by E M Courier
She clears her throat and sits up straight. “Well, I’d love to be a journalist one day. English was my major in college and I’ve always loved writing.”
Not the kind of information he was looking for, but he already knows this process is going to take time. “Is that why you wanted to work at Novak?” That and the fact that he baited her to work for him.
“Actually, yes. Do you like your job?”
“Yes,” he gives a curt nod. He didn’t want to talk about himself. “Let’s not talk about work. Where are you from?”
“All over,” she shrugs. “My father never liked to stay in one place. So I got to see the world, although we never went to any amazing places like Chicago or San Francisco and we never came close to coming to New York City. We stayed in the West a lot.”
“What brought you to New York then?”
“I can’t explain it. Even though I’ve never been here, I feel like I have. New York has always been the place I’ve dreamt about. Like I’m meant to be here,” she pauses looking down at her lap. “Does that make sense?”
He nods his head.
“My father didn’t want me to come here. He still doesn’t want me here, but I’ve been living in New York State now for a handful of years. I have my best friend here with me and I love it.”
“New York is a beautiful city,” Alexander agrees.
Alexander wasn’t born in New York, he was born in Norway before brought to New York by his new parents. His sister Olive came from Norway as well, they have spent many vacations in the country learning about their roots. Just as they have visited Japan for Kai many times as well as Ireland for Liam, and the state of Georgia for their only American sibling, Atticus. Ellie was different, she was left abandoned as newborn in front of the firehouse. His mother was friends with a firefighter who showed her the baby. She instantly fell in love.
“So you were born in New York?” Scarlett asks. The Novak siblings are public knowledge, their biographies could be googled on Wikipedia. Any follower of the family would know their true birth origin. Either she did know and was playing dumb, or she truly doesn’t know.
Alexander answers anyways, “Norway.”
“I’ve always wanted to go abroad. Father said we couldn’t leave the country.”
“Can’t or won’t?” He drinks the rest of his wine.
“He told me all our important documents were burned in a house fire when I was a baby. I don’t have any sort of original birth certificate to get a passport,” she frowns. “Or at least that’s what my father tells me.”
Alexander could see it for the lie it is. Scarlett isn’t lying. No, she believes the lie her father told her, there was no fire. But he knows she is lying about one thing, her name. Gavin MacIntyre—wanted by the police—goes by the name Henry Halloway. His daughter, Hazel MacIntyre, alias, Scarlett Halloway.
“Excuse me,” she stands brushing the skirt of her dress down. “I’m going to go to the restroom.”
He nods his head as he watches her nervously look around to find the restrooms. He stares at her figure—not as curvy as the girls he’s used to—but just as tempting. Forcing himself to look away, he pours himself a new glass and finishes it in two large sips.
Next to her plate is her outdated iPhone. Without hesitation he reaches for it unlocking the password-free screen and clicking on the call app. There is another call timed earlier today. The call was ten minutes long and the most interesting thing about it is the number isn’t unknown. He stares at the ten digit number but more specifically memorizes the first three.
7-0-2
Alexander looks over his shoulder before pressing the call button. His heart beats fast with anticipation. It rings about five times before he contemplates hanging up until….
“Thank you for calling Greenstone’s B&B where—”
He hangs up before the female could finish her sentence. He deletes the call log before placing her phone exactly where he found it.
Greenstone.
Making a mental note to call his private investigator, the waiter arrives just in time for him to place their orders and Scarlett returns from the bathroom.
She looks flustered and nervous as though she’s never been on a dinner date with a man before. He’d bet his life savings that is the case. Her cheeks are slightly pink and he can make out what at first glance looks to be perspiration, but she must’ve washed her face with cold water.
He finds this—endearing.
“So,” she fidgets with the silverware on the cloth napkin. “Do you come here often?”
Chuckling at her use of small talk, he answers, “I’ve been here many times, but it’s been awhile. What about you? It looks as though this is your first time in a restaurant.”
“In one this fancy, yes,” she nods her head. “Sorry if I’m a bit nervous.”
“What about this makes you nervous?” He raises an eyebrow enjoying the way she squirms at his question.
“Well, you are my boss.”
“I am.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to step over the line between boss and friends.”
He shrugs. “It’s okay if you do. Yes, we work together and I’m your boss, but I like to get to know my employees. Right now, off the work clock, I am your friend.”
She smiles bringing her glass to lips. He watches her throat constrict as she swallows a sip of her wine. He imagines his hands closing around her smooth neck and squeezing. The thought of the look in her eyes thrilling.
Oh the ways he could corrupt her.
Mold her to enjoy every one of his dark desires. The ways he would make her beg. Tie her up. Submit wholly and utterly. To give her mind, body, and soul.
To completely break her.
He notices her acting differently. She suddenly looks tired and sensitive to the overhead light and holds her head as if it’s aching.
“Are you okay?” He narrows his eyes.
“Oh, yeah,” she doesn’t look at him.
“You don’t look it.”
“Sometimes this happens. I’m okay.”
“Migraines?”
“Uh, sorta.”
“This isn’t a migraine.”
“No, it is,” she pours herself a glass of water from the ice pitcher the waiter set at their table earlier. “Sorry. I’m just a little scatterbrained right now.”
Looking at her more closely, he notices a large scar running from her temple down to the end of her eyebrow and stopping near the corner of her eye. “Where’d you get that scar from?”
Tilting her head she looks confused until her head reaches for the deep scar. “This? Car accident.”
Could it be the same car accident…
He shakes his head of the thought. “Would you like me to take you home?”
“I wouldn’t want to ruin our dinner,” she frowns.
“It’s no problem,” Alexander says with a hint of sympathy in his voice.
Just as she is going to answer, the waiter shows up with their delicious smelling food. He ordered them filet mignon and was going to surprise her with dessert later.
“There’s no point in wasting this food…” her mouth nearly salivates as she picks up her fork and knife.
He doesn’t bother telling her he could always pack up their meals and have her take it back to her apartment.
She devours the first piece of her food moaning as she does so. Eating as if she hasn’t eaten in months. Come to think of it, Alexander caught her having just a protein bar on her lunch break.
Of course her funds are low, he has seen her terrible apartment. The hole he saw in her pantyhose earlier tells him she also can’t afford a new pair.
He finds himself smiling when she shoves at least three pieces in her mouth at once, chewing with a full mouth full. Some of the juice from the meat pools down her mouth, she quickly wipes it away with her hand but not before looking at him. Embarrassed that he caught her.
“Sorry,” she says bashfully.
�
�Don’t be sorry,” he waved it off.
She resumes her eating and Alexander finds himself smiling.
Surprisingly, Scarlett seems fine enough that Alexander asks the waiter to bring dessert. Despite her still looking like she’s in pain, the food seemed to have brought on some relief and she wasn’t complaining to leave either. Besides, he thinks she could use the extra food.
After her dessert is finished, he drives her back to her apartment. Before she gets out, she gives him a kind smile and thanks him for a wonderful evening. His heart jumps in his chest.
Back at Alexander’s apartment he calls David, his private investigator.
“I have a mission for you. Area code 7-0-2 and the name of the town is Greenstone. I think we’ve finally caught Gavin.”
***
Occasionally the trauma that was done to Scarlett’s brain the day of her car accident has some long-term effects. Her head was thrown at the dashboard giving her a permanent scar on the right side of her face and a concussion that left her in the hospital for weeks. The migraine at dinner came on sporadically like it always does. The sensitivity to light and noise and her mind going into a cloudy state of confusion. She felt flattered that Alexander seemed to care so much. Since she met him she’s always thought of him as her cold boss.
Jo is worried when she steps through the door. Forgetful as she is sometimes, she must’ve forgot to message Jo to tell her she’d be late.
“Sorry,” Scarlett apologizes. “I thought you were with Tristian.”
“I was supposed to meet him at the club, but I was waiting for you to get home so we could go together,” she puts her hands on her hips.
“I’m sorry Jo, it was a spur of the moment thing.”
“Since when do you do spur of the moment things?” Jo follows Scarlett into her bedroom.
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “My boss asked me to and—”
“Alexander Novak asked you to dinner?”
Scarlett gives her friend a less than amusing look. “Why say it like that?”
“Sorry, I just can’t believe it. Alexander doesn’t seem like the dating type.”
“You say that like you know him.”
“Everyone knows him. He’s the most eligible bachelor in all of the country. Everyone is obsessed with him!”
“Including you apparently,” Scarlett grabs pajamas from her drawers laying them out on her twin sized bed.
“Why didn’t you go home with him after?”
She jerks her head back. “What makes you think he asked?”
“Why would he ask a girl out on a date and not want some action? I mean come on, Scar, he is a guy and he does have girls throwing themselves at him. He probably has a new girl everyday in his bed.”
“Well he didn’t ask and I would’ve said no.”
“No?! Why not?” Jo hounds her. They’re silent for a heartbeat. “Is it because you like Liam better?” She nudges her in the ribs.
“You’re taking this all way too far. Alexander is my boss and Liam might as well be my boss as well. I’m not getting involved in a workplace romance.”
“It’s clear Liam has a crush on you and as for Alex, I mean he definitely brought you on a date. He likes you.”
“Goodnight, Jo,” Scarlett leads her friend out of her room and shuts the door.
There’s no way Alexander sees her as anything but a secretary.
Laying in bed she stares at the dark ceiling. She can hear Jo’s muffled voice through the thin wall between them. She must be on the phone with Tristian. Her thoughts wander to her father’s words earlier. Her entire life she couldn’t wait to have a life of her own, to choose where she wants to live, to keep a job, and make friends she wouldn’t have to leave. This is everything she has ever wanted a kid, but she’s missing a part of herself. Her dearest father who raised and loved her with his whole heart. She misses him more than she can comprehend.
Turning the lamp on her bedside on, she begins to clean her already clean room. Anything to distract herself from the chaos currently in her mind.
By the time her alarm goes off for work, Scarlett only slept for three hours. The bags under her eyes are dark, the whites of her eyes are red, and her head is still pounding as if she has a hangover. Pulling her hair into a ponytail and putting on a simple black dress, she grabs her purse and heads out.
Her heart drops when she doesn’t see Alexander’s car. She starts to feel foolish for thinking he would continue to pick her up. After their ‘date’ last night he probably realized what a bore she is. Especially compared to the other beautiful women who would easily bed him.
He didn’t even ask her to come over after dinner.
Well she did have a migraine.
A car horn beeps and Scarlett jumps, startled. Across the street is silver Mercedes Benz—a more sleek design than Alexander’s intimidating black one.
The window rolls down and in the driver's side is Liam with a boyish smile on his face. “I’ve come to pick you up.”
“Where’s Alexander?” She crosses the street walking over to the other side, sitting in the passenger seat.
Liam shrugs. “All I know is that I beat him to it,” he steps on the gas zooming through the street.
Scarlett grips the underside of her seat as Liam speeds. “But if Alexander is going to pick me up and he’s waiting and I don’t come out—”
“Don’t worry about my brother.” He gives her a flattering smile. “How was dinner last night? You look exhausted.”
“Dinner was nice. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Couldn’t sleep?”
She knew what he was getting out. “He dropped me off after dinner because I had a migraine.”
“Oh,” he seems pleased with that. “If you’re feeling up to it, how about we go to the club tonight?” She opens her mouth to decline his offer but he quickly elaborates, “As friends. Just friends hanging out.”
“I’ll tell you what, if Jo wants to go to the club tonight, I’ll see you there.”
“You know, you’re not like other girls I’ve met.”
She raises her eyebrows.
“Girls act differently when they know my last name or my net worth. You seem unbothered by it and it’s refreshing,” he points out.
When they get to work, Alexander isn’t in his office. Scarlett starts to get nervous that Alexander is waiting outside her apartment building. She texts Jo asking if a black Mercedes is out front, but she replies no.
He must be running late then.
Liam hangs out around Scarlett’s desk waiting for Alexander and making conversation with her. She pays no attention to him as she scans the calendar on her desk noticing that her boss has a meeting in five minutes.
“Are you sure Mr. Novak isn’t in his office?” Scarlett asks.
Liam knocks again. No reply. He jiggles the locked handle on the door. “Alex?” He calls out.
No reply.
“That’s weird,” he murmurs to himself. “Alex has never been late a day in his life.”
“Do you think there was an accident?” Scarlett stands up feeling worried herself.
Liam pulls out his phone and calls his brother. “Voicemail,” he presses the end button and begins to pace.
“I’m going to go to his apartment, see if he overslept.”
“I’ll have to call and cancel his appointments,” Scarlett sits back down and begins dialing numbers.
***
Alexander is so happy that he could leap with joy. Years of dead ends are over with three simple words
We found him.
His private investigator found Gaviin in record time. The old fool made a drastic mistake and before he realizes and relocates, Alexander will be there and when he gets his hands on him—
Alexander’s phone rings as he sits aboard his private airplane waiting for take off. Liam. He sends the call to voicemail. He doesn’t need a lecture nor does he need anyone trying to talk him out of this. Nevada is close to four hour f
light. For four hours he will be plotting all the ways he can ruin Gavin’s life. All the ways he can make him suffer for as long as possible. To ruin his life ten times worse than he ruined Alexander’s life.
In his wallet is a picture of Ellie. Her first grade picture, one of his favorites. He remembers the day so vividly. She was nervous about what to wear, Alex was in high school at the time and she looked up to him, trusting his every word and opinion. Running into his room crying, she was holding three different dresses. He consoled her and ended up missing his first period class.
Her hair was always crazy curly, her tight spiral curls make it look like she had an Afro sometimes. She begged him to straighten her hair—he couldn’t say no. He burned his finger twice but anything to make her happy. It took longer than he thought, but she was so happy with her new straight hair that she kissed him on the cheek. The green dress he picked out looked nice on her tan skin and matched her bright green eyes.
Ellie looked adorable but what made his heart soar was how wide her smile was. Alexander puts his siblings above everything, cherishing his family. Then everything fell apart. Gavin ruined everything. He ruined his family and Alexander vowed that day to do the same.
That day…
Ellie begged him for ice cream. Their father was busy at work and their mother was out with her Olive shopping for a homecoming dress. Alex was the only one with his driver's license at the time and the rest of his siblings were too busy playing video games.
He grabbed his car keys and even let her sit in the front. She was under the weight limit for the passenger seat, but he couldn’t say no to her begging puppy-dog face.
He was careful. He was so careful driving. He wasn’t even that careful the day of his road test. He would never purposely put Ellie in danger.
He didn’t see the car.
The car, the rundown ugly brown station wagon ran the red light—full speed—and t-boned his $200,000 car. Time stayed still. The accident seemed to happen in slow motion. Her screams pierced his ears. He wanted to reach out and protect her, he wanted to switch spots with her.
The impact was so much.
His car turned over.
Everything went back.