EK
Knowing Kendra and Kari, this might be a five-thousand-dollar mistake.
Much to Edric’s surprise, he felt something grab his arm. His first instinct was to rip it away but then he saw who the culprit was: Ellie. She was clinging to his arm and smiling lightly. He felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier and yawned. I suppose missing one gym day won’t hurt.
***
Edric awoke the second time to the sunlight streaming down on his face. It had been years since he woke up to the warm sun. He retrieved his arm and then pushed himself up in a sitting position.
Unfortunately for him, he pulled his arm away from Ellie a little too quickly and the young woman woke up startled.
“Sorry. You can go back to sleep.”
“What time is it?”
Edric reached over and grabbed his cell phone to check the time. He was shocked at the result.
“Ten.”
“T-ten?”
“Better get to work now or your boss is going to fire you.”
“I-I’m sorry I overslept.”
“Ellie.” He leaned over and lightly kissed her on the lips. “I’m kidding. I’m glad you got rest.”
“How long have you been up?”
“Just.”
Ellie giggled. “I thought you were mister I-get-up-at-four-in-the-morning.”
“I am, I slept in this morning.”
“Why’s that?”
“You. Seeing you sleeping beside me made me not want to leave my warm, comfortable, bed.”
Ellie leaned over and started the process of picking up her clothes from yesterday. “We should go to work.”
The muscular man pulled her back into bed by the waist and kissed her tenderly. She giggled. “Or we could take the day off and do something. Just the two of us. I’ll turn off my phone and we can go on a proper date. Would you like that?”
Ellie nodded her head. “I would like that a lot.”
The CEO stood up to fetch his bathrobe. He could tell that his girlfriend was taking a minute to admire his physique. The airy giggle gave it away.
He stepped out of the hallway and saw five different shopping bags laid out in the hall along with a receipt for fifteen thousand dollars with a note attached.
Keep the hundred bucks. We want the gossip.
K&K
Edric laughed out loud. Looks like they took me up on my offer to buy themselves whatever they wanted… He then hauled the bags of clothing into his bedroom.
“What’s that?” Ellie yawned.
“When I woke up at four this morning—because I do get up at four in the morning—I realized that you didn’t have any clothes here so I asked two of my maids to buy you some for today. It seems that they went overboard.” He said, gesturing to the bags.
“Oh, um. Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Well, I wasn’t about to have you do a walk of shame where you parade around in yesterday’s clothes.”
“Thank you for thinking of me.”
Edric shoved his hands in his bathrobe pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “You can keep some clothing here. If you want. I have the space for you; I can clear out a drawer or give you some closet space.”
“I’d like that a lot.”
“Good.”
Edric brought over the bags of clothing and dropped them on the bed. Ellie opened the bag and pulled out various pieces of clothing—underwear, jackets, pants, skirts, shirts, suits, dresses, and a few pieces of lingerie, which Ellie turned bright-red upon seeing. “Thank you for the clothing.”
“Thank Kendra and Kari. They picked it out this morning, along with lots of things for themselves.”
Ellie giggled.
“So, what would you like to do for our normal date today?”
She shrugged. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t have any preferences; you decide.”
“Well, right now I would like to shower. But maybe we can go bowling? That’s always fun.”
“Bowling it is.”
***
Ellie felt a little unnerved by all the attention that she and Edric were getting. So many people were staring at them as they bowled. A few people tried to approach them but Edric politely told the onlookers to back off. Surprisingly, she was less unnerved than she thought that she would be. Most of the time she didn’t pay attention, because her eyes were only on Edric.
Ellie giddily laughed after getting a strike. He picked her up, spun her around, and kissed her on the lips.
“See? We’re out together in public and the world hasn’t ended.” She passed him the ball.
“Give it time, Eleonore.” He rolled the ball down the lane. All the pins fell over but one. He frowned.
“You must like being able to go out as yourself though.”
“That’s true. We’re going to get mobbed when we leave here.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because the man three lanes away took our picture an hour ago.”
Ellie giggled. “You sound like a private detective. Taking lessons from Cassie?”
“Nope, just years of practice.”
Ellie bowled another ball down the lane. Then Edric. Finally, their scores were tied. The businessman managed to win by two points.
After bowling, he took her by the hand and took her out of the bowling alley and over to the limo parked right outside. As soon as they stepped out of the building, they were swarmed by a barrage of cameramen and reporters. Ellie took a step behind Edric and clung to his arm as they walked through the crowd of reporters.
“Kensington! Do you have anything to say about your sudden romance with your assistant?”
“No comment.”
“How long have you two been together?”
“No comment.”
“Have you always been dating your assistant?”
“No comment.”
“Eleonore Kent, what are you wearing?”
“Pardon?”
“What are you wearing?”
“Oh. Um…um…a dress and a woolen jacket.”
“Designer?”
“Um…I-I d-don’t know.” Ellie turned bright-red and slunk behind the tall man further. She was grateful for his height and sturdy presence.
“No comment.” Edric barked. “Make way, people!” He shoved his way through the crowd with Ellie grabbing onto his arm.
“Mr. Kensington!”
“No comment.”
“Mr. Kensington!” The persistent reporter continued. “What do you have to say about Charlie Logan’s new product?”
Both of them froze.
“What?”
“What do you have to say about Charlie Logan’s new product, the one he just announced.”
“N-no comment.”
“Do you think that Charlie Logan’s product is a rip-off of yours?”
“No comment.”
Edric finished making his way through the crowds and into the limo. As soon as the limo door closed, the CEO ran his fingers through his hair and tapped his foot nervously.
“Fuck.”
“Is everything okay?”
He shook his head. “Logan stole my technology. He must have gotten it from somewhere. I think my company has a mole.”
Chapter Nineteen
Ellie returned home with her head hung low. When she heard that Charlie Logan was releasing his own virtual technology game entitled “The Renaissance” on his own Virtual technology headset, she felt a pang of guilt.
Edric talked about it the whole limo ride away from the bowling place. He knew that there was a mole somewhere in his company. The similarities between his product and Virttek’s were uncanny and, on top of that, Logan didn’t come up with the technology by himself so someone must have leaked it to him. That evening he spent a solid hour speculating with Ellie on who the mole could be. The further the conversation went on, the sicker Ellie felt. An hour later, she finally excused herself and went home unde
r the pretense of checking on Spots.
She knew that there was a strong possibility that her sister was the mole, even though she was hoping that it was someone else. Anyone else. Anyone besides Cassie. Ellie couldn’t live with the guilt of knowing that she enabled her sister to harm the only man she ever loved. In her mind, if Cassie was the mole, she was the mole too. The only reason why she agreed to work for the Kensington Group was to spy.
When Ellie saw her sister sitting down on the couch with her laptop on her lap and typing away, her heart sank further. The past day was a dream turned nightmare.
“Please. Tell me that it’s not you.”
Cassie looked up. “What’s wrong?”
“Please, tell me that you’re not the one who gave Logan all of Edric’s information. Please tell me that you’re not responsible for this…”
She closed her laptop. “Ellie…”
“Oh God. It is you.”
“I had to do it.”
“But…but you didn’t, Cassie! It’s wrong!” Her voice cracked and hands shook. “I thought that you were friends with Edric too. How could you do this to him? How could you do this to me? All for money?”
“It’s not for the money. I had to do it. Logan was going to leave me if I didn’t. I hope you understand.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Charlie Logan and I are dating. We have been for several months now.”
“What? But he’s married. I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry, El.”
“What’s wrong with you, Cassie? You used to have standards! You used to…you used to…I mean, if this were in the past, you would have told Logan that you wouldn’t compromise yourself for any guy. And you’d never date a married man! I just don’t understand…”
“There are exceptions to everything. You’ll understand some day.”
“No, Cassie, I won’t. What you did was wrong. Sure, there are exceptions to everything, but this isn’t one of them. You want it to be an exception because you’re in the situation but it’s not. Edric worked hard on that program—you know that more than most people because you helped him by testing it. And you stole it from him.” Tears started to stream down the young woman’s face. “I thought you had standards, Cassie.”
“Ellie…” She stood up and placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder.
Ellie inhaled sharply and looked at the ceiling to pool her tears. She swallowed the lump in her throat and exhaled slowly. It took a Herculean effort for her to compose herself.
“How did you do it?” Ellie asked evenly.
“Do what?”
“Steal Edric’s information.”
“Ellie, why are you doing this to yourself?”
“How did you do it?”
The private detective sighed. “I took a picture of a blueprint from his desk.”
“When?”
“At the gala. That was the camera noise you heard that night. The light was the camera flash too.”
Ellie shook her head and began to cry again. “At the gala.” She repeated, remembering her first kiss with Edric. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I let this happen to him. It’s all my fault.”
“Ellie, stop it.”
“It’s all my fault…”
“Ellie.”
“It’s all—”
“Ellie. Shut up!” Cassie grabbed her by her arms and stared her down. The young woman sniffled and blinked. “If you don’t say anything to him, he’s never going to suspect it’s me and he won’t blame you. You’ll be free and clear of all of this.”
“I can’t lie to him like that.”
“You’re not lying. You’re just not saying anything.”
Ellie chuckled bitterly. “And look where that got me.”
“It’ll be fine. Just keep quiet and pretend that it’s business as usual. It’ll be hard for a few days but eventually it’ll be like nothing happened.”
“But I let this happen to him. I just don’t see why Charlie Logan is worth sacrificing your values.”
“Oh, come off it, Ellie. Like you haven’t scarified your values to be with Edric.”
“No, I haven’t. Edric wouldn’t ask me to do something like that. And even if he did, I wouldn’t.” She hiccoughed. “Logan’s not a good man and not someone who you would want to be with if he gives you…if he gives you an ultimatum like that.”
The private detective took her petite, crying sister by the shoulders and walked her over to the sofa and sat down next to her.
“He’s everything I’ve ever wanted. I didn’t think that a guy like that would ever want to be with me. I did it to keep him around.”
Ellie squeezed her older sister’s hand. “You should be with someone who loves you.”
“But Logan does love me.”
Ellie sighed and wiped away another stray tear.
The two sat in silence.
“This is going to really hurt Edric.” Ellie said again with a cracking voice.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to talk to Logan. Maybe I can talk him out of releasing the product.”
“Do you think that’ll work?”
Cassie shrugged. “I’ll try, Ellie. I’ll try…”
***
Cassie plopped down on the hotel bed next to her older boyfriend. All she did was sit down and stare straight ahead for five minutes, trying to think of the right way to phrase her request. Finally, Logan spoke up.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
She shook her head. As much as the red-head tried, she couldn’t push Ellie’s words out of her head.
Have I really sacrificed my values?
“Do you think that you could stop the launch of your new product?” She finally asked.
He scoffed. “Are you serious?”
“I was talking to Ellie and…” Her voice trailed off.
“And?”
“I feel bad. She blames herself for this. And besides, it’s not like you need the money or even I need the money.”
“I thought that you understood the importance of money.”
“I do but…”
“But what?”
“It seems wrong. You wanted to stop him from plagiarizing you and now you’re plagiarizing him.”
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”
Cassie sighed.
Logan stood up and walked to the other side of the room, crossing his arms.
“Do you understand what you’re asking me to do?”
“I know it’s a tall order but…”
“That’s the understatement of the year.”
“Can you think it over? I owe it to her to ask you.”
“You don’t owe Ellie a damn thing and you know it.”
“Please? Just do it for me.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t.”
Logan balled his hands up into fists. “Cass, come on. This isn’t fair. You accepted the contract. You brought me the blueprint. Now all of a sudden you get cold feet? Come on, this is bullshit and you know it.”
The private detective stood up from the hotel bed and began to pace around the floor. She felt sick to her stomach. This isn’t how she hoped that the conversation would go at all.
“And here I thought I was going to leave my wife for you.” Logan muttered under his breath.
“Excuse me?” Cassie spun around and glared at him. She thought it was a cheap shot to pull that card on her. The mistress card.
“Nothing.”
“Look. I’m leaving now before I say something I regret.”
“No, I’ll leave.” She said through gritted teeth.
“Fine.”
With that, she slammed the door shut so hard that she heard the sound of the room rattling behind her.
***
Ellie couldn’t erase the feeling of dread that she had. She only got an hour of sleep the night before and, on top of that, she felt absolutely sick to her stomach. The two people that she
would turn for comfort—Edric and Cassie—weren’t options for her.
As much as she loved her sister, Ellie was upset with her for stealing her boyfriend’s blueprint right under her nose when they were at the gala. That night, some strange man tried to sexually assault her and a model chewed her out and called her ugly. She’d been distraught and her sister had used it as an opportunity to steal the blueprint. And then to find out that she was dating Charlie Logan—a married man! It was as if she didn’t know Cassie at all.
As for her boyfriend, Ellie couldn’t look him in the eye without getting overwhelmed with guilt. As much as she wanted to have a repeat of the other night when she made love to him, she knew that she couldn’t do that without bursting into tears.
When Ellie arrived at the office, she tried her best to stay calm and act cheerful. As soon as she arrived, Edric stood up and greeted her with a warm and tender kiss and escorted her to her desk.
“How are you this morning, my dear?” He sat on the edge of her desk and ran his fingers through her hair.
“I-I’m not feeling well.”
Edric rested his land on his girlfriend’s forehead. “Your temperature seems normal.”
“It’s a stomach thing.”
“Do you need to go home?”
“No. I would feel better if I helped you work.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded her head.
“Well, we have a lot to do before our product launch, considering the fiasco yesterday with Logan.”
Ellie nodded her head. She tried not to frown or cry or to show any outward sign of disapproval.
I’m such a coward…
She had a grand speech planned for Edric. She was going to apologize to him and beg for forgiveness. Seeing his smile and feeling his gentle touch made her back out of making any sort of statement. Instead, she smiled lightly and powered on her laptop.
The two worked in near silence. Ellie did everything that she could for Edric at work. She figured that it was the least she could do, considering the situation. She hoped that, by working, she would ease her guilt.
A Sibling's Dilemma Page 23