FIVE YEARS AGO
"Don't worry about it." He winked at me. "I'll help you. You're not failing your degree."
I didn't know where to look.
I wanted to look at his smile that has every girl at this university swooning after him, but that might make it too obvious. I could look at his biceps, his strong broad shoulders, his rugby legs or maybe those rock hard abs of his that his shirt is doing a terrible job at hiding. Or maybe I should just stare at his dark blonde hair that's tussled in a mess and almost reaching his shoulders.
I wanted to look at all of him. I wanted to spend hours looking at every part of Lucas Greyson's body, but I ultimately decided to settle for meeting his dark green eyes.
He knows. There's no way he doesn't know that a guy who looks like him, who has his deep voice, his family's name and money, his charisma, his intelligence ... gosh ... he must know that winking at a girl can make her entire week.
"You okay?" He chuckled.
I hadn't noticed. It was my turn to respond and engage in a conversation with him, but instead, I was just staring. I wasn't the only one though. Class just ended and yet not a single girl has left and they all have their eyes on me because Lucas Greyson is talking to me.
"Yea!" I said quickly. "I'm okay. Uhm, sorry. I kind of just spaced out when I thought about everything I don't know about most of my classes. I don't really know how I'm going to pass."
"Then we better get started." He put one of his muscular arms around my shoulders and I swear one of the girls in class almost threw something at me.
We've all swooned over this man for years. Women have thrown themselves at him, bought him gifts which he rejected, invited him to the best parties and some have even snuck love notes or their underwear in his bag, but none of it has worked. There's even a rumor that someone snuck into his dorm room and waited for him to get back in nothing but her birthday suite.
He moved out of the dorms after that and got his own apartment.
All those attempts to get Lucas Greyson's attention never worked. He remained friendly and ever so charming, but the man has never even so much as hugged a girl on campus ... or put his arm around their shoulders.
That is, until today.
"The trick is to not overthink it." He squeezed my shoulders again. "Numbers follow rules. Just learn the rules and you'll do fine."
His arms were still around my shoulders and he was leading me outside the class. I think we're going to the library. That would make sense. Professor Ebelstein said if there's one person who can help me pass my degree it's Lucas. He's acing this degree like it's not the most complicated, boring and dreadful thing in this world. Ebelstein tried suggesting other tutors to me, but I immediately refused.
Only Lucas Greyson will be able to help me.
Engineering truly is the bane of my existence. Every calculation, formula and design is the equivalent of dying a hundred deaths and I've endured every single second of it for him. I followed him here and joined a degree he loves. It's been torturous, but goodness, every minute of agony in this course has been worthit because here, for the first time in who knows how many years, there's no Charlotte Ericsson blocking my path to him.
"We'll start with manufacturing and design." He smiled at me again. "That's the easiest module. We'll work our way up from there."
I nodded slowly as he lead me through the busy library.
He still has no idea who I am. He may know my name, but he has no clue that I'm the little girl who cried when she had to leave him after spending only a few hours with him. He doesn't know that I spent all my days in Highschool and Middle School pining after him, hoping for even an ounce of his affection. I hoped and prayed that he would look at me the way he looked at Charlotte, but it never happened.
It would have been easier if he was a man-whore. Guys with half his money, looks and intelligence are all whores with no restraint. If he had been like that, maybe I would have been able to get something as small as a kiss from him. Instead, he has eyes for one person - Charlotte Ericsson.
I would have dealt with her if I could, but apparently she fell under his mother's protection. No matter how much I begged my father to do something to get her out of the way, he insisted that his hands were tied.
But now we're adults and we're all far far away from our parents and their protection.
So she's not untouchable anymore.
He sat down next to me and started explaining a subject I always thought I hated until now. This man can make anything interesting.
Our shoulders were touching and his cologne was doing things to me I've only ever dreamt of.
"Don't worry." He squeezed my shoulders again. "You'll get it in no time. I'll be with you every step of the way."
I was in awe for the entire three hours we spent together in the library. I hung on to his smile, his words, those eyes. It was the most magical three hours of my life and when he stood up and looked at his phone, I couldn't help but beg him to study some more with me.
Gosh, I hate engineering, but Lucas Greyson makes it seem like the most fascinating thing on earth.
"I should really get going." He chuckled after I begged again. "I have a call scheduled with my girlfriend in a few minutes."
I ignored the pang in my heart that travelled through my entire body.
I know very well who his girlfriend is. I know how he looks at her. I've seen it. Even when we were kids who had no understanding of love or romantic feelings, he looked at her like there's nothing in the world he wouldn't do for her.
"Lucky girl." I packed my books as slowly as I could.
"I'm the lucky one." He took his bag and left me.
I should be used to him leaving me by now.
The day before Charlotte joined us in third grade, Lucas Greyson was pushing me on a swing and telling me all about how he would try to sneak a bird into school for me. He noticed that I liked animals so he said he'd try to get a small bird for me to pet during recess.
I was excited. It was going to be my first gift from him.
I'll never know if he managed to bring that bird because the next day, a girl with light brown skin and long brown curls stood before our class. She was wearing second hand clothes and had one too many scars, but she didn't seem to carry any of the shame that comes with people who usually look like her.
I thought the entire class would laugh at her, but she did something that caught all our attention and tricked us into thinking she's like us.
She greeted us in Korean, introduced herself in the language and proceeded to tell us about herself in fucking Korean.
The teacher translated for us while she spoke, which only made her seem even more exotic. We all grew up being taught different languages, but none of us were fluent at that point. We could only say a few words. We couldn't string together a sentence, let alone have an entire conversation in another language other than English.
And more than that, no one knew what language she was speaking. We were all learning French, German or Spanish at that point. We knew it was an Asian language, but we had no idea which language.
Turns out although her mother is American, her father is from Korea and he barely knew English. That's what the teacher translated for us.
I was watching her while she spoke, but my eyes quickly shifted to Lucas' because I needed to be sure that he could see what she was doing. She was trying to make us overlook her washed out clothes and messy curls. She was trying to make sure she wouldn't get bullied ... something that is inevitable if you're new and poor in our school.
However, he couldn't see through her facade. He looked impressed.
When the bell rung a few hours into the day, he didn't run out of class like he did every day. He waited by the door and when I urged him to come with me, he refused and said he wants to show the new girl around. I waited with him and lied and said that was a great idea.
Little did I know that would be the first time he broke my heart.
He took Charlotte by the hand before even saying hi. The two of them ran out of the class, leaving me trailing behind them for the entire day ... and my entire life.
*******************************************
PRESENT DAY
"I'm here for you, Lauren." Melissa whispered behind me.
Despite how close she was seated behind me, her voice sounded distant.
Everything was starting to sound distant.
I was sitting before the company's disciplinary panel and the company's representative was truly going after me without mercy.
Jona was listing the tiniest to the biggest mistake I have ever made. People were gasping in shock every time he spoke. They were all siding with him and there wasn't much I could do.
Dad tried to put pressure on shareholders who usually side with him or who owe him favours, but he couldn't do much because he's a minority shareholder and so are they. He also couldn't risk making too much noise about me because one slip up could cost him his shares in the company.
Lucas is the only one who has the power to turn all of this mess into nothing, but he let me down when I needed him most. When I asked for his help, he claimed he hadn't realised that people were hiding my mistakes just because of our friendship. Then he said the cruelest thing he's ever said to me:
"I am a business man at the end of the day, Lauren and you're not good for business."
Those words kept ringing in my head as Jona hurled accusation after accusation at me. The charges were no longer gross negligence or incompetence. He was claiming that I was willful in committing fraud, bribery, purposefully trying to cripple the company and so many other ridiculous charges.
I didn't understand most of it, but my lawyer explained that the charges are enough for me to be facing some serious jail time.
"Lauren Mitchell is not an ignorant woman who never had a clue when she was sabotaging this company." He snapped his head at me and I swear there was nothing but venom in his eyes. "She has spent YEARS doing all she can to kill this company and not once has she been held accountable. That stops today."
The panel of three no longer wore neutral expressions. They each wore a scowl on their face that was directed at me.
Jona made sure to pass by me when he went to go sit down after closing his arguments.
He usually has a menacing glint in his eyes, but since the banquet a month ago, the menace in his eyes has turned into pure hatred. Sometimes at work, he has looked at me like he's fantacising about killing me.
"You're fucking dead!" He mouthed with his lips.
For a second I thought maybe he knows that Lisa and I tried to get him into an accident twice in the past month, but I immediately dismissed it. Lisa is, above all, careful. She's an expert at keeping things hidden.
If it hadn't been for Charlotte's driver miraculously arriving at the scene each time, Jona would be dead by now. However, here he is today, without so much as a scratch on him because some old man named Joshua came to the rescue.
I shook my head lightly to try and focus.
If Lisa were a practising lawyer, she would have represented me. Her friend is good, but she's no Lisa. My sister assured me her friend can help me and I must admit, looking at her give it a go right now, I'm impressed.
"Lucas Greyson was complicit in every mistake that this company now wishes to punish Lauren Mitchell for. Shouldn't he also be standing before us or do the laws not apply to the owner of the company?"
There were murmurs in the crowd and the judges on the panel looked at one another.
It's unfortunate that I have to do this to Lucas, but at the end of the day, I did everything for him and he just threw it all back in my face. If I go down, it's only fair if he goes down with me, right?
She was driving her point home and those judges were even nodding in agreement with her.
I turned my head to the side and looked at Jona.
He looked unbothered, but then again, he always looks like that.
"I'm sending James to you." A text came from Lisa. "I have to deal with something at home. James will handle Ericsson for you. Don't let him talk you into killing her. Murders are hard to clean up, Lauren. One loose end can end up costing you everything."
I deleted the message the second I was done reading it.
No matter how I look at it, my sister has really let me down with this entire thing. She caught a glimpse of Justin and Sandra together at the banquet and she's been scatter brain since then.
She's trying to seem unbothered by it, but it's clearly bothering her. Instead of focusing on Charlotte, she's focusing on who her husband is calling, who he's meeting with and where he goes.
Four days after the banquet, Justin and Sandra were spotted at an art gallery together, laughing and being a bit too cozy. The picture looked innocent enough, but it was enough to make Lisa even more obsessed with Justin. They have kids together and yet she's so shaken by Sandra.
"We'll adjourn for today." I suddenly heard one of the judges.
The few people who were allowed to attend all scattered around and started heading to the exit.
"Do we really have to drag Lucas' name through the mud?" I tugged on my lawyer's arm. "He's innocent in all of this."
"Maybe he is." She shrugged. "But if there's any hope for you to come out of this without going to jail, we'll have to pin everything on him as the CEO. Trust me on this."
She put her files in a bag and left without another word.
Everyone left, except for me and Jona. I don't know why I stayed behind when it was clear that he wasn't going anywhere.
Maybe I have a death wish.
"Your cowardice never ceases to amaze me." He leaned back in his chair. "Char and I had a bet. She said even though you're a pathetic excuse for a woman, you would never hurt Mr Greyson. I told her that after watching you stumble around for three months and pretending to work, I'm certain you would do anything to save your own behind. That's what the Mitchells are known for after all - stabbing people in the fucking back."
I decided to start walking away.
Today was hard enough. I shouldn't have stayed behind to listen to him tear me down like he does every day.
"Lauren Mitchell", I turned and faced him one last time. "You're going to pay for what you did you Charlotte." He carried such a defeated smile on his face. I almost felt sorry for him. I've never paid for a single thing in my life. Why would I start doing that now?
"Even if I have to spend my entire life hunting you down", he said earnestly, "you and your family will pay for your sins."
I chuckled behind my hand. He has no idea just how much I have hurt Charlotte Ericsson and how much I will continue to hurt her until she lets go of Lucas. And even then, I will still hurt her ... because I can and because she stole him from me.
"Charlotte deserves everything she has coming her way." I said calmly. "If I were you, I'd focus on helping her to keep that kid of hers that's probably going to end up dead instead of wasting your time trying to punish someone who can NEVER be punished."
He was breathing so heavily, trying to keep his anger at bay.
They really thought we wouldn't find out about her pregnancy. My family controls most of the hospitals and doctors in this city and they thought they could hide this from us? Even worse, they thought by taking down Dr Avilon and a dozen other doctors, they could get to us.
"I'll be at her funeral in what ... a month or two?" I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips once again. "And I'll be comforting Lucas, just like I've always done."