Bereft - Jennifer Foor Page 0,38

myself bending you over and fucking you in front of everyone in there. You did good in there. Congratulations. – Chad

I sat back in my chair and tried to calm down. I had to stop thinking about him. It was necessary to keep my business and personal life separate. We couldn’t frolic around. It had to be a one-time thing, besides, I still had a mess of a marriage to sort out. Even though I was pretty certain it was over, I still had a bunch of legal matters to tend to. It would take time, and I refused to spend it bent over a conference table.

I put my phone away, determined to ignore Chad and his antics. I had more important matters to deal with.

Chapter 14

Rachel

I had a ton of paperwork to do and calls to employees to make. It was important to get everyone back into the office, especially when I’d told them to take their clients elsewhere. I needed them to stay with Leviathan, now more than ever. Since I didn’t have a reason to rush home, I stayed in my office determined to get most of it done.

Grayson managed to call my direct line at work, and unknowingly I picked up the phone. “Hello.”

“Honey, it’s me. Please don’t hang up.”

“First of all, don’t call me that. Secondly, I have no reason to want to hear your voice.”

“I know what you did last night, and you made your point. We’re even. Let’s stop hurting each other and fix what’s broken. Please, I’m asking you to reconsider. Let me take you out tonight so we can talk. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Rachel, I’m lost without you. Just let me explain. Give me a damn second of your time.”

I started to hang up, because I didn’t give a damn what he had to say to me, but something stuck out to me; something made me feel sad. He knew I’d been with Chad. He said we were even. I knew damn well he’d slept with Kyla way more than one time. They’d screwed around for months behind my back, yet I’d been open about Chad staying with me. He didn’t know my intentions were honest in the beginning. Chad was only being a friend. “I don’t think I can sit in the same room as you.”

“I get it, I do, but you hurt me too. God, you took a knife and drove it through my heart last night. Tell me you didn’t go through with it. Tell me it was just a ploy to pay me back. Say you didn’t sleep with that guy.”

“I’m not saying anything to you. I don’t have to. You broke our vows. As far as I’m concerned, you ended our marriage. You certainly ended our commitment to each other. What I did with my friend last night is no longer your business. I’m not going to pretend what I did was right, but it was my choice, just like sleeping with Kyla was yours.”

“No. This isn’t a competition. I’m trying to save our marriage.”

I began to laugh at his comment. “It’s a little too late, don’t you think?”

“Rachel, please. What about counseling?”

“Counseling is for couples who want to be with each other. Was last night not clear for you?”

“You’re acting out. In time you’ll change your mind. You know you love me. It doesn’t go away overnight. It’s not that fast.”

“Oh really? Let me ask you this then. How long have you been sleeping with Kyla? How long have the two of you been involved?”

The line was dead silent. Then in almost a whisper I heard him reply. “Six months.”

“Yeah, it happens that fast.” I hung up the phone, feeling more pissed now than before. Six months. He’d been sleeping with her for six months in our house. I wanted to rip my hair out and scream. How could they do it? How could they look at me and pretend they weren’t screwing around behind my back? Did they not feel any sort of remorse? I wanted to puke. The bile was rising to my throat so fast I didn’t know if I could swallow it back down.

I had to sit still for a few minutes, calming down enough to continue working. A knock at my door was startling. I wasn’t in any condition to answer, so when I saw it crack open I freaked out. “Can’t you knock?”

Chad came in and shut the door behind him. “Sorry it’s just