Author Anonymous_ A True Story - E.K. Blair Page 0,106
I work,” he says and then adds in frustration, “What’s this all about?”
“Edelman, Vanksen, and Partners, right?”
“If there’s something you want to say, just come out and say it.”
“I got a text from Brooke today,” I tell him. “She said that you don’t work there. That you’re not listed in the company directory.”
“Is that so?” he responds through tight lips. “Well, I guess if she says it’s true then it must be.”
“Alec—”
“And when she told you this, did you just take her word?”
“No,” I admit. “I got on the website and looked as well.”
“Then I guess you know she’s full of shit.”
His statement catches me off guard and confuses me. Shaking my head, I say, “Alec, your name wasn’t on there.”
“No?” He walks over to the office space on the other side of the room where he keeps his laptop. I watch as he leans over his desk and works his fingers over the keyboard. “Come here.”
I make my way over to where he stands and look at the screen where he’s pulled up the directory.
“Do you see a Harrison Demry on that list?”
The moment he says his last name, I kick myself. In my state of panic, I only scrolled through looking for his first name, scanning the list for A’s in search of Alec. And I know Brooke did the same because I’ve never told her his last name. She would’ve called, asking for Alec—just Alec.
“But who’s Harrison?”
Anger splashes in his eyes, and he slams the lid closed. “Me,” he barks. “In business I go by my middle name.”
“Alec, I’m sorry.”
“Have I not proven myself to you? First you question my feelings for you and now you question my integrity,” he lashes out at me, scolding me like a disobedient child, but I don’t cower.
“I’m sorry, but my world is spinning so out of control that I’m desperately searching for something secure and finite to hold on to.”
“Then fucking hold on to me!”
“I want to!” I cry out. “But I’m scared.”
“Why are you so afraid of me?”
“Because you can hurt me more than what I could ever hurt you. Because I’m putting everything on the line for you—I’m risking it all.” I brace my hand on the edge of his desk when my emotions surface and explode. “It’s so simple for you, but it’s not for me. I’m married. I have a family and thirteen years of a life I’ve built with someone else that I’m walking away from.”
“Then go home!”
His voice barrels through the room, bouncing off the wooden floors and echoing against the walls.
My heart stalls while he glares down at me, his nostrils flaring with every threatening breath of his.
“If you can’t trust me, then what the hell are you doing with me?” he seethes. “If you’re so terrified to leave your family, then don’t.”
“So you’re just going to let me go? It’s that easy for you?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you no, so why fucking bother?”
“Then prove me wrong, Alec,” I plead. “You see my stress, you see everything that’s on the line. All I’m asking for is reassurance.”
He stalks away from me, raking both his hands through his hair before turning back to me and losing his shit, shouting, “God dammit! What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Tell me you love me!”
“You think my saying those words will secure me to you? Christ, Victoria, they’re just petty words!”
“Not to me. And you should want to reassure me with them if I tell you that’s what I need, but you’re such a fucking hard ass and refuse to give them to me. Why?”
He turns his back to me and stands there with no response, with no answer, which only fuels my madness. I want to hurt him like he’s hurting me, so I go ahead and piss him off more, asking, “Are there others just like me?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” he says to the wall, refusing to look at me.
I carve the truth into a lie, placing all blame on Brooke when I tell him, “In Brooke’s quest to check up on you, she got onto the fetish site where we met. She told me your page was filled with messages and that you had been logged on earlier today.”
“You girls act like children.” He finally turns around, a look of disgust on his face.
“Is it true?”
“How dare you try to make me into the villain here. What? You thought you’d be the one to change me?” he