Forging Splendor

by S R Nulton

  It took effort and determination, but I didn’t roll my eyes or pull my arm away from him. It’s sort of like what they tell you to do if you’re attacked by a bear. Play dead and hope that they lose interest and leave you alone. Hopefully it works better with him than it does with a bear.

  “I understand you’re in-between assignments right now. You are far too talented to leave in the secretary pool as a temp, covering for people when they get sick and dealing with whatever extra work we might have. You deserve somewhere where you can shine,” Mr. Montgomery said, squeezing my arm slightly. “So, I’ve assigned you to my son. He has a need for a live-in PA and you will have plenty of privacy in the little cottage he built for you.”

  For his gardener, actually, I thought, ruefully. I was there when JJ complained about the expense. It was at the same time she was buying a new diamond necklace to match her brand new, custom designer gown. The two items cost nearly as much as the small cottage that was being built to help an elderly man who had just lost his home in a fire.

  Also, there was nothing Neil Montgomery could say to make me think it was normal for a PA to have to move a few hours away to work for someone who didn’t actually work for the company.

  Wow, that was awkward, even in my own head. Glad I didn’t try to say it aloud.

  “So, I said I’d send you in the next few days. Feel free to call if you need help packing. I can have movers over at your place to get everything ready at a moment’s notice! Oh, and there is one little thing,” he said with his most charming smile.

  Of course there is. When isn’t there?

  He clasped my hand between both of his and gazed anxiously into my eyes. “I’m concerned about Ethan’s mental health. He has seemed a bit unstable lately and I worry, as his father, that he could do harm to himself! That is why I need you to keep me informed about how he is doing. Weekly reports should do, but I just want to be careful about monitoring him. I may see something you overlook but he won’t let me get close enough to see it right now. You know how it is when someone feels vulnerable.”

  Neil Montgomery waited for me to say something. “I understand.” And I did, but it was much more than he gave me credit for.

  His grin lit up his face and showed just how little age had damaged his looks. “Good. I hoped that you would see the need. I better let you go collect your things and get packing. I look forward to your first report.”

  I nodded, gave a quiet goodbye and left the opulent room. I didn’t really relax until the elevator doors closed though.

  I had worked for JJ for a year-and-a-half before being reassigned. In that time, I’d come to understand the dynamics of the Montgomery family. At least, I understood them much better than anyone else outside the family possibly could. Not that I was present for the so-called ‘family dinners’, but I was more than aware of the awkward exchanges in the hallways, the many affairs, and the multitude of arguments that occurred. JJ made sure of that. She loved to gossip about the family and rarely remembered that I was there while she related the stories to one of her friends. Whenever I was around they seemed scarily calm, like something out of a movie where it turns out that one of the people had been poisoned and the other one was going to be stabbed by a maid on their way out.

  Basically, I wasn’t naïve. I knew when Neil was trying to charm and manipulate me. I’d seen him do it to far too many women. Despite being married for nearly 40 years, the number of affairs he had indulged in was enormous.

  I exited on my floor and gathered my things, wondering what I was going to do. I needed to tell Ethan that I had been sent to spy, but I wasn’t sure what would happen after. Who would really keep a self-proclaimed spy working for them?

  The trouble was that I genuinely liked the man. He was honest, hard working, and generally quite self-less. He never should have married JJ, but he had tried to make the marriage work, even when he knew that it was completely broken. He didn’t deserve his crappy family.

  He didn’t deserve his father’s interest, whatever the ultimate reasoning might be. Neil was a snake and it was never good when a snake had you in its sight, let alone within striking distance.

  “I’ll pack and go. If Ethan throws me out, I’ll just quit and move home. Mom needs a secretary now that she’s mayor. It’ll be fine. I should have left here years ago,” I muttered as I got into my car. And it was true. The only reason I’d stuck around was because my sisters were there. They were my roommates and I loved them, but they didn’t really need me anymore, not like they had even a few months before. Their company was a complete success and was stable. It was time to move on and see what life had in store for me.

  I just had to go tell a man with an explosive temper that I had been sent to spy on him by his estranged father. Easy. Yeah… it was gonna be one of those weeks.

  CHAPTER 2: BLAST FROM THE PAST

  HE LOOKS AROUND, suddenly realizing where he is. It isn’t real. Or it is, but it isn’t now. It’s then. Then, when he still believed he had a chance. Then, when everything broke forever.

  “Are you an idiot? Of course I don’t want to be married to you! I thought the fact that we never slept together made that obvious!” Her voice screeched once again, cutting through him like a shard of broken glass.

  He was forced to watch it all happen again. Forced to see his wife, no his ex-wife rip him to shreds when he confronted her.

  “But why him? Why cheat with my own brother?” the younger him asked. It was right after he saw a leaked video of his wife and his brother in bed together. A video that had been sent to him by a friend after they’d seen it on TMZ. He’s been shocked and devastated. He may not have been happy in the marriage, but watching the woman you were married to have sex with his brother still hurt.

  What made it worse was people thought he knew the whole time. They thought he’d gotten tired of acting stupid and done something about it. They thought he had leaked the video and he had somehow become the villain when he was the innocent party.

  JJ sneered at him. “Don’t be stupid. I’ve always wanted him. I thought you were him when we got married. I still don’t know how I was drunk enough to miss something so obvious. But guess what? I’m pregnant and it’s his. And I don’t want my precious child to have a daddy that looks like a monster, even if you’d only be its stepfather. I want a divorce. Then I’ll never have to see your hideous face or watch you limping around like a cripple ever again.”

  While she was talking, her assistant walked in and froze. She was always so quiet, but usually looked thoughtful and kind. Not right then, though. At that moment, one that was burned so painfully into his memory, she had looked at him with pity. Even she’d known he was being cuckolded and she felt sorry for the way he’d found out.

  As the dream went on, her look changed from pity to disgust and derision. Ethan figured that she was just one more person who thought he wasn’t worth consideration. Wasn’t worth loving. Wasn’t worth anything.

  Then JJ looked over her shoulder at her assistant. “Thanks for sending that file to the news station for me. It was just what I needed.”

  Ethan woke in a cold sweat. It was strange, most of the times his dreams were violent, resulting in him being chased by a mob or attacked by dogs as men with shotguns got close enough to take him out, but the dreams that disturbed him the most were the ones that were memories. They never failed to make him jittery and give him a hair trigger all day.

  These ones were the more painful, he supposed, because they weren’t his imagination. Not really. They all actually happened. Every betrayal, every shock, every moment where he was painfully reminded that he was unwanted, all of them actually occurred and the emotions were magnified. They felt more real than when they happened.

  “I’ve gotta figure out a way to get rid of these nightmares,” he muttered as he got up and checked the time. It was already 2 in the afternoon. He hadn’t gotten to sleep until about 6, working all night long on a large piece for Geo’s vineyard. His friend an
d brother always managed to sell the oversized sculptures and inevitably needed another, brand new, never-before-seen piece of art to draw his regulars back. As a business practice, it was actually quite brilliant. He got the family discount on one end, made a small profit from the immediate sale, and then made a bigger profit from the crowds who gathered to see the unveiling and drank copious amounts of his special reserve wine.

  Ethan was tired but it was worth it. He just knew that the giant bronze satyr was going to look fantastic outside the tasting room, and he thought it might appeal to Geo. If nothing else, he would love the fact that the creature was holding a cask of wine with the vineyard’s label engraved on it.

  I wonder what he’ll say about that, Ethan mused as he started fixing something to eat. The trouble with getting too excited about a commission was that he forgot to eat sometimes. It left him grumpy the next morning when his stomach finally alerted him to the problem, but the euphoria he felt while working on his art was worth a little bit of hunger.

  He was just finishing a late brunch and planning out which project to work on next when his doorbell rang. And it wasn’t the bell at his gate. It was his actual doorbell.

  Ethan frowned. He didn’t get visitors often, particularly as few people knew his gate code. He stood up and walked to the door, ready for anything.

  Well, almost anything.

  He wasn’t ready for the sight of the blonde woman standing on his doorstep, although he should have after his dream that morning.

  What is Agatha doing here?

  ~

  I was enjoying the day as I sailed down the road singing along with the radio.

  “Fear you don’t own me! There ain’t no room in this story!” I belted. Francesca Battistelli was my new music obsession and “The Breakup Song” was particularly empowering when I was heading into a very uncomfortable situation with no backup plan. You know, like I was at that exact moment. “Fear, you will never be welcome here!”

  Please, God, make it true.

  The air rushed through the open window and lifted my spirits a bit more. I’d had a difficult time leaving my sisters that morning. They were not exactly enthused with my plan of action. In fact, they told me it was completely stupid and tried to beg me to stay.

  I couldn’t blame them. Packing up and driving to the home of a man who was almost certain to toss me out seemed a bit… well, it sounded stupid, now that I really thought about it. Add to that the fact that I dropped my resignation off in the mail when I drove out of the city and my backup plan had fallen through? Yeah, I felt one color short of a crayon box when I called my mom and found out my backup plan wasn’t going to work. Turned out that she’d hired a secretary almost a month before and no one else in our small town needed a secretary or personal assistant. Just my luck.

  In my defense, there was no way to know that she’d already found someone. My mother is miserable about calling family back or keeping us informed about her life. She told me once that she figures we will get frustrated enough to call her again, whereas work calls won’t. They will just write you off. Which is harsh but very true. Also, she’s always been really big on us girls being old enough to figure things out on our own. I’m pretty sure that she only said that because too many people come to her for answers as it is and she can say things to her daughters that she can’t to her constituents. Ah, the price of having a small town mayor for your mother.

  I reached the gate and the end of the song at the same time, which made me sigh. If the driveway were longer I’d find it on my phone and play the thing again. No point putting things off though. A quick call to Ethan’s housekeeper had assured me that the gate code was the same as always so there was no need to wait.

  I still found it sad that he hadn’t needed to change it after the divorce. JJ rarely came to his ‘country manor,’ as she mockingly called it. She only ever used a remote and that was easily retrieved. It’s never a good sign when you don’t have to change the locks after a messy divorce. It kind of puts your relationship issues into a whole new light.

  The road to his home had been repaved since I was there last, but besides that, little had changed.

  That last day was stuck in my memory like a burr. I’d just seen the news of JJ’s video being ‘leaked’ and realized what had happened. She’d told me I was dropping off a press release for some of the upcoming social events to a reporter friend of hers. Said it was supposed to be kept quiet and anonymous because otherwise every agency would be hounding her for the information. She’d lied to me and I felt like a fool. No, more than a fool, I’d felt like I was the one who’d destroyed their marriage when I well knew I wasn’t really at fault. I was just a scapegoat for her.

  I’d decided as soon as I saw the video to drive up to tell Ethan what was really going on. He deserved to know the truth, at least as much truth as I could give him. Unfortunately, she’d beaten me there.

  The things she said to him were absolutely awful. I felt sick and disgusted, listening to what she was saying and hated the look he gave me when she thanked me for dropping off the package. I could only imagine how devastated the poor man had felt when he heard what was said. It was even worse because he was the one being blamed for the ‘leak’. They thought he’d known! The man hardly left his studio and saw his wife maybe once a month! How could he possibly have known of her infidelity? And, even if he had, why would he expose her in such a dramatic way? Why not just use it to secure a divorce? She’d made him look like he was vindictive when he was just a victim.

  I pushed away the memories, took a deep breath and checked the sky for smoke before ringing the doorbell. The bell was programed to ring in his workroom as well as the house, but if there was smoke it meant that Ethan was using the forge. When that happened, he either couldn’t hear the bell over his hammering or disconnected it so it wouldn’t distract him while he was doing something dangerous. Either way, it would have meant I needed to go directly to his forge and hope he noticed me before dinnertime.

  Luckily that wasn’t the case.

  It only took a few minutes for him to answer the door, but when he did, his expression did not give me much hope for a cordial greeting. He looked at me like I was a monster from his nightmare come to life! His expression of curiosity was wiped away as body was rigid and his eyes bulged as he realized who it was. Then, it was like a switch flipped. He was still stiff, but his eyes narrowed and his lip curled up. A vein in his forehead pulsed and drew more attention to his facial scar, something I knew he hated having people look at.

  He was looking good though. His dark hair was cut closer than the last time I’d seen him and his beard had been properly trimmed. His amber eyes made me stop and look again though. They were glinting in the sun, glowing like hot coals. And then…

  He slammed the door in my face.

  Oh yeah, off to a great start.

  ~

  “Hey! Sorry, I don’t remember your name, but is JJ available?” Ethan asked.

  I looked up into his flame colored eyes and was positive my face showed the horror I was feeling. JJ was there, but it would not be good for her husband to see her right then. Then again, it rarely was. The woman seemed to model her fidelity after her father-in-law. In other words, she was as unfaithful as a cat in heat.

  Ethan seemed to flush and he brushed more of his dark hair over his face. The side of his face that was scarred. He had thought she was upset by his scar! How do you deny that without revealing the truth? I mean, what’s worse? Staring at his scar or explaining that his wife is enjoying a late-afternoon assignation in the next room?

  Just then, JJ giggled and walked out of her office with her 4 o’clock meeting. He was an ad executive in charge of choosing the new face of a very famous brand of perfume. He apparently took evaluating a model’s sex appeal very seriously.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she simpered. The man just grinned and let his gaze rake over her elegantly clad body, seeming to enjoy the wrinkles that had formed i
n the expensive fabrics. After one last look he nodded and left.

  That was when JJ saw Ethan. And I saw Ethan’s expression. He was furious, his beard moving as he ground his teeth and his hands crushing the beautifully wrapped box in his hands.

  Without a word, he threw the box on my desk and walked out. JJ sighed and rolled her eyes before following after, spouting crap about how it was for work and didn’t mean anything.

  What no one noticed was me opening the box and looking inside. JJ had been bemoaning her lack of a pearl necklace. She had one, of course, but not with the coloration she needed for a specific dress she was wearing to a big fashion show. He had bought one for her. No. He had made one for her.

  I stared at the stunning piece, five strands of gold and cranberry freshwater pearls interspersed with tiny diamonds and white gold charms in the shapes of doves. It was elegant and extravagant but not overdone. It was the most stunning thing I’d ever seen. The perfect gift.

  Gently, I put it back in the box and closed it, hiding it in a drawer until I could return it to him. He could decide what he wanted to do with it, but JJ didn’t deserve such a thoughtful gift on a day like that.

  ~

  I shook my head, pushing the memory away and trying not to think about hiding the necklace in his office the next time I was there. That was the first time I’d seen Ethan that angry. He was a very different person when he was furious, but not like you’d expect. Unlike his father or brother, Cayden, he was generally a quiet one when he was angry. When it hit a certain point, though, he would explode like a volcano and leave devastation in his wake.

  Ethan’s older brother, Cayden, was much more contentious, picking fights whenever he could, just for the fun of it. It was the reason that he still did MMA fights. The man couldn’t deal with living peacefully and needed a safe way to get rid of his aggression. Which was probably why he’d slept with JJ. She was a prize.