by Parker, Ali
“Weeks?” Tiana echoed, her voice as hushed and trembling as mine. She came to stand next to me and looked over my shoulder as I examined the photos one by one.
“This was taken the night of our first dinner out.” I narrated for Tiana’s sake and because saying it out loud made me shake out of the haze of fear settling like a scratchy old scarf around my neck and shoulders. “And this one is of us talking in the car one night when he dropped me off.”
I kept going, staring incredulously as at least a half a dozen more images of Jeremiah and I and of me alone made my knees weak and my legs numb. “The gala. Going into his apartment building on Friday night. Leaving Saturday morning.”
“Holy creepy crackers on toast,” Tiana whispered, taking the pictures from me one after the other to study them herself. “I know I said it before, but what the fuck?”
“It’s Jannie,” I said quietly, swallowing bile creeping up at the back of my throat. “It has to be her.”
“The crazy ex-secretary?” Tiana asked. She reached for the envelope and stuffed the pictures back inside. “We should call the cops. She practically assaulted you at the office, and now she’s delivering pictures of intimate moments between you too. How does she even know where you live?”
My skin felt like it had bugs crawling all over it. Nausea threatened to overwhelm me. “I don’t know. She must’ve gotten our address from someone she still knows in HR at Williams Inc. Or maybe she just followed me from there. She for sure has been following us, though I don’t know how she knew which mailbox was mine.”
We rented our mailboxes separately, and each one only had a tiny plaque with its number on it. Not our names or even our apartment numbers. Tiana shuddered, putting her arms around my shoulders. “Let’s go upstairs and call the cops. They’ll know what to do.”
Numb as I was, I shook my head. “I’ll bring all these to work in the morning and show Jeremiah. He’s already got building security on her. It’s not against the law to send someone mail. I think going to the cops right now will just waste our time.”
Doubt colored Tiana’s eyes, but she nodded. “Okay. It’s your call. Are you sure you want to wait until the morning? I could go over there with you now.”
“No, it’s a Sunday night. Nothing’s going to happen until tomorrow morning anyway. He has a big meeting with his father first thing, but he needs to know. I’ll talk to him about it before.”
“Okay, as long as you’re sure.” She squeezed my shoulders before she let them go. “Let’s go dance out some of the adrenaline from the shock.”
“You go ahead, I’m not up to it right now.” If I had to jump around and dance, no one in my immediate vicinity would be safe from the sick feeling rolling around my belly. “I’ll throw up on people if I try.”
“I understand,” she said, linking our elbows together as she started heading back upstairs. “How about a hot bath with all your salts and potions in it?”
That sounded much better, though I knew nothing was going to be enough to take this feeling away completely until I spoke to Jeremiah about it. “Sure. You better shower first though, I don’t plan on getting out until the water’s gone cold and there’s no more hot water to add.”
“We never went to dance class, so I’m good on the shower. Stay in the bath as long as you like. I’ll find a movie for us to watch for when you get out.”
“Thank you,” I said sincerely as we walked back into our apartment. After making sure our door was locked, bolted and the chain was on, I went to run my bath. While I waited for the water level to be high enough to get in, I added all my magic relaxation ingredients and tried to focus on the heavenly scent instead of the envelope now lying on our kitchen counter.
I couldn’t help thinking back to all those nights in the photos no matter how hard I tried not to. Then I remembered the creepy feeling I got the other night when I was standing outside waving as he drove away.
What if that was because Jannie had been there? Watching. Waiting… But waiting for what, exactly?
Chapter 41
JEREMIAH
“Good morning,” I said as Stephanie walked up to my car, handing her a takeout coffee I stopped for before going to her apartment. It wasn’t homemade with special stuff I thought she might like, but it was a blend she mentioned loving once.
She looked pale and barely met my eyes as she gave me a tight smile. “Hey. Good weekend?”
“I preferred the first half to the second,” I said, hoping for a real smile or a blush or just about any of her usual reactions. But I got nothing. She buckled up and kept a huge black leather purse hugged to her chest.
Sliding into my seat, I turned to look at her before even starting the engine. Something was going on with her, and I needed to know what it was. If this was how she looked because she regretted Friday night, I would never forgive myself.
She tried covering it up with make-up, but now that I was so close to her I could see light blue bags under her eyes. It didn’t look like she’d gotten a wink of sleep. Her eyes were devoid of any of the amusement or joy that usually radiated out of them from within.
They were flat, her movements lethargic. I reached for her hand, but she yanked it away. Her eyes darted nervously to the sidewalk. What the fuck was going on?
“What’s wrong, Steph?” I asked cautiously, wondering if I would be able to arrange for her to be transferred to Neil if she didn’t want to work for me anymore. She deserved a great job at the company, not a boss she couldn’t stand seeing after what happened between us. Fuck. I thought we were good, I thought—
“It’s uh, you might want to wait until later when you have some time at the office,” she said, her voice as flat as her eyes.
“No. I’d like to know now. There’s enough time.” The red lights on my center console told me there was less than an hour before my meeting with my father. But something was off with Stephanie, and I needed to know what it was. “Are you okay?”
Tears glistened in her eyes, but they didn’t fall. She took in a shaky breath and opened her purse. “I found something in my mailbox last night.”
Drawing out a large white envelope, I noticed her hand shaking when she wordlessly handed it over. The word WHORE on the front jumped out at me immediately. I knew, I just knew it was from Jannie.
Stephanie watched as I pulled the envelope open and shook out the pictures inside. I stilled when I realized what I was looking at, then my blood started heating. The longer I looked, the more pissed off I got.
Red spots blurred my vision by the time I was done flipping through the photos. I dragged in a breath and held it, willing myself to calm down. I couldn’t believe Jannie had gone this far.
I felt like I would be able to rip her limb from limb with my bare hands. If she was a man, I might’ve tried.
But stalker or not, I wouldn’t go after a woman. Never. I waited for the rage to subside, choosing to focus on a logical way forward instead. “I’m going to go to the police with this. I’ll give them the photographs and report Jannie for stalking both of us.”
I could handle myself with her threats and outrageous behavior, but I was concerned for Stephanie. Reaching for her hand again, I was beyond relieved when she let me take it this time. “I’m so sorry about this, Steph. I feel guilty as hell about it. You shouldn’t have to deal with this insanity, and it kills me to know it’s my fault that you do.”
She gave me a small smile, some of the familiar humor lighting up her eyes. “Yeah, well it was worth it.”
“Worth it?” I asked. “Really?”
Her cheeks turned bright red, but she nodded and then looked out of the window quickly. “Really.”
Well, what do you know? “Anytime.”
She stifled a giggle and pulled her hand free from mine, her eyes firmly fixed on anything but mine. Steph’s fear and anxiety seemed to subside as we drove. Her posture and jaw relaxed, and her eyes softened.
I wanted to jump for joy. I would stand by her
for whatever, but if I could have it my way, she would always be radiantly happy. She deserved to be.
The ride to the office was quieter than usual, but it was a comfortable silence. The envelope lay between us, both of us ignoring its existence. I told Steph about my Sunday afternoon with my friends, leaving out the parts where I told them about what happened with her and their opinions about my father.
She laughed at our jokes and was almost back to herself by the time we got to the office. Unfortunately, our storms for the morning weren’t behind us yet.
The air was tense on our floor when we got off the elevator. As soon as we got close to the office, I knew why. My father was yelling at someone, whether it was at an employee or someone on the phone I was yet to find out.
Steph and I exchanged a glance, and I flashed her a reassuring smile, hoping she could see the resoluteness in my eyes. I wouldn’t let him bash her or put her down anymore. Those days were over. For good.
She stayed by my side until we got to our offices, whispering in my ear before she headed to her desk. “Good luck, I’ll pray for safe passage for your soul.”
I chuckled softly despite her very apt description that I was about to pass into hell. Just as I was about to walk through my door, my father yelled out from inside. “This concerns both of you.”
Stephanie’s shoulders sagged, and the corners of her mouth turned down. “I guess we should go in there.”
“Don’t listen to a word he says, okay? Just let me do the talking.” After our blowout the day before, I had a pretty good feeling what this was about.
As soon as I walked into my office, I realized it was about more than that. He was furious, practically foaming at the damn mouth as he waved a picture around in the air. “You immature fucking child!”
I was taken aback by the animosity and hostility in the voice. Beyond furious, I was afraid he might burst a blood vessel if he didn’t get himself together. “Calm down, Dad. You and I can talk about this. Let Steph get to work.”
Ignoring me completely, he pulled out his phone and started paging through pictures on it as he held it up to me. His hands were shaking too badly from his rage for me to see clearly, but it looked like he had the same pictures Jannie sent to Stephanie.
“How dare you?” He seethed, eyes black and unforgiving as they locked on mine. “You’re still pulling all the same shit you always have.”
“I’m not, I’m—”
“You’re fucking your secretary, that’s what you are. I mean really, Jeremiah. We’ve all had our little trysts with the help when we were young, but you’re not a fucking child anymore. Even if your actions beg to differ. I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again, it’s time for you to grow up.”
I felt rather than saw Steph tense beside me. Both of us knew the reason he wanted her to witness this showdown was still coming. Every part of me begged and itched to reach out to her, to protect her from his callous words and harsh untruths. I held back only because I knew it would only make it worse.
If I paid any attention to her right now, he would lay into both of us twice as hard. As it was, I knew he saw me looking at her from the corner of my eye to check on her. The disgusted sneer on his face when he noticed sickened me.
A vein in his temple pulsed as his eyes cut from mine to hers and back again. The lines and ridges on his skin looked sharp suddenly, matching his cold gaze. It made him look like he could rip someone to shreds.
“You’re in the eye of the public at all times, son,” he said, jerking his head in Steph’s direction. For the first time since we walked into the room, he looked at her. His gaze traveled down the length of her delectable body, and his top lip curled up as if he smelled something vile.
“You would do well to remember your choices reflect on this family, this company. You can do better than the likes of her. Do you really want the public to think we’ve lost our goddamn minds? That’s what they’re going to think if they see you with her, that pressure and grief turned you certifiable.”
A sharp stinging pain hit me in the heart. I had another fleeting thought back to scheduling a visit with Dr. Adams, but now was hardly the time. Stephanie was shaking next to me, doing everything she could not to cry.
Fat tears balanced on her eyelids, and her hands were fisted behind her back. She kept swallowing and pressing the corners of her mouth together. She was hurt by what my father had said.
And she had every right to be. He carried on with his rant, telling me again how embarrassed he was when someone called him after the fundraiser to ask who my new girlfriend was. Reiterating that I had responsibilities that extended beyond what my dick wanted. Then he started yelling about how stupid I was to have allowed photos to be taken of me with someone who looked like Steph.
The strangest sense of calm took hold of me as he ranted. A cool serenity that allowed me to listen but feel totally detached from what he was saying. It was like a shield went up in front of me, I only wished I could extend it to Stephanie.
Fighting my father’s fire with fire wasn’t going to work as a first option, as tempted as I was to start slinging mud back at him. It was like the calm before the storm settled over me. I could still feel the storm brewing deep inside though, waves crashing and angry currents churning right below the surface.
“It’s time to grow a pair, Jeremiah. I won’t stand for this. What if these photos appear on a front page tomorrow? Do you have any idea what kind of damage that would do?”
“It won’t do any damage,” I said, grabbing hold of the serenity like a damn life raft. I was going to need it if I had any hope of getting through to him. “The pictures were taken by Jannie, my former secretary. The one you fired.”
“How do you know? They could’ve been sent from anywhere.” He thrust his hands out to his sides. “It doesn’t really matter where they’re from anyway. Their very existence confirms that you haven’t grown up or out of your selfish ways at all.”
“Stephanie and I are being stalked by an ex-employee of this company,” I said, breathing through the anger threatening to break the surface. “She has invaded our privacy, and I expect the company will take the appropriate steps in assuring Stephanie’s safety as well as our privacy going forward.”
“Your privacy?” He spat. “Fuck your privacy. If you’d done what I told you to do in the first place, none of this would be—”
I interrupted him, speaking through gritted teeth as I desperately fought to maintain the fast- diminishing calm I felt before. “Our privacy was invaded by her taking those photographs and again when she sent them to you. Would you please delete whatever is on your phone and give me the hard copies?”
His gray, uncharacteristically unruly eyebrows jumped to his receding hairline. “Hand them over? Absolutely not.”
I sighed internally, readying myself for the battle I knew was coming. The calmness that allowed me to give him a chance to have his say all but evaporated, leaving me with an almost overwhelming urge to clock my father and the most intense need to protect Steph from him—no matter what it took.
Chapter 42
STEPHANIE
Each word out of Jance’s mouth cut into my soul like a Japanese sushi knife. Tiana once told me the sharpest knives in the world were made by the Japanese. I hated that what he said had the power to hurt me so badly, but it did.
When he was ignoring me or making comments about me before, I could handle it and lie low. With him attacking me verbally and belittling me to Jeremiah right in front of me at every turn, I couldn’t ignore him anymore.
What he was saying was true. A girl who looked like me didn’t belong on Jeremiah’s arm by any rational standard, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter to him. He’d proven to me that he thought I was sexy and beautiful, and I was just starting to see myself that way in his eyes. Until his father came and tore it all down.
I wasn’t a hag, but the way the man was carrying on anyone listening in might’ve guessed Jeremiah showed up to
the fundraiser with Fiona the ogre on his arm. The fundraiser, the memories so precious to me because Jeremiah made me feel like absolute royalty, were being ruined.
I’d never felt more beautiful than I had on Friday. If he didn’t think I was good enough for Jeremiah when I looked like that, he was never going to give me his blessing. Which shouldn’t have bothered me. None of this should’ve.
I was a strong, independent girl, and fuck what any man with one foot hovering above the grave thought about me. But I couldn’t just shrug it off. I was mortified hearing what Jance said about me, and every word lodged itself in my heart. It hurt like a bitch, and it wasn’t going to stop hurting when I walked out of here.
Jeremiah’s outer office door burst open, and Neil stormed inside. “What on earth is going on in here? I was called out of my office because of the commotion. People can hear you. You both need to calm down.”
“Need?” Jance roared, not hearing any of it. “I’ll tell you what I need, and it’s not to calm down. This is my company, and I’ll say what needs to be said.”
Jeremiah’s demeanor changed, as I’d noticed it doing the last few minutes. Heat crept up from below his shirt’s neckline and was bleeding slowly onto his face. His muscles tightened, and his spine straightened.
“Say it then, father. What is it that needs to be said? Might as well get it all out now.” His voice was cold as ice and laced with poison and fury all at the same time. It kind of made me want to take cover for the inferno I knew instinctively was coming even though I’d never seen him like this.
Jance didn’t seem to notice the change in him, or if he did, he chose to ignore it. His face was so red it was turning purple, and his eyes seemed to be on the verge of popping out. “You arrogant son of a—”
“Be careful father, don’t make this any worse than it has to be,” Jeremiah snapped. The changes in him made him seem even more in control, more confident and commanding than usual.
