Perfectly Lonely - Jessica Marin Page 0,71

in your business and for your family. We won’t work until we heal and we both have a lot of healing to do. You know you need to work on your relationship with your brother.” She grips my arm, her eyes pleading with me to understand.

“That is for me to decide!” I yank my arm away from her, not being able to stomach her touch.

“If I was here, I would only be a distraction. You know that! You don’t have time for me right now, Chase, and that’s okay! Let’s get ourselves where we need to be so we can have a healthy relationship together.” She grabs my hand and squeezes it, holding on as tightly as she can. I look down at our adjoined hands, my eyes clouded with betrayal and anger.

“Relationship?” I laugh maliciously at her, wanting to hurt her as badly as she is hurting me right now. “Who is going to want to have a real relationship with you when you keep using your dead husband as an excuse for why you’re damaged?” She flinches at my words and drops my hand.

“You accomplished what you set out to do, Chase. I fell in love with you.” Tears are now streaming down her face, her words slashing at what is left of my heart. “But it’s because I love you that I’m choosing to let you go. I won’t selfishly stand in the way of you working on being the best version of yourself that you can be.” She picks up her purse off the floor and stands back up.

“Goodbye, Chase.” Her voice cracks with emotion as she looks at me one last time before departing.

She walks past me and out of my life.

And I let her.

28

Layla

Seven Months Later

I punch the code into the keypad to open the gate to Jenna and Cal’s new house that they recently moved into. The gates slowly open and I drive my car through until I make it pass the gates. I look in my rearview mirror to them fully close behind me before parking the car. The death threats against Jenna and Avery still continue, the FBI having zero leads on who could be behind them. Even though Cal has added a second bodyguard and they’re living in a gated community with their own private gates and security cameras on the outside and inside of their house, I’m still paranoid and always make sure I watch their gates close behind me without someone slipping in.

My cell phone starts to ring and I look at it to see that Emma, one of the assistants at work, is calling. Since I’m ten minutes early, I decide to take the call in my car before going inside.

“Hey Layla, sorry to bother you on your day off, but Torrin has not arrived yet and his scheduled guests are here to tour the building,” Emma says, her words making me close my eyes in irritation at Torrin for once again being late to an important meeting.

“I’m sorry, Emma, but I’m already in the suburbs. Can you do the tour, write down all of their needs, and I can draft up a proposal for them once I get to Los Angeles?” Cal and Jenna are taking us with them to the Academy Awards ceremony this weekend. It has been a busy awards season with Cal being nominated for Best Actor, but the Academy Awards are the most prestigious awards out of them all because it’s your own peers nominating and voting for you. We’re having our final dress fitting with Kellan and his staff before departing for the airport. Torrin is supposed to be going with me as my date, meeting us in Los Angeles Sunday morning since he’s working to cover both of our shifts Friday and Saturday night. I will cover his shifts the following weekend.

Emma agrees to my plan and after we hang up, I immediately call Torrin. My call goes straight to voicemail and I don’t even bother leaving a message. When I first started working at the House of Royalty, Torrin was the constant professional, showing me respect and treating me as an equal. He was an attentive boss, training me on every little detail on how to run the club and alternating closing nights with me to make sure I got a break. All the employees seemed to admire and respect Torrin, and he was very good at making sure everyone was taken care of and not overworked. We soon