He didn't even see me. He walked out of the building, carrying her in his arms. Someone was holding an umbrella over them and as soon as the driver opened the car door, she started kissing him like she would never kiss him again.
He was chuckling as he put her in the car.
I was standing outside in the rain, cold and soaking wet after he ordered security guards to throw me out of the building and now he was chuckling.
I'm standing right infront of them. They walked passed me, but Lucas didn't see me. This man, the only man that I've ever loved, doesn't see me. He only sees her.
He'll only ever see her.
The car drove off. They were kissing before the driver even closed the door.
"The couple taking wallstreet by storm!"
"Why it's taken Lucas Greyson this long to settle down - No one was Charlotte Ericsson!"
"Why we love seeing love inside corporate America - the story of Lucas Greyson and Charlotte Ericsson!"
I've been reading those headlines for weeks since the banquet. I've seen more pictures of that ring than I could ever care to see. He kicked me out of our home. He got her pregnant. He refuses to speak to me, but none of it hurts as much him walking passed me while carrying her like a bride and me standing alone in the rain.
Why can't he see me?
I've done nothing but try to prove to him that I can be more for him. He forgot about me the second she entered his life again, but I still held out hope for us. I don't like engineering. I don't like the graphs, the machines, the sites, the calculations. I hate all of it, but I studied engineering so he could see me.
I never wanted to leave Oklahoma. I wanted to stay on my family's ranch. I wanted to stay with the cows and ride the horses. I wanted to wake up to a rooster crying for us to get the day started, but I gave all of that up to be close to him.
But he refuses to see me. He refuses to see any woman who isn't Charlotte and she refuses to see any man who isn't Lucas.
Someone grabbed my arm and ran inside the building with me.
I don't know who it is. I don't care. I just want to die. Gosh, I want to die.
"No use crying!" A familiar thin laughter rang in my ears.
The security guards were eying me as if I'd bomb the building. I've worked here for five years...why are they looking at me like that?
"Aren't you going to thank me for saving you?" James laughed to himself. "Without me, you wouldn't be able to attend your hearing. I had to beg Mr Greyson's office to let you back inside. You're lucky one of his secretaries has a soft spot for you."
There wasn't a single drop of rain on James Patel's immaculate designer grey coat. He carried his usual smile with him as if he didn't just witness my life falling apart around me. He's wearing an immaculate dry coat and I'm soaking wet, and I know he's not even going to offer it to me to keep warm.
James Patel loves laughing, but hates sharing.
"I'm not lucky." I whispered. "So long as Charlotte Ericsson exists, Lauren Mitchell can never be lucky."
The security guards exchanged nervous glances. One of them was about to kick me out of the building again, but James stopped him.
"She's heartbroken!" He laughed loud enough for everyone in the large , silver reception area to hear. "Cut her some slack. She just watched the love her life run into the sunset with another woman. Wouldn't you say such cruel things as well if you were in her position?"
He grabbed my hand again before they could respond.
He was all but skipping to the elevator while I followed behind like a ghost.
Lucas Greyson has never seen me.
"You really should be more careful, you know?" He pressed the elevator. "Every shareholder saw you threatening Charlotte Ericsson and her unborn child. If anything happens to them, all eyes will be on you and your family."
His voice sounded distant. I kept seeing the happy couple walking passed me to their car while I stood in the rain. That image kept playing in my mind over and over again.
I decided to ask him about his statement. I couldn't muster the strength to care. Gosh, I don't care about anything, but I mustered the strength to speak. "What do you mean everyone saw me threatening that witch and her baby?" I asked.
He stepped inside the empty elevator with a little hop in his step. "I mean the video, of course." He cocked his head to the side and smiled all too wide. "The disciplinary hearing is livestreamed to all the directors and if need be, shared with the shareholders. Everyone saw the conversation you had with Jona, Lauren. They know you, and I quote, 'Can never be punished'." He repeated what I said to Jona.
"No." I smiled and shook my head. "You're messing with me because you just like seeing people suffer, James. You don't care who it is, you just want to see a person suffer so you can have a good laugh."
"True." He laughed and covered his mouth. "However", he took out his phone and played a video for me which he fastforwarded to the end, "I'm not messing with you. All the directors of Greyson Corporation and most of the shareholders have seen the conversation you had with Jona. The cameras and audio devices were still on."
"No." I started shaking my head again. "No. No. No." I was watching the video, but I still couldn't believe it. There it is, in colour, me saying Charlotte deserves everything coming her way, me saying saying she and her baby are going to end up dead and that I'd be at her funeral comforting Lucas.
"The hearing was over." I clutched onto his lanky arm. "They said the cameras are switched off as soon as each hearing is adjourned! No one was supposed to see that, James. Lucas... " I couldn't breathe.
Lucas saw that.
He saw me say all those things to Jona. That's why he's acting this way. I need to talk to him. I need to explain to him.
"Lucas Greyson sent a notice to all the shareholders telling them to watch the last few minutes of the video." He laughed again. "Because of him, the shareholders squeezed your father out of his shares. They are worth tens of millions of dollars and he lost them just like that because you couldn't wait until you were in a secure fucking location before yapping your mouth."
I held onto the walls of the elevator.
Was this elevator always this small? It's big enough to fit twenty people. Why the hell is it suddenly suffocating me? Why is it getting smaller and smaller?
"Dad, he..." Gosh, I couldn't breathe.
"Your father doesn't have the video." He reassured me. "They pushed him out, remember? Only the directors and shareholders have access to this video, but something tells me he'll find out about it soon enough. If I was able to get my hands on it, then he will most definitely have it before the end of the day."
"James ..." I tried reaching for his arm, but I had no strength left.
I was cold, wet and devastated.
My eyes started filling with black dots and his voice suddenky sounded so far, far, far away. Why is he suddenly so far away?
Jona ... Jona tricked me. Jona and Charlotte tricked me into saying those things on camera.
And then everything went dark.
*******************************************
FIVE YEARS AGO
"Don't you think he's too young to get married?" I asked Christian. "I mean, he's only twenty two years old and she's the only girl he's ever been with. He should at least try dating other people before getting married, right?"
The nineteen year old boy shrugged, completely unaware of the fact that his decision would determine what I do next.
He's less guarded than Lucas. Lucas sidesteps any conversation about his girlfriend. He'll tell you he has a girlfriend, but he won't share her name, where she's from, what she's studying or what state she's currently in.
Lesser people would think he's embarrassed of her. However, those with any sense know he's trying to keep her safe. The less people know about her, the less eyes are on her, the less attention she'll get from his enemies. He's always trying to protect her and he's never let his guard down in the eight months he's been tutoring me.
"There's no one else for him." He shrugged and opened his packet of chips. "And there's no one for her. They're obsessed with each other. I'm surprised he waited this long. Annabelle and I thought he'd get married around my age and they'd have their first kid while they were both studying."
He leaned back in his metal chair and watched as more students entered the food plaza on campus.
Christian is smart, but his hatred for Charlotte has made it easy to get information out of him about his brother's life. He dislikes her for some reason; enough to answer as many questions I ask about her and Lucas without it raising any alarm bells in his head.
"Did you get pictures of the ring?" I faked my excitement. "I'd love to see it."
"Sure." He took out his phone and started scrolling through his pictures until he landed on a gorgeous rosegold diamond ring that Lucas was holding with his hand. It was big enough to be seen by a satellite orbiting the earth. "He can't stop showing the ring to me, mom and Annabelle." He rolled his eyes while my eyes remained glued on a picture of the ring. "He keeps calling us, telling us all about how he's going to propose. I'm surprised he hasn't started bothering you as well."
I chuckled, but he may have noticed that I didn't mean it.
I thought I was making some progress.
Lucas is now inviting me to his apartment sometimes so we can study and he's even started hugging me. Everytime I feel like giving up on this degree, start crying because I truly do not understand this work or when I start hyperventilating because I told my family I could get Lucas Greyson, he hugs me. Lucas hugs me when he sees me having a hard time. His hugs are warm and he smells like sex on a stick.
I don't know what cologne he uses, but whatever it is, it's enough to make any girl want to lick him from head to toe.
But now he's thinking of getting married ...
***
"What am I looking at?" Dad threw the photos I printed out back at me. "Is this the ring you want Greyson to get you once he proposes?"
He chuckled to himself and Lisa and mom chimed in.
"Lucas is going to propose." I said calmly. "That's the ring he got for Charlotte. I've been friends with him for months, dad. He won't stray from her; not even a little. He's not interested in anyone but her and like Lisa told you, she also won't stray from him.
We've sent plenty of men with money her way. We've even tried to drug her at parties, dad. Those men came back with broken noses, fear in their eyes and shattered egos. Lucas and Charlotte refuse to part ways."
They all stopped eating. There weren't any chuckles around the table anymore.
"It's better for our family if I marry Lucas." I reminded them all. "Charlotte is dangerous, dad. I went to school with her. Money, power and status ... all the things we value, cannot sway her. She has a way of ALWAYS getting what she wants. Letting a woman like that near the Greysons can't be good for us. I may not be smart, but I'm smart enough to warn you that if we don't deal with Charlotte right now, she'll be someone we can never beat."
He glanced up at me without lifting his head from his plate.
"So you want us to kill her then." He sounded annoyed. "Murder always leaves too many loose ends, Lauren. This is why we deal with our enemies in other ways."
"Then let's get someone else to murder her for us!" I tried not to scream over the table. "A few months ago, I told you about her dad, but you dismissed it. Tell him about Charlotte, show him everything she's achieved. It will anger him that a daughter he tried so hard to keep down, keeps rising above. You won't even have to tell him to murder her. He'll do it for us. He has to. He'll lose his position as the heir to the Kim empire if word gets out of the child he had with an American woman."
We were all waiting for him to give us an answer. Not a single one of us dared to continue eating while we watched him think about this.
"Alright then." He finally lifted his head from his plate and looked at me. "But you're going to have to make the call, Lauren. If you truly want Ericsson gone, you'll have to get your hands dirty."