by Melissa Shaw
“Not anymore,” Emily answered, then turned and strolled to the door. “I’ll be seeing you soon. Real soon.”
CHAPTER FOUR
She gripped her smartphone to her chest and sucked in air through her nose. She’d copied the video confession onto her external hard drive, stored into in the cloud and written it to several DVDs.
The one on her phone was for him.
Emily had to do this, even if he didn’t want to see her again. The romance was probably gone, but he had to know that it wasn’t her! She hadn’t destroyed his life, or changed it forever, or…
No. She had to calm down.
Emily massaged her chest and sighed a couple times.
She knocked on the rich wood door of Chase’s apartment and tapped her left foot.
The locks drew back and he opened up. He was flawless as usual in a V-necked sweater and slacks, but his jaw clenched immediately.
“What do you want?”
“We need to talk, Chase, there are a couple things you don’t know.”
“I don’t have time for this.” He inched the door closed and she slammed her palm onto it, the frustration building in her gut. He had to listen to sense this time and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“You don’t have time for the truth?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head, that brown do – the one she’d fallen for – flopping along with the motion, “I don’t have time for you. Besides, when were you ever acquainted with the truth, Emily Ross?”
“Don’t call me that!” She hissed it, then took a deep breath to calm herself. There was a base level of anger which had appeared the minute she’d discovered Brian’s true betrayal. It thrummed along with her heartbeat, waxing or waning according to the surroundings.
“Go away, Emily.”
“Please, don’t make me beg for a minute of your time. I think you owe me at least a minute to –”
“I owe you?” Chase scoffed, knuckles turning white from the intensity of his grip on the doorjamb and the wooden door itself. “I owe you?!”
Emily pressed her lips together and stretched her neck upwards. He was much taller than her. “Yes.”
“I owe you nothing!” He yelled it and a woman at the far end of the hall jumped, fumbling with her keys. Sunday mornings weren’t made for arguments, especially on the top floor of this building.
“Chase, this will change your perspective completely,” she said, then thumbed the screen of her phone – newly bought – and raised it so he could watch the confession, but he turned away and walked back into the apartment.
Emily paused the video. This wouldn’t be easy, but it would be worth it. It better damn well be.
She had the evidence she needed to bring Brian down and publicly dishonor him, but Chase had to know the truth first. His emotions, his needs, were more important than the burning lust for revenge in the pit of her soul.
She was alive for that revenge, she craved Brian’s total destruction. Bastard had nearly destroyed her. Stripping, coke, fucking Big Nick and his issues, Isis, all of it!
“Are you coming inside?” Chase called out and her heart leapt into her throat. The need for him was back, an old friend she’d missed for what seemed years.
“Yes,” she replied, and strode in, squaring her shoulders. “But are you going to listen to what I have to say?”
Chase sat back on that couch and her mouth went dry. The memories of them on that couch, of Janet’s interruption, of Chastity’s, melded into a blur of pain.
He’d been right before. They were meant to be.
“I don’t know.” He sighed, showing a small sign of weakness – unlike him, maybe he was under pressure at work or something.
“A lot of stuff has happened between us, Chase, I know you don’t want to see me, but I have to talk to you about this for you, more than for me.” That wasn’t entirely true. A small part of her wanted to believe that he’d want her back.
“You’re right, a lot of stuff has happened.” He sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “A lot has changed.”
There was a warning in his tone, but she didn’t heed it. “I have to show you this.” Emily hurried over to him, pumps clicking on the floor, then muffled by the carpet. She held out the phone and he reached to take it from her.
“Hey, baby, I’m home.” Janet stopped a few feet from the front door and stared at Emily, skin turning the color of a rotten tomato. “What the hell are you doing here, bitch?”
“Easy,” Chase said, pointing at her.
Emily glanced from him to her and back again, then slowly retracted the phone. “I was just here to show Chase a really interesting video. Maybe you’d like to take a look too.” Emily flashed a wicked smile at the other dance instructor, finger hovering over her phone’s screen.
“That’s wonderful, sweetheart, but nobody has time for your lies.” Janet plopped a brown paper shopping bag on the kitchen counter and strolled to the couch. She sank onto Chase’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
There was an engagement ring on her finger. The diamond was big enough to crack through the hull of the Titanic.
“What’s that,” she whispered, pointing at it, horror mingling with that dread anger. “What the fuck is that?”
“What’s it look like, doll?” Janet twiddled her fingers.
“We’re engaged,” Chase rumbled, then stroked Janet’s freckled shoulder. He didn’t smile, he didn’t let on any emotion at all. There was a void behind Chase’s eyes, and Emily had created it. That was the only explanation.
She’d broken them with her omission. She’d destroyed their future with her lie.
Emily swallowed several times. This was pointless then, what would it matter if she told him the truth about Brian or the accident? Or even that Janet had cheated with the very man he did business with?
She turned from them so they wouldn’t see the tears, then left Chase Newman’s apartment for the last time.
Emily was done.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I came as quick as I could,” Joseph said, bustling in with a bottle of red in one hand a bouquet of roses in the other. “What’s happened?”
Emily swept the tears from under either eyelid with her fingers, and glared at the red wine. She’d had just about enough of alcohol for a lifetime, and she certainly didn’t need her guard down with Joseph.
He waited for an answer, but she gestured over her shoulder towards the kitchen without a word. Joseph popped the cork, poured himself a glass and came over to the sofa. He perched on its edge and gave her his undivided attention.
Emily stared straight ahead. She shouldn’t have called him but she needed an ear, someone who actually cared about her. There weren’t many of those people hanging around, so this was it for her. Joseph was her only friend.
“Come on, baby, talk to me,” he said, stroking her knee.
Emily gave him a look and he retracted the caress. “Don’t call me that, Joseph.”
“That’s fine, you’re upset, I understand. Let’s talk about, Emily, open up to me,” he said, willing her with a crescendo in his tone.
“It’s Chase,” she said, leaning back and glancing out the window. The sun had set, and a coolness spread through the air. A gentle breeze shifted the blinds and they rattled against the top of the frame.
“Chase,” he repeated, stiffening beside her. His grip on the wine glass was claw-like.
“Yes.”
“Will we never be rid of dearest Chase Newman?” Joseph whispered, melodramatic as always. “Chase Newman and his chiseled pecs and his billions to throw around. Chase Newman who doesn’t –”
“Stop it,” Emily commanded and Joseph snapped his mouth shut. That was the problem with him. He could bitch and moan about Chase as much as he wanted, but the bald-faced fact remained: Chase Newman was a man. He didn’t take orders from anyone.
“What did Chase do this time, Emily? Or rather, what did you let him do to you?”
<
br /> She met his gaze and narrowed her eyes. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Language, please Emily,” he replied, mock-covering his ears with that wine glass still in his hand. A bit of wine sloshed over the rim and stained the cuff of his cotton shirt.
“Oh grow a pair, Joseph. Did you come to correct me or to help me?”
“Tell me what’s happened,” he said, softening slightly but still with an expression like he’d just been smacked with a rotten fish.
“He’s engaged to Janet. He’s properly engaged to Janet, I saw the ring and everything.”
“That’s the one with the blonde hair?” Joseph’s eyes lit up and she raised an eyebrow.
“No, the redhead with the, uh, the freckles,” she said, gritting her teeth slowly. She’d grind them to nubs if she carried on this way, but Janet brought that side out in her.
“Ew, why would he want to marry her?” Joseph’s answer came in a girlish squeak. “She was a bit of an alcoholic wasn’t she? I mean, she was pretty drunk when last we saw her.”
That was rich coming from him. And what was with the whole ‘we’ thing? Since where were they a ‘we’?
“I don’t know why, but they’re engaged.”
“And it upset you,” Joseph said, then glugged back a few sips of wine.
Emily didn’t grace that with a reply. Joseph knew what Chase meant to her, the connection they’d had. There was nothing he could say to make it better, but having someone around would help a little. At least, she hoped it would.
“I had the answers on the tip of my tongue, all the reasons and I couldn’t tell him because of her. He’s given up totally.” Emily spoke in a monotone, staring at the blank TV screen this time. “But what did I expect, you know? He thinks I killed his parents.”
“You’ve got the actual proof?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it. I wanted to give Chase the news first, so that he’s not blind-sided by it when he’s connected with Brian. I mean, the press will have a field day with it and he’ll be thrown into the limelight.”
“Is that such a bad thing?”
“Yeah, it’s a bad thing! Would you want sudden attention after none?” Emily sat forward and crossed her legs beneath herself.
“That’s not the real reason you’re upset. You could’ve told him with his fiancé there.”
“Don’t call her that,” Emily snapped, then bit her lip to hold back the anger.
“That’s what she is, Emily,” he said, then stroked her knee again. “You’ve got to let go of the pressure of this.”
“What are you talking about?”
He scooched forward on the sofa and drew in close. “You’re pressing hard to absolve whatever guilt you have towards him and he’s done just as many bad things to you. He obviously doesn’t want you, or he’d have made an effort to resolve your issues.”
“It’s not like that, he thought I killed his parents.”
“So? He won’t take a second to consider the possibility that their might have been a mix up? If he really loved you, wouldn’t he give you the benefit of the doubt?”
He had a point and the tears spilled down Emily’s cheeks again. They traced a line of pain which was etched into her soul. Joseph brushed them away, then settled his hand on her cheek.
He brought his lips to hers and enveloped her in a warm, wet kiss.
There was no heat in it, but she responded, craving some kind of affection or care. She’d felt so alone for a while now, she’d never truly allowed anyone in.
She wanted this. But not with him.
“No,” she said, breaking away, “no, Joseph, I don’t want you like that. We’re just friends.”
He leapt to his feet and glared down at her.
“No wonder he doesn’t want you. You’re frigid.”
Joseph slammed the door on the way out.
CHAPTER SIX
“This is unexpected,” Chastity said, tone cold as ice, her gloved hand gripping the door handle hard. The fool knew he shouldn’t come to the apartment, even when Chase wasn’t in.
“I need to talk to you,” he said, shoulders drooping under the invisible pressure of whatever the hell had upset him. He was such a temperamental little boy, the furthest version of ‘man’ in her eyes.
“This is not a good time. He could be back at a moment’s notice. Why didn’t you contact me at the office? Or leave a message on my cell?”
“This is urgent, Chas, I don’t feel right about this.” Joseph crossed his arms behind his back and glanced up and down the hallway. They were in Chase’s building and he’d been told not to come here multiple times.
She dragged him indoors then locked up behind, drawing the bolt across in case her brother came home early.
“Do you want to destroy everything I’ve worked so hard to implement? What’s wrong with you, Joseph? Don’t you care about us?”
“You know how much I care, how much I’ve done for you!”
Chastity sighed and removed her gloves. “Then what’s the problem?” She dropped them on the kitchen counter and folded her arms.
“It’s not right to do this. I’ve collected the information you need, even stood in the way of Emily and Chase’s relationship, but it’s not worth it.”
He’d fallen for her, obviously. What was it about this Emily McDonald? What was it about her that made every man in a ten mile radius lose their mind?
“Not worth it,” she repeated, then slunk forward in her black silk dress, batting her heavily eye-shadowed lids at him. “You don’t believe we are worth it?”
Joseph swallowed and met her gaze, softening visibly, but then straightening and growing a back bone again. What had gotten into him? Perhaps the more apt question was whom had he gotten into?
“Have you betrayed me, Joseph?” She whispered it and drew her pale, thin fingers across his throat, then walking around him, tracing the line of his neck and blowing softly on the nape of it.
Goosebumps followed her caress and she smiled.
“I haven’t.”
“Did you sleep with Emily?”
“No, I didn’t.” But the reply wasn’t as vehement as it should’ve been.
“Do you want her, Joseph?” She leaned in and murmured it in his ear, then pressed herself up against his back. That was what he needed: hints and promises, a pretense of affection which she’d never follow through on.
“I – I –” He stammered it, then bowed his head and she withheld a snort of disdain. This idiot thought Emily wanted him, or that he could have her, or any number of facts which were falsehoods.
“You want her and not me?” Chastity slid her arms around to his front and gripped at his torso, increasing the pressure. The back of his neck turned red from the heat of it. “You owe loyalty to this woman who has no interest in you?”
“Chastity, it’s not like that with her, sometimes she shows me the real side, what she’d be like without the pressure and anger and it’s magical. She’ so amazing,” he gushed and rage coursed through her veins.
He’d ruin everything at this rate.
Chastity leaned forward and nibbled his ear lobe, gently. “She doesn’t know you like I do. She’ll never want you like I do.”
Joseph turned then and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You do want me.”
“Of course,” she lied, shifting against him. There was no man she wanted less. She didn’t even like men that much, but he didn’t have to know that.
“Then kiss me,” he whispered, puckering up. “Show me that you mean it.”
Chastity grimaced. This was not ideal. Yet, she needed him malleable and on her side – if he turned against her and went to Emily with the truth…
She pressed her lips to his briefly, then shimmied out of his grip before he could get any tongue in. This was definitely not ideal.
“Why don’t you kiss me back?” Joseph growled, displaying a first hint of strength, that simply wouldn’t do, and dropping his arms to his sides.
<
br /> “There’s too much at stake for us to get romantic now, dearest. What if Chase walks in and sees you here? What if Emily came over to see him, instead?”
“She’d never come here, she’s heartbroken over him,” he replied, the bitterness painted over his façade. Très triste, mon petit.
“Of course she would, dear, she’s head over heels for my brother,” Chastity spat out the last word.
“She’s not, she’s seen him for what he is.”
“You’re a fool if you truly believe that. She’s using you to get what she wants and as soon as she’s done with you, she’ll toss you aside.” Just as Chastity planned on doing, as well.
“Emily isn’t like that.” Joseph’s fists clenched and released, but his anger didn’t boil hotter than that.
“Then why are you here?”
He went silent, then turned away, strolling to the window to stare out over the city, the skyscrapers soaring in his view. “Why am I here,” he stated it.
“You already have the answer to that, Joseph.”
He spun on the spot. “Prove it. Prove you love me. Make love to me,” he said, and hopped over the couch, rushing to her side. He kissed her fingers, her hand, then up her arm and to her shoulder. “Make me your man.”
Chastity shuddered at the thought. He was not unattractive, but he was weak, a tool, not worthy of her attention.
“My brother will be home soon,” she replied, shrugging him off and gliding to the door. She opened it and gestured towards it. “Remember to get the copies of those files to me on Monday.”
Joseph left with his tail between his legs.
CHAPTER SEVEN
If he didn’t let her in, she’d threaten him properly this time.
Emily hadn’t taken the evidence to the police yet, she hadn’t done anything at all with confessions, but making those copies. There was a way to bring him down and discredit him, she just wasn’t one hundred percent on the method yet.
