Cody, Melody, and my life here. I needed to eliminate one issue and she was that issue.”

“Melody.” Bethie’s eyes narrow and she puts her fork back on the plate. “Let’s talk about that,” she snaps.

I find it odd that she doesn’t want to know exactly what happened with Zara, but she’s apparently moved on. I’m not sure that I have, but I don’t dwell. I have bigger things to worry about. I’m sure that this isn’t the last I’ll hear from Zara, but I can’t worry about the other shoe until it actually drops.

“She showed up at my office,” I say.

Bethie smirks. “Yes, I know.”

“You do?” I ask.

She hums. “Cody paid me a visit,” she states.

“Oh, did he? And what the fuck did he want?”

Bethie clears her throat. “He made it clear that Melody was at your office, doing what? I don’t even want to imagine.”

“Nothing. She was doing nothing but making an ass of herself. I sent her on her way pretty much immediately.”

Bethie’s expression doesn’t change, the color doesn’t come back to her cheeks. She watches me and I’m not sure if she believes me or not. I’m leaning toward no, and as much as I want to get mad, I can’t. I’ve given her no reason to trust me. I’ve done nothing to make her distrust me since we’ve been back together, but I did plenty the first time we were seeing one another.

“Did he touch you?” I demand.

She looks down at her plate, then slowly lifts her gaze to meet mine. Then she starts to talk and all of the blood rushes throughout my body, but it’s no longer in my head. I can’t think, I can’t see, and for a moment I forget where I even am and that I’m holding Tucker.

“He caged me against the wall. He kissed me, but not deeply. He said that his goal was to have you hand me over to him as a courtesy for fucking Melody.”

Standing. I walk over to the bouncer in the living room and gently set Tucker down. I strap him in tightly, then I straighten and make my way toward Bethie. She is watching me, her face still without color, her eyes wide and her lips parted. She tilts her head back, her eyes widening even more.

Lifting my hand, I cup her cheek and I slide my thumb across her bottom lip. That lip that another man touched with his mouth. My lip. Not his, not anybody else’s. Mine. Clearing my throat, I lean down and touch my lips to hers.

“Never again,” I whisper against her mouth. “Never again.”

I’m going to take care of Cody. This shit ends right fucking now. He brought it not only to my front door, but he’s stepped too fucking far over the threshold.

No more.