I may not have her education and I know I’m not nearly as devious as she is but I’m not stupid. I might not be able to come up with what to do about this shit at the moment but I will figure something out.
I do love Zane White with all of my heart after all!
Chapter 8
ZANE
With a real engagement ring in my pocket, I open the door to the penthouse. “Honey, I’m home!”
With no words coming back to greet me, I walk toward the bedroom where Elizabeth must me. But when I open the door, she’s not in here either and the bathroom door is wide open and so is the closet door.
Walking to the closet, I see some things are missing. Her things!
Something isn’t right here. Something is all wrong here!
Turning on my heel, I go back to the living room and stop as I see something on the dining table. I find the key I gave her to the penthouse and a note.
Zane,
I can’t love this lie anymore. I’ve been telling you what you wanted to hear but I never meant the words. I never did. Now that your lie is out in the open there’s no reason for me to stay.
Elizabeth
Falling into the nearest chair, I think I’m as close to fainting as I’ve ever been. This cannot be real!
The room is spinning. My eyes are burning. My stomach is twisting and I think I might be having a stroke.
“I need a drink,” I mumble to myself as I stumble to the kitchen to grab the first alcoholic beverage my eyes land on.
My stomach lurches and I take a couple of quick steps to the trash can in case I hurl. The bag inside is almost empty and I spot some shards of black glass at the very bottom.
Swallowing the bile down, I reach in. “It’s her phone, I think.”
It’s broken into pieces for some reason and I pull all the pieces out and go to get a plastic bag to put them in. I have no idea if this means anything at all but I feel like I should keep this for some reason. I stop by the table and pick up the note and the pen she must’ve written it with and drop them into the bag too and zip it up.
Taking the bag with me, I go back to the bedroom to see what all she’s taken now that I know she’s gone. Still hanging on the side of the mirror is the little lighthouse necklace I gave her and that thought alone has me confused as hell.
“Does she think I’m taking the lighthouse back?” I ask myself.
Taking the necklace, I add it to the bag of things then put it in my top dresser drawer.
The sound of the doorbell has me sprinting to it in hopes she’s changed her mind. “Elizabeth,” I pant out as I pull the door open.
“No,” Meagan says with a laugh. “But I am looking for her.”
“Why?” I ask as I stand in the door, not letting her inside.
“I want to bury the hatchet with her. Since you told me your big news this afternoon, I didn’t want any more bad blood between us. Did she go somewhere?”
“Yes,” I say and take a step back so she can come inside. “Please, come in.”
Meagan comes inside, following me. “Something seems wrong, Zane. What is it?”
“She left me,” I say and can’t even believe the words that came out of my mouth. “She left a note. It said she was lying to me about how she felt about me. But, Meagan, she wasn’t lying. I could tell she meant what she said.”
“Oh, Zane,” Meagan says. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I’m going to go to Chesapeake City to find her. I’m going to make her talk to me. I don’t believe she doesn’t love me. I know she loves me. There’s no way anyone can fake that look she had in her eyes when she said she loved me.”
Meagan takes my hand and pulls me to sit next to her on the sofa. “You need to take a seat and steady yourself. Let me grab you something to drink.”
She gets up and goes to the kitchen while my head feels like it might explode. I don’t know how or why Elizabeth would do this to me. It makes no sense. None at all!
Meagan comes back in with a tall glass of dark liquid poured over some ice cubes. Placing it in my hand, she sits back down. I notice she’s leaving room between us, a thing she has never done before.
“Thank you, Meagan. This is nice of you,” I say then take a long drink that burns like fire as it goes down my throat.
“I came here this evening to apologize to you both for my previous behavior. It has come to my attention that I’ve been a bit aggressive in my pursuit of you. I never meant to be like that. Once I realized what I’ve been doing I just couldn’t get here fast enough to tell you how horrible I feel about how I’ve treated you. I do care about you after all.”
“Thank you,” I say again and take another drink. I think I need an intravenous line to get this into my system and help me to stop feeling so shocked.
“I see now this is a terrible time for me to be doing this. You told me things were going so well between you two that I never in a million years thought I’d come here and find this happening. Not in a million years. You two did look like you were in love.”
“We did, didn’t we?” I ask as I take another drink.
“I hate to say this, but she was quite the actress. It just shows you not to take up with anyone quite so quickly. I mean you didn’t know her at all and you moved her into your home the first night you’d met her. Things were bound to go wrong.”
“Yeah, but I never thought they’d go this wrong. She and I may have looked like we were rushing things but we really weren’t. She slept in the guest room at first. We really did get to know each other and develop real feelings for one another before our relationship got physical.”
“Well, you let her know you, anyway. Seems she might’ve been hiding who she really was. Tell me how she was when you went to the family thing she took you to.”
“That was a nightmare,” I say as I recall that awkward day. “We lied to them about our marriage too. I took on a role for that. A role I was not accustomed to at all.”
Meagan’s eyes go wide as she asks, “What did she make you do, Zane?”
“I offered. She didn’t make me do anything. But I came off as being very submissive to her.” I take another drink with that memory.
“You, submissive?” she asks with a laugh. “Never!”
“Yeah, well, I did do that. But it wasn’t her fault.” I look at Meagan and realize it was all her fault. “You know that was your doing, right?”
She looks down and nods. “It was and I’m sorry.” She looks at me with tear-filled eyes. “I’ve been a horrible person, Zane. A person I didn’t know I could be. I came to apologize and try to make things right again. Your friendship means a lot to me. I wanted to let Elizabeth know how sorry I was and if there was anything I could do to make up for that.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask as I feel kind of numb and that feels a hell of a lot better than kind of about to have a stroke.
“But now she’s gone,” she says. “Perhaps I was right about her, though. I mean, she has left you, telling you she lied to you. I suppose that’s better found out now than later.”
I suppose so, but I have a feeling the real pain of her leaving and lying hasn’t even begun to form in my heart yet. And I have no idea how I’ll survive it when it does?
To be continued…
The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series
A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance
Book 6
His Command
By Michelle Love
Description
Devastation. Lies. Decisions.
Elizabeth gets her old job back to make ends meet and is surprised to find Zane still wants her to have the lighthouse. She refuses it and the job he says is still hers.
Zane helps Meagan out with her political endeavors and that ends up on television where Elizabeth sees Meagan has gotten what she wanted, Zane.
When the keys to the lighthouse are given to her, she decides to accept the place since Zane has obviously gone on with his life.
Zane fi
nds he can wait no longer for Elizabeth to explain to him why she left. Since he knows where she lives, he makes an unannounced visit that leads to revelations for them both.
Will Elizabeth be able to conceal the threats from Meagan or will she tell Zane everything, risking his future?
Chapter 1
ELIZABETH
It’s been three days since I left New York and I’m finally through crying. I think.
I must really love Zane as I’ve hardly been able to sleep without being snuggled up with him each night. I’ve lost about five pounds as I haven’t been able to eat at all. I’ve barely managed to drink a glass of water each day. It helped replenish my tears so I could continue crying.
Now I’m on my way to the diner to beg for my job back. I’m praying the owner and my co-workers can forgive me for quitting without any notice. I don’t know what I’ll do if they don’t hire me back.
A horn honks at me as I walk along the sidewalk. When I look over I see it’s the old man, Gus, who’s working on the lighthouse. “Hey, Lizzie, that man of yours has been looking for you. He said you need to call him. And when are you gonna be able to come check the progress we’ve been making on the lighthouse?”
“That’s not mine anymore. I don’t know why he thinks I could keep it. And I can’t call him. Tell him that, will you?” I ask as he shakes his head and pulls to the curb, parking and getting out.
He walks to the back of his old, sky blue truck and puts the tailgate down. “Get on over here and tell me what’s going on.”
“There’s nothing to tell. We broke up,” I say as I try to keep walking.
With one quick swipe, the man has my arm and tugs me to take a seat on the tailgate. “He said you left him. Now, why would you do that?”
“I had to,” I tell him. I can feel the tears threatening me and I blink a few times to get them under control.
“This might not be any of my business,” he says.
“You’re right. It’s not,” I tell him and try to get off the tailgate.
His hand holding my arms stops me. “Well, I’m going to make it my business as you both are my bosses and I’m the one in a lurch here. Now tell me why you left him, leaving him a note that said you lied to him about your feelings.”
“It was something I had to do,” I say as I have no idea what else to say to anyone.
I can’t go around telling anyone how Meagan Saunders is blackmailing me. Someone would surely leak that information back to Zane and he’d not take the threat seriously. I know he wouldn’t. But I am taking it seriously.
“Okay, so you had to leave him,” Gus says. “He told me if I found you to tell you that you’re still the project manager. He said to let you know, you still work for his company.”
“I can’t do that,” I whine. “I have to forget about him.”
“You need to talk to the man. Now where’s your daddy? Did he and your momma leave town again?”
“Yes.” I nod. “They left right after the reunion our family had. They’re going to get a house in Mexico. They had to go back to make sure the papers go through.”
“You need to go see someone. Maybe one of those aunts of yours. You need to talk to someone, girl. You’re making big mistakes here.”
“Well, they’re my mistakes to make, Gus. Thanks for caring and all but you have no idea why I’m doing what I am,” I tell him and climb off the back of the truck. “I need to go get my waitressing job back. See you around. Tell Zane to go with what he was going to do with that property before I came along and messed up all of his plans. Having that lighthouse to look at won’t be quite the comfort I thought it’d be. As a matter of fact, every time I look out my bedroom window and see it, it makes me cry. I’d like to see a bunch of condos there now.”
Gus watches me as I walk away and I can see he’s confused by my actions. His truck goes past me as he leaves and I see him picking up his cell phone. Most likely calling Zane to let him know he talked to me.
To hear Zane’s voice would be so nice. But I think it would set me back. Not that I’ve moved forward at all.
The glass front door of the diner opens up and Tanya shouts, “You have some nerve!”
“Is that how things are going to be?” I shout back at her. “Should I even bother asking for my job back?”
“You want your job back? What happened to money-bags?” she asks as I get to her.
“I had to leave him. And we were never married. That was a lie I had to tell my family.” Moving in front of her, I go inside the small diner to find the people I’ve worked with forever staring at me.
The dishwasher, Clive shakes his head as he says, “What the hell happened to you?”
“Love happened to me,” I say as I sit at the counter. “And it’s kicking my ass.”
Tanya sits on the stool next to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Love isn’t supposed to kick your ass, sugar. So what’s happened?”
“A lot of shit has happened. I can’t tell anyone all of it. I think that’s the hardest part. I have to keep this all to myself. It’s for him that I left him. But I can’t explain that, so please don’t ask me to.”
“You know what, Liz?” Tanya asks me. “Did you know that Bob and I didn’t get to go get married because of you?”
“I’m sorry,” I whine and put my head on the cool counter top. “I know that was selfish of me to quit like that.”
Tanya pulls me up by the shoulders to make me look at her. “Don’t be sorry. I found out the day we were supposed to have gone to Vegas that he has another girl pregnant one town over. He wanted to hurry up and marry me, thinking that girl couldn’t make him take responsibility for that baby if he was already married.”
“Idiot!” I say. “I’m so sorry, though.”
“Don’t be sorry. You not taking my shifts was a blessing in disguise. I admit I cursed you up until that other news hit my ears. Then I changed that cursing into blessings for you. So get ready to give up this insane idea that you can’t tell anyone the real reason you left that man you obviously love.”
Chapter 2
ZANE
“Why would she say she had to leave me, Gus?” I ask as the old contractor fills me in on a talk he had with Elizabeth.
“I don’t know. I told her she needs to go talk to someone. She’s not acting like herself at all. I’ve known her since she was knee high to a grasshopper. She looks like hell too.”
My stomach does a flip and my entire body aches with the sadness I feel. It’s been three days since she took off, leaving me here all alone. Three nights have passed as bits of sleep here and there as exhaustion creeps in occasionally and steals a few winks from my continuously working mind.
I cannot imagine why she’d leave. And giving me no more explanation than she lied about her feelings. If she lied about them then she shouldn’t look like hell the way Gus is saying she does.
“What about the job, Gus. What did she say about that?” I ask as I lean on my desk and feel another quick nap coming on rapidly.
“She says she’s going back to work at the diner. She says she can’t work for you. She says you should build those condos you were planning on building.”
The buzzer on the intercom startles me. “Damn it! I’ll call you later, Gus. Thanks.”
I press the button and hear my secretary, Lane, as she says, “Judge Saunders is here for your appointment, Mr. White.”
“Send her in,” I say and press the button under my desk to open the door.
Meagan is wearing a smart looking tan suit along with a bright smile. She holds up two cups. “I brought you a latte. I thought it might perk you up.”
“Thanks,” I say as I go around the desk and take the coffee then reach out to shake her hand. She moves though and hugs me.
“You look like you need a hug more than a handshake, you poor man,” she says.
The hug is fairly platonic. Not too much squeezing on her part which is new. “Thanks. I’m having a hard time accepti
ng her leaving.”
She lets me go and I go back to sit behind the desk as she takes the chair in front of it. Crossing her long legs, she sips her drink. “Have you heard from the woman at all?”
“I just got off the phone with the first bit of information about her. The contractor we hired to make the renovations to the lighthouse I gave her called me. He said he talked to her and she said to forget about the lighthouse and build the condos. She also said she’s not working for my company. I’m trying to decide what I should do.”
“I think it’s pretty obvious,” Meagan says.
I nod and say, “Go see her.”
At the same time, Meagan says, “Leave her alone.”
“Leave her alone?” I ask as I shake my head. “How’s that going to fix things?”
Leaning forward, Meagan puts her elbows on my desk and laces her fingers together then leans her chin on them. “It’s been three days, Zane. She wasn’t lying to you when she told you she had been lying before. It’s time you come to terms that she really was just toying with you or trying to get something out of you.”
“If she wanted something out of me then why wouldn’t she be accepting the lighthouse and the job?” I ask as I watch her eyes roaming around the room.
She sits back and throws her hands up in the air. “How should I know? I didn’t know that woman and obviously, neither did you. Anyway, about this appointment, show me your paperwork. I want to get this business taken care of then I have a little favor to ask of you.”
Pulling the eviction papers out of my desk drawer, I place them on the desktop. “These are pretty straight forward.”
Taking the pen I’ve pulled out for her to use to sign them, she pulls the first page to her and signs it without even reading it. “I trust you, Zane. No reason to explain anything to me.” She signs the other one then hands the pen back to me. “Now on to the little favor I need.”
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