The Crime of Protection

by Gloria Martin

  I heard Anna’s footsteps closely behind me, but I refused to look at her.

  “It’s you, you know?” I heard her say behind me, but I stubbornly continued to look everywhere else. “It’s always been you, he’s just too afraid to say so. He’s scared of hurting me, and making a scary leap of faith. I know that might not be enough for you, but I just wanted you to know.” My breaths became labored, but I still didn’t speak. “Anyway, I’m sorry for everything. This situation has made me act a little crazy. I hope you get it sorted out in the end.”

  And with that, I heard her footsteps fade away as we unhappily left one another’s lives forever.

  *****

  Epilogue

  Anna

  One year later…

  “Kevin?” I called across the hallway of my brand new apartment – a tiny place, but one that I loved with all my heart. “Are you ready to go out?”

  I’d been with Kevin for five months now, and my feelings showed no signs of fading. He was just so different to what I was used to. He was calm, considerate, honest, and dependable – everything I’d ever needed, even if I’d never known it. He was easy to be with, which was the main thing for me, after all I’d been through. There was nothing standing in our way – no brothers, no love triangle, no cheating, no lying .We could just be. That freedom felt so new, and good.

  It had taken me a long time to recover from what had happened with Brad and Logan – especially since that final argument, where I’d worked out that I was the bad guy, the one standing in the way of happiness – but we were all in a good place now.

  In hindsight, I could see that I’d brought all the upset from my time with Mike into the complication of us, which was why I’d allowed Logan’s hurt to get under my skin. It was why I had allowed myself to get into a pointless competition with him over a guy who – although very gorgeous – was completely wrong for me. He would never have been anything more than a fling, no matter who else had been in the picture. Even without the worry of Harry and the stress of Logan, we wouldn’t have made it long term. He was a rebound, a distraction, and now he was a great friend – so it really all worked out the way that it was supposed to.

  A few months after it had all happened, we’d decided to meet up, to go over things now that we’d all cooled down. I was happy to discover that Brad and Logan were now a fully-fledged couple, and still going strong – they were always meant to be. They were perfect for one another, and seeing them so in love had made me want that for myself once more.

  I could look back on that night now with a happy feeling. It was a good memory, in among all the bad stuff that had happened, and I enjoyed thinking about it. It was probably the only time I would ever act so crazily, and I was grateful that I’d had that experience. It was certainly something that I would never forget.

  “I’m ready, what time are we meeting the guys?” Kevin knew all about what had happened, and he was surprisingly okay with it. It was hard not to be, seeing how adorably in love they were. They were definitely no threat to us anyway, just as I wasn’t to them.

  We occasionally hung out as a foursome, and it was great. It may have been a long complex road to get there, but we were all happy now and that was all that mattered.

  As Kevin stepped into the room in a dashing blue suit, I felt my heart melt all over again for him. He was the most handsome man I’d ever laid my eyes upon – sandy blond hair, deep brown warm eyes, and a smile that made me weak at the knees. And on top of that, he supported my new fitness studio wholeheartedly, even though he was a banker who’d never even been for a run. We had a lot in common, but it was our differences that made us exciting. It gave us something to banter over.

  I was already pretty certain that Kevin would be the guy I would marry. Although, I hadn’t told him that yet…

  THE END

  Bonus Story 11/40

  Outlaws of Love

  It’s ridiculous how so many women can still be in love with their exes, no matter how bad or good they treated you in the past. I had a boyfriend of three years before he proposed to me. We never got married though, because he suddenly called everything off and moved away to New York. Without an explanation, without a goodbye. I was left there, hurting for five long months. The crying wouldn’t stop, no matter how hard I tried to restrain my tears. I thought that I could never bring myself to forgive him. Until he interfered with my life again.

  “Nathan...” I gasped. I’d opened the door to reveal the green-eyed beauty I was once in love with. Possibly still in love with. “What the hell are you doing here in California?”

  “I missed you, Melissa,” he immediately responded, sincerity reflected in his eyes. I shut my closed tightly, wanting to believe him, but I knew that he was just saying that. How could he come back five months later for a person he had dumped as easily as throwing out the trash at night? Before he knew it, my hand flew roughly across his face. Shock crossed his face, his hand now rubbing the cheek I have just slapped.

  “Go to hell!” I screamed angrily, balling my hands into fists beside me. He looked taken aback, astonishment flashing on his face. “I won’t let you hurt me again, you asshole!”

  He let out a sigh before throwing his hand up. “I’m not trying to hurt you. What I did was messed up, I’m aware of that.”

  “It’s way more than messed up, you son of a bitch,” I growled, glaring at him from under my eyelashes. He was holding up his hands in defense, unsure how to deal with my aggressive manner.

  “You think I don’t regret it? That’s why I’m back now! Come on, we can fix things. We can pick up where we left off.” He reached out his hand to stroke my cheek but I slapped his hand away.

  “Pick up things where we left off? You can’t just come back to someone you abandoned and expect everything to be okay the moment you reunite with them!” I yelled, waving my hands around frantically.

  ”Can I please come inside?” he questioned.

  Without giving him an answer, I slammed the door with tears welled up in my eyes. My heart was clenching with pain as I leaned against the wall, stunned. He opened the door, peeking his head inside at me with a worried expression before slowly letting himself in.

  “Please,” he pleaded, studying me cautiously to see if I would explode again. I didn’t say anything in return but just stared at him in betrayal and anger.

  He looked around my small, cozy apartment, while letting out a somewhat relieved breath. He took a seat on my nude couch. That’s when I noticed the outstanding Dior suit he was wearing, which made me stop myself from rolling my eyes. He was always one to show off.

  “Nothing has changed since I left, this place is exactly the same,” he said. He smiled slightly, his green eyes hopeful.

  I crossed my arms on my chest as I stood across the room from him, keeping my distance. I wiped away the tears that were lingering in the corner of my eyes. “What do you think was going to change, the shape of the walls or something?” I sarcastically remarked.

  This time, he let out an irritated breath, crossing his left leg over his right. He rubbed his temples. “Melissa, listen. I’m just trying to make amends here and you’re not making it any easier.”

  Amends? Did he really think it would be that easy? But unfortunately, I couldn’t ignore the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to take him in, to sit down and listen to the Nathan that was once going to be my husband. Giving in, I slowly found myself taking a seat next to him. Half of me wanted to jump on him and kiss him but the other half of me wanted him to leave and not come back.

  “This whole summer, while I was away from you, I could not stop thinking about our relationship,” he said. He paused, dryly laughing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I missed you so much to the point I had to move back. I just couldn’t stay away. I was stupid for leaving you. I should never have left you.”

  I nodded my head in agreement, shooting him an indifferent look. “It still doesn’t explain why you broke off our marriage,”
I spat, holding back the tears I can feel threatening to well up in my eyes. I couldn’t cry in front of him, I refused to.

  He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again, as if he changed his mind about saying anything. A regretful look appeared on his face as well as sympathy, and that’s when I kind of got a clue on what it was about. “I cheated on you with someone else and I ended up falling in love with that person.”

  I gawked at him for a long ten seconds before a hurt, cold laugh escaped my throat. Tears welled up in my eyes as he studied me closely and I quickly wiped them away before they could fall. All over again, my heart felt like it was getting ripped out of my chest and stomped on. I stood up from the couch, walking over to the kitchen to be away from him, so I could recollect himself. The sound of his Steve Madden dress shoes clacked against the ground as he followed me shortly after. I leaned my arm against the wall, looking down at my feet in defeat. In the wall, I could see the outline of his shadow as he stood behind me.

  “I was extremely dumb and I was going through a crisis at the time,” Nathan said, moving my black hair around my other shoulder so he could reassuringly rub my shoulder. “It…it’s just hard to explain. I promise I’ll tell you at another time.”

  I inhaled sharply before letting out a heavy, deep breath. It surely helped me calm down and restrain myself from bursting out in tears in front of his face.

  “There’s no explanation needed when it comes to cheating,” I whispered, balling my hands into fists.

  “I’m not saying that it was okay but—” He stopped, letting out a stressful breath and I can imagine him grabbing a handful of his hair. “Listen, I would tell you if I knew how to put it in words. Eventually, I’ll be able to know how to tell you properly.”

  What can possibly be so hard about admitting to the fact that he cheated? There shouldn’t be an explanation or a story. I shook my head, keeping quiet.

  He squeezed my shoulder gently, sending electric waves in every part of my body. He stroked my exposed shoulder blade agonizingly slowly, my heartbeat accelerating.

  He turned my body around so I could look at him, looking down at me with sincerity shown in his eyes. He was so good at lying that I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not. But I didn’t feel like debating with him any longer because he always won, no matter what. He made sure of it too, I don’t know how he did it.

  “Okay, fine,” I said. I sniffed my nose, crossing my arms on my chest. “But I want the whole truth. I want to know everything.”

  He smiled in relief, glad that I basically agreed to hear him out. It didn’t mean that he was forgiven though. I will never forget what he had done. But since love was such a powerful emotion, it was so easy for him to brainwash me and make me fall into his arms again.

  He pulled me into a warming tight hug, rubbing his hands around the small of my back. I instantly relaxed against his chest, closing my eyes as I inhaled the scent of his expensive cologne. I didn’t hug him back though, I just stood there frozen. He kissed the top of my forehead before releasing me, looking down at me since he was a few inches taller than me.

  “I’ll come by either tonight or tomorrow so we can go out to eat at this amazing restaurant I know. I have to get to a business meeting now,” he said, taking out his phone.

  Oh yeah, did I mention that he was a big time billionaire? After his father passed away a couple of years ago, the company was signed over to Nathan and he became in control of the whole corporation. Ever since then, he became such a busy man but that never interfered with our relationship. Actually, I had originally thought that his work was the reason he had abandoned me, but I guess I’d been wrong about that.

  “Tomorrow is fine, we can go out for lunch,” I agreed, walking with him so I could lead him out of the apartment. I didn’t want him to leave. I somewhat was fond of his company but there’s no way I was going to tell him that. At least not yet.

  He tidied up his blazer, brushing off invisible dust from it, and popped his collars. His rose gold Rolex watch shimmered with his movement that he made, making him even more attractive than ever. “That sounds great, Melissa,” he said. He smiled, opening the front door and turned to me again. “It was nice seeing you again.”

  “Yeah,” I replied as our eyes bored into each other. Something flashed in his eyes that I couldn’t quite comprehend but it was like I was looking at the Nathan from the past. Just as I realized this, he turned and walked down the corridor to leave.

  Later on at night, I couldn’t stop replaying Nathan’s shock visit in my head. The glint in Nathan’s emerald green eyes, the way his lips moved so perfectly, his soft, luscious dark brown hair pushed back. I felt pretty ridiculous thinking so hard about a guy that broke my heart as I laid in a bath full of bubbles with candles and a glass of champagne. I thought I was over him but I guessed incorrectly when I saw his face again. Something about him seemed different but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

  My phone rang from the surface next to me, breaking me out of my thoughts. I grabbed it and pressed it against my ear. “Hello?”

  A deep voice chuckled into the phone, making my eyes bulge out. It was Nathan’s brother, Jason. “I see my brother came back to California,” he said.

  “What do you want, Jason?” I asked him, alertly sitting up on the tub. This wasn’t a good thing that Jason was calling me after Nathan’s return, because that only could mean one thing...he told him.

  “I can’t call to check up on you?” he said, and laughed lightly. I rolled my eyes, taking a sip of my champagne. “Don’t worry kitten, I won’t tell him.”

  “Good because that’s supposed to stay only between us. We made a deal,” I growled through clenched teeth. Out of all the regrets I had, this was probably my top regret in the list.

  “I didn’t make a deal, you did,” he said. “I never said you had to. You decided on sleeping with me to keep your good spot in the corporation so, whose fault is that?”

  I cringed at myself when I had a flashback of us having sex on his office desk. But it hadn’t been my idea, he’d blackmailed me! I shook my head, holding onto my glass tighter.

  “You son of a bitch! My job was on the line, and I was so close to losing it because of the bullshit your wonderful brother put me through by taking off. That’s when you came to me with that proposal.”

  He laughed bitterly. “Okay, Melissa. Anyways, why are you worried about me telling him? It’s not like he’s in love with you anymore. You’re nothing but an ex-fiancée to him now.”

  I wanted to scream, I wanted to shout. I wanted to yell out everything I hated about Jason and how he was the only vile one in the corporation that I knew of. I should have known to not work in Nathan’s company but, I didn’t have a choice at the time. I was unemployed and in desperate need of a job and being the secretary saved me.

  “You know what, Jason? Screw you!” I exclaimed.

  “You already did. And enjoyed every second of it,” he whispered in a mocking tone, making my anger grow even more. That’s when I hung up the phone and slammed it back onto the surface. My heart was rushing from my rollercoaster of emotions and I just laid back into the bubbles to ease my mind. I couldn’t ignore the concern about Nathan finding out but would he really believe me or his brother? That was one question that I was scared to find the answer for. Anxious, I chugged the rest of the gold bubbly and relaxed my hair into the water as the tipsy was affecting me. I couldn’t let someone repulsive like Jason get to me.

  *****

  It was the day of my lunch date with Nathan. I dressed my best to set a good impression on him. I didn’t want him to think that I didn’t care about how I looked anymore. One of the main ways to get back at a man is to look good; everyone gets captivated by a pretty woman in a dress. His favorite color on a woman was blue so I wore a tight, navy blue dress that reached just above my knees with my shoulder-length black hair curled. I applied a thick coat of pink lipstick with light makeup and put o
n his favorite Chanel perfume that he’d bought for me a few months back. I looked great and hopefully, he would think so too.

  The car ride in his Range Rover to the restaurant was dead silent. We only made casual small talk like, ‘how was your morning?’ and so on. But other than that, I spent majority of the time looking out the window as I listened to my heart pound tremendously against my chest from his presence. This felt like the very first date all over again. I would have to impress him if I wanted to win him back.

  “You didn’t have to do this,” I told him, the wind whipping through my hair as we sped down the highway.

  He turned to me for a second before fixing his gaze back out on the windshield. “You didn’t have to agree. It’s not like I pointed a gun to your head and made you agree.”

  “True,” I weakly said.

  We pulled up to an Oceanside restaurant, which made my heart clench and flutter at the same time. I can tell from the dishes the waiters were serving that it was a highly expensive restaurant. Nathan escorted me to table with a good view of the harbor. The table was secluded.

  “This place is beautiful,” I gasped in awe, looking around as my curls whipped behind my shoulders. Nathan stared at me with a smirk, popping open the bottle of champagne with one movement before pouring it into two glasses.

  “I had to bring such a beautiful woman to such a beautiful place,” he flattered, making my heart skip a thousand beats. I let out a breathy laugh, turning my gaze onto the table nervously.

  After we ordered our lunches and made small talk, I decided to jump into a serious conversation. I sipped on my champagne before putting it down on the table. “So, when am I going to meet the lucky girl that stole you away from me?” I snapped, receiving an incomprehensible expression from him.

  “I’m no longer with this person, you know that right? I’m actually a single man.” He informed with a glint of hope in his emerald eyes, as if he was planning on that to change.