The Billionaire Affair, page 23
Shame comes over me and I look away, unable to meet her gaze. "I'm sorry but I couldn't tell the truth. I was undercover and that's what journalists do."
"That’s what journalists do, is it? Jace is in love with you," she says quietly. "How can you hurt him like this?"
“I love him too…”
Ivy gives a short snort of laughter at that.
"I never meant us to go this far. I thought it would be a short affair and when my time at the clinic came to an end, we'd go our separate ways."
"Do you know that he wants to propose to you?" Ivy asks.
She hasn't listened to a word I've said.
I nod. "I know. It's already too late. Jace will never believe that my feelings for him are genuine. I knew what I was getting myself into when I took on this assignment but one thing I never banked on was falling in love with Jace."
Ivy shakes her head. "So you want me to agree to your magazine publishing my story?"
"Yes. I want you to be in control of your own story so the readers can decide for themselves. If we publish Susan's story with nothing from you, then I'm sure you know how damaging that will be for the clinic.”
She nods and stares at her uneaten sandwich. She lifts her gaze back to me. “I’ll give you the go-ahead to publish my story.”
A smile breaks out on my face but before I could say anything, she continues speaking.
“You don’t get off that easily. I love Jace like a brother. I know he’ll be heartbroken but there’s nothing I can do about that. However, I can save him from humiliation. I’m giving you until Friday to come clean with him. If you don’t, I’ll do it myself.”
My blood turns to ice. How will I face Jace and tell him the truth about myself?
“Fair enough.”
Ivy pushes her chair back and leaves without another word.
Chapter 35: Jace
I’m trying not to panic that it’s Olivia’s last day of work at The Anderson Clinic. She’s been too busy with employees from the clinic trooping in to say goodbye. Right now, there’s a big lunch organized by the nurses in the fertility clinic in her honor at the café complete with a cake.
I was invited but I couldn’t bring myself to go. Olivia and I will have our own private dinner tonight to celebrate the beginning of our new life away from the clinic.
It's already lonely at the office even though Olivia hasn't officially left. I work steadily until I hear footsteps and I know that she's back. She knocks lightly on my door and I call for her to enter.
"Hi," Olivia says cheerfully. "I'm back and I brought you some cake." She comes and places a plate with a generous slice on my desk, then she comes around and plants a noisy kiss on my lips.
"More," I say, swiveling my chair around to face her.
She laughs and kisses me, her tongue withdrawing it as soon as it connects with mine.
"You're a tease, Olivia James," I say.
"We have to save something to look forward to tonight," she says and moves away. She sways her hips as she walks and my mind goes to the gutter. I can't wait to have her to myself this evening.
Time moves too fast and evening comes, time for Olivia to leave. She'd already told me she'd leave an hour earlier, at four. I find her standing by her desk looking around as if she can’t quite believe that she has to leave.
"I'm going to miss this place." She sounds teary and I hurry to her side.
"This place will miss you too." I pull her into my arms. "Remember what we said. We're not going to make this a big deal."
Olivia tightens her hold on me and then lets go. She gives me a brave smile and steps out of my arms. She picks up her handbag and a box of her belongings. "I'm ready." She kisses me again.
"I'll see you at dinnertime. My place." I walk her to the door. She stares at me for a long time, until I grow uncomfortable. Then she leaves and I return to my office.
I sit staring into space. It's going to take a lot of getting used to not having Olivia in my office all day. God, I'll miss her. Still, I'll see her this evening, so it's fine. and maybe after this, she'll be happy to be seen in public with me.
I return a few calls before deciding to wrap it up for the day. A knock comes on my door and before I can invite the person in, the door swings open. It has to be one of my brothers. They're the only ones rude enough to enter without an invitation.
Alec walks in wearing a grim expression and I immediately think the worst. Something has happened to someone in the family. He comes and sits down at the visitor’s chair and stares at me.
“What’s going on?” I ask him.
“I’m not good with words, Jace so I’ll just go ahead and tell you everything as it was told to me.” He runs a hand through his hair before he continues. “Olivia is not a personal assistant. She’s a writer at Lifestyle Magazine.”
I blink at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Your Olivia. She’s been working here undercover to find dirt at the clinic, Jace.”
I shake my head. “There must be some mistake, Alec. Who told you this?” Even as denial fills my mind, a part of me is putting two and two and they are adding up to four. My skin becomes icy cold and my legs feel as if blood has stopped flowing.
“Ivy,” Alec says. “They met this week and Olivia told her everything.”
My lungs constrict, making it hard to breathe. If this is coming from Ivy, then it must be true.
“Tell me and don’t leave everything out.”
Alec tells me how the couple Ivy had agreed to surrogate contacted the magazine that Olivia writes for to tell their story. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I’ve been fooled. Olivia’s face with different expressions floats through my mind. It takes listening to the whole story to believe that the woman I fell in love with does not exist. I keep my feelings tightly wrapped though red-hot anger consumes me. I’m smarter than this. I’m experienced when it comes to women. I can sense a woman who wants to use me from a mile off.
“I’m sorry, bro. I know you loved her and wanted a future with her,” Alec says.
My hand moves of its own accord and I raise my fist and bring it down to my desk, sending papers and files flying everywhere. Searing pain tears at my hand but it’s nothing compared to the pain ripping through my insides.
“Jace, relax!” Alec says.
I jump to my feet. “I gave her a fucking ring. I proposed to her.” I pace my office, unable to sit still while my life falls apart. My chest feels as if it’s been split in two. I turn to Alec. “Is her name really Olivia James?”
“Yes,” Alec says.
I return to my desk, open a web browser, type her name, and add writer at the end. The first image I see is Olivia’s. I scroll down. There are several links to her articles. I click on one. It’s Olivia all right. There’s a picture of her next to her byline.
I’ve been made a fool of. An ice block forms around my heart. I become numb. I can handle numbness. It’s better than the pain which is nothing like I’ve ever experienced before. A dull ache forms behind my brow.
“What are you going to do?” Alec says, jolting me back to the present.
I’d forgotten that he was here. This is not like the problems I deal with day to day. I can’t brainstorm different ideas and then decide on the best one. This is a whole different ball game. I allow the image of Olivia to come into my mind and I know what I have to do.
“I have to see her and confront her. I want her to look into my eyes as she admits that she lied to me.” I say this with a lot of courage but I’m feeling anything but. I feel shattered, like an eggshell that has just been stomped.
She looked into my eyes and told me that she loved me, dammit. I don’t bother turning off my computer, and I simply grab my phone and my keys.
Alec stands up too. “I’m really sorry, Jace,” he says as if Olivia has died and he’s offering me his condolences.
It’s not too farfetched. Except Olivia is not dead because she never existed in the first place. Alec and I leave my office and when we’re in the elevator, I ask him. “Why did she say yes to my proposal?”
Alec shakes his head, looking as sad as I feel. The elevator comes to a stop and we part ways. I head to the parking lot and my car. I step on the gas, driving faster than I usually do. My first stop is Olivia’s apartment. Her car is not in the downstairs basement. I check my phone for Lifestyle magazine, input the address in my GPS, and head that way.
Mini videos play in my head. Olivia asleep with a hint of a smile on her face. Olivia throwing her head back to laugh when we had lunch in the farm restaurant. All lies. I grip the steering wheel tighter. I know that journalists go undercover to uncover injustices they believe have been done but why did she lie to me that she shared my feelings? Why did she make a fool of me?
It takes driving around the building that houses the magazine to find Olivia’s car. It’s parked in the rear and if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have seen it. I park a few spaces away and turn off the engine, leaving the radio on even if I’m not listening to music. Every part of my body hurts. Betrayal hurts. Humiliation hurts. But worse is opening your fucking heart to someone and having it trampled on.
I don’t know how long I sit there before I see her walking toward her car. I wait until she’s opening her car before I step out of mine.
“Olivia.”
She whirls around and her expression of horror is all I need to know that everything that Alec told me is spot on. She opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out.
“Why, Olivia?”
Tears flood her eyes and that resurrects my anger. “Stop it. You’ve acted enough. You don’t need to do it anymore. It’s over. I bared my heart to you, dammit! You’ve made me a fool, and for what? A fucking story? What kind of cruel person are you? Who are you?”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she says. “I didn’t lie about loving you, Jace. I do love you.”
A bitter laugh leaves my mouth. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
She folds her arms across her chest and looks so small, so vulnerable. A feeling of protectiveness comes over me and I want to gather her in my arms. I shove those feelings away and remind myself who I’m dealing with. A woman who would do anything for her career.
Anything, including selling her soul.
“You must have really laughed at me,” I said. “Don’t ever contact me or any of my family members again. You can write what you want about us.”
She keeps her gaze down. Crocodile tears run down her cheeks.
I turn and go to my car. I refuse to look at her as I drive off. I must be the unluckiest fucker who ever walked the earth. She was the first woman that I’ve ever fallen completely in love with. Left myself vulnerable to. Let her see all of me. The one woman I do that for turns out to be an imposter. A fake.
My anger ebbs away and is replaced by deep sadness. The kind of sadness I never thought a person could feel. As I drive home, things that were a mystery start to make sense. Marcus and Charlotte. Chris. Their reluctance to have a conversation with me and get to know me. All along they knew what Olivia was doing and they were probably under firm instructions not to mess up. Did they all sit down afterward and laugh at me? Olivia’s reluctance to discuss the future. I remember how I insisted that she send her work to Ivy to get some feedback. I feel like such a fool.
No wonder she didn’t want to discuss her future. She’s already an established writer. I hate myself even more when I think about how I contacted Adam and he actually offered Olivia a job. Compared to Lifestyle, his publication is tiny. That must have given her a huge laugh.
I can’t let myself be sidetracked by my emotions. Yes, it fucking hurts but what matters now is the clinic. I have to speak to Ivy and find out for myself what exactly will be published about our clinic.
Chapter 36: Olivia
As Amelia predicted, the story of The Anderson Clinic was big but not in the way she had thought. What it did was bring about a conversation about fertility clinics and the services they do. Because of Ivy’s story and the profiles of women and couples who have been treated at the clinic, they stopped being cast as the villain.
Susan and Mike’s story as well as Ivy’s and Alec’s were big, but Melissa’s was huge. We’re her story in multiple parts and people are reading it like a series. She’s shown all of it. Her vulnerability, her fears, and her hopes. We’re all rooting for her now. I can’t wait for the edition that I’m holding now to go out into the world. She’s finally pregnant. Our popularity has shot up and we’ve inched into the top spot of the most widely-read lifestyle magazine in Chicago.
I have my own column now where I showcase profiles of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I should be happy. I’m writing the pieces I’ve always wanted to write. I’m excited to pitch new ideas at our editorial meetings, but I’m not happy. My career was everything but now it doesn’t feel important at all.
I lost too much. I sacrificed the love of my life to get ahead and I can tell you now that it is nowhere near worth it.
I wrap up for the day and carrying my laptop case, I wave goodbye to my colleagues who are working late and head to the basement parking.
I’m glad that I’m invited to dinner at Marcus and Charlotte’s place as I can’t bear my own company tonight. I can handle weekdays but weekends are horrible. The loneliness really kicks in no matter how busy I try to make myself and on days like today, nothing works.
I go straight to the house and after I park my car, I trudge to the front door. The door swings open before I knock and Charlotte appears.
“Oh, honey,” she says. “I hate seeing you like this.”
I frown, completely lost. “What are you talking about?”
“I was watching you walk up from your car. You look as if you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
“That’s how I feel.” I step into the house. I’m so tired. I can’t explain the exhaustion I feel. When I’m not tired, I’m craving Jace with such intensity that all I can do is cry.
“Can you not talk to him? Make him understand that you might have been undercover but the feelings were real,” Charlotte says.
“It’s been two months. Jace has had a lot of time to think things through. He still believes I made a fool of him. I don’t blame him. I’d think the same.”
I lead the way to the kitchen which is where we all gather to eat and talk. Marcus is at the stove, stirring something that smells delicious. I go to him and hug him from the side.
“Hey, big brother,” I say. “How is it that you two are home on a Friday? Don’t you have an event?” I slide onto a stool.
Charlotte and Marcus exchange a look that makes me feel like an interloper. Then she turns to me. “We’ve learned how to delegate. The company grew but we didn’t put systems in place. Well, Marcus and I have changed how we do things. We’re determined to spend more time together, especially now.”
They exchange another special look. That never used to bother me in the past but after my affair with Jace, I see things through different lenses. I know how it feels like to have that special person who thinks about you all the time. The person who worries about you and asks you if you got safely to where you’re going. I feel lost without Jace.
“We have some great news, Olivia. I hope it’ll cheer you up,” Charlotte says.
My spirits lift as a seed of suspicion grows in my mind. I really hope that it’s what I think it is. “Tell me.”
Charlotte’s hand goes to her belly. “You’re going to be an Aunty.”
I scream so loud it only hits me later that the neighbors might think that someone is being murdered. I jump from my stool and go to Charlotte, and throw my arms around her.
I pull away and break into a dance. “I’m going to be an Aunty.”
Charlotte joins in and so does Marcus after some coaxing from his wife. I want to emulate Jace. I remember how Ryder shouted when his Uncle entered the house and raced downstairs for a hug and to see what was in the shopping bag. The memory makes me smile.
“I am going to spoil my niece or nephew,” I declare. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Chapter 37: Jace
They think I don’t notice how they keep looking at each other. Coming for dinner at Ivy and Alec’s was a mistake.
I can’t even pretend to make conversation. I didn’t know it was possible to miss someone the way I miss Olivia. I thought that by the eight-week mark, the pain would have lessened. It feels like it’s multiplying. Eating me up. I can’t remember the last time I was interested in anything. For the last two months, I’ve been going through the motions, hoping after a while, I’ll start living.
I should have stayed at my apartment and kept my misery to myself but I couldn’t bring myself to say no to Harper’s pleas. It’s her first evening out of the house since she gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl in the world as far as I’m concerned.
“You should call her,” Ivy says after dinner when we’re having wine.
“She lied to me,” I say.
“I’m so jealous,” Harper says. “I’m the only one who never got to meet Olivia. She sounds so intriguing.”
“She was wholesome and smart,” Alec says. That’s a hell of a compliment coming from him.
“I’m with Ivy,” Dylan says. “I don’t mean to sound disloyal but I kind of understand her position.”
I look at Dylan. “Tell me what you understand. About why she lied to me.”
Dylan sets his glass on the table. “I try to put myself in her shoes. The world of journalism is cutthroat and competitive. She gets an assignment to work undercover as a PA in The Anderson Clinic. It’s an opportunity to show what she can do.
“So she starts working but there’s an attraction between her and her boss. She figures she can have an affair. Why the hell not? She’s young, she’s attracted to him and they are both single. So she does. In the process, she meets her boss’s family.”
