Elvie got back from the High Fashion department the following day to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers on her desk. She picked up the card and read the message.I miss you.From Zander.Her heart gave a leap, and she pressed the card against her chest just as the receptionist buzzed her on the intercom, “Mrs. Stanton, your brother is here. Have you got time to see him?”Joey?Elvie put the card down on her desk. Joey was here in Scotland. Why hadn’t Zander mentioned it? Or was it a spontaneous trip? But that didn’t seem like Joey at all. He was notoriously not a homebody through and through. He didn’t really enjoy travelling all that much and had said only recently how content he was to stay at home.“Sure. Thanks a lot," she replied, put down the phone, and turned her head to Bella. “Girl, I haven’t got anyone till four, have I?”“No, you’re all good. Should I send him to Zander's office? You can talk there in private.”Elvie nodded, stood, fixed herself, and went to Zander’s offic
Zander frowned. “Joey is here in Scotland?”Elvie nodded. “Yes, he flew over to talk to me face to face.”“About…?”“About something, um—he is going to visit his shrink again, he said he is sick again."“Is he using drugs again, Elvie?”“I'm not sure, but he said he didn't do drugs anymore.”“And you believe him?”“Yes.” Elvie groaned. “He is my brother, Zander, I can't let him down, and... Without the company to keep him busy, I don't know how he would survive—”Zander’s brows snapped together.“You gave him money?”Elvie slipped out of his hold and stood some distance from him with her arms crossed over her body, her hands cupping her elbows. “Yes. I gave him my ATM.”“Your savings? Really?”“Yes.”“Are you that crazy?”“Zander—”He shook his head as if the situation were beyond belief. “He’s a fool. A damn fool. What are you going to do now? He’ll empty it in a day. How can you be so naive?”“I—” Elvie groaned in silent anger, keeping her gaze steady on his. “He said he'd use it fo
Zander walked out of his own mansion as if he were on autopilot. His emotions were in lockdown.Confused, angry, and disappointed.Emotions he hadn’t known he had. He couldn’t think past the thought of her pulling the plug on their marriage. He’d been blindsided. Again. What sort of fool was he to have fallen for it? He’d thought it was going so well. Why was she doing this? Why now, after that wonderful week away together? All this talk of love... He hadn’t said those words to anyone since he’d said them to his ex, Kristal. He had been a fool once, and he swore to never be that sort of person again.He had sworn he would never say them in a subsequent relationship, and he had never needed to, much less wanted to. But Elvie hadn’t said it either. She didn't tell him she loved him.Somehow he had fooled himself into thinking she had, but then he’d been wrong about that sort of thing before. It was the same as all those years ago. NO! It was worse. Much worse. Back then, he’d been angry
That very same day, Zander was supposed to tell her that he loves her; he was supposed to confess his feelings, but what he heard from her mouth while answering Bellas’ questions in the lift made Zander halt on his way up. He heard Elvie clearly say, "Bella, what makes you think that I'm head over heels over Zander? Surely, the man cares so much more about his ego than caring over me. Besides, we both agree to end things before it's too late and he’ll end up hurting me. I'm not the woman he used to know. I'm different now. I don't love anymore.”To say that he was disappointed, hurt, and relieved at the same time was an understatement; he almost made himself a fool by telling her what he truly felt.Okay, if this is really what she wanted, then I'll give her war! He thought to himself as he left the hallway and went to his private elevator.Going up, he thought that life with Elvie was like handling his company full of issues and anomalies. If there was one thing he’d learned from pro
Shortly after sending Danny on his way, Zander waltzed out of his office and into the newsroom. Grilling Elvie about Mathei was tempting, but he wasn’t a hypocrite, and she didn’t owe him shit.Besides, it was likely Elvie already felt extra salty after what had happened with them, and she had enough on her plate without having his dirty laundry to sort through. He was going to talk to Matheo about an item he wanted to scrap from the show tonight when Bella blocked his way to the old cow’s office, throwing her body between them like a hysterical mother in front of a speeding car.Big. Fucking. Mistake, small woman!“Can I help you?” He raised an eyebrow.“I have something you really want to see, Zander...”“Call me, Mr. Stanton. Only my friends call me Zander. Chances are, I’ll stab myself in the eye with a fork before initiating a conversation with you about non-professional issues. Start talking.”Zander followed her to her desk, and she pointed at her screen, her smile oozing stupi
Five minutes later, everyone was inside, including a solemn Bella and a defiant Elvie. Matheo was outside, on a quick phone call.“We need a new item to close up the show. At this point, I’ll take anything. A feature. A kicker. A piece about anything that’s not completely stupid. Brainstorm away.” Zander tapped his finger over the chrome conference table.Everybody looked at their digital devices, typing text messages to their sources and generally being productive. Steven, the guy who yelled at Bella, however, sat with his arms crossed and sulked like a toddler in the midst of a tantrum.“Got it! A country singer was just murdered in a strip club in China.” Matheo swung the door open and walked into the fishbowl meeting room, still staring at his phone.“Steven, I know you like good gossip. Can you follow that up?” The man was already texting her source. “But Kristal’s—” He scratched his head with the tip of his pen when he saw Zander’s intense glare at him.The silence that followed
“Of course not! I had a few, but—anyway,” Elvie quipped, feeling bold. “Does she know?”“Know what?” His lips broadened into an even wider grin, but that meant nothing. Zander was always nonchalant. A meteor could be speeding towards Earth at the speed of light, crashing and killing all of them in exactly two hours, and he still wouldn’t skip the foreplay when he took this girl to his presidential suite for their sexcapade.“Any of the following things, really. One—" Elvie jerked her thumb up. "That's your thing. You pretend to be single while your daughter is waiting for you!” She pointed her forefinger at him.“What?” he frowned.“Idiot! It’s your schedule tonight, remember? Your turn to read Thea her bedtime stories.” She scoffed and looked at the woman, then back to him. “And two, is this your thing? You take women to a hotel suite for the night; fuck her? Our divorce isn't even finalised yet, you asshole—” Then again, she gave him the middle finger, narrowing her eyes, and wonder
Sundays were Thea days.Days of echoed laughter in the mansion and the silent murmur of the staff and of course, munching on sweets and stealing glances at the main door, hoping Zander would appear and rescue her from the tower of dragons with one heated kiss. Yeah, it would never happen, but still, she hoped for something similar, so sue her.Today, Thea practically pushed her out the door. She’d made some excuse about getting some vitamin D, but it wasn’t even that sunny. Nonetheless, Elvie figured Thea wanted time alone with her new Princess Fiona and Shrek tea set. The mansion was huge. It was too big for Elvie’s liking, so she went to the garden with a cup of coffee in her hand. Besides, getting some time to think wasn’t the worst idea she’d had. She also needed to read more about her late parents' company crisis. And though she’d felt a little unequipped and uninformed this week when Joey and she discussed it in one of their online meetings, which ended up in an argument, then a