Chapter 0015

•ELIJAH•

“I want you to find anything you can get on him. I expect feedback within three days. Are you going to be able to meet the deadline?”

“I'll get everything you need in two days. I’m sure you read my profile, I am very proficient and reliable in what I do. But before then, I’ll need upfront payment, including pictures and basic information about him, to make things easier and faster.”

I looked at him and exhaled as I quickly made a transaction of ten thousand dollars to his account, including all the extra fees of delivering the information within my period.

When he saw the money alert on his phone, his face quickly lit up with a smile. “I won’t disappoint you. You’ll get everything you need in two days.”

“Yes, thank you, Mikael. I’ll get my secretary to send you the pictures and the basic information about him right away.”

He nodded as he took his things and left my office.

I sat down on my chair and hoped that I was not going to regret getting that young boy to get me any sensitive information he could on the person.

“Honey, who was that?” Abigail asked as she walked inside my office, snapping me back to my senses and realizing that I didn’t even hear her come in.

“Uh- that was just an intern. Well, he won’t be anymore since he just failed his interview.”

“Oh.” She closed the door behind her and walked toward my desk with a newspaper in her hand. “I thought I heard the name of Ethan before he left your office. Or maybe it was all in my head.”

She placed the newspaper on the table and when I saw the picture that made it to the first page, I released an exhausted sigh and wished that I hadn’t come to the office and gone to work on-site before the conference meeting in two hours.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, hoping that she hadn’t come to my office to question and nag me all day long.

“As your fiance, I think I deserved to know about the new development of you working with Darla and her husband, Ethan!” She snapped. “How do you think it makes me feel to hear this from the common office workers who can’t keep their mouths shut? I thought that you and I would start over and be good again, but no! You decided to keep this from me! Is this why you have been avoiding my requests to come and see you in your office? Is this the reason behind the late nights at the office and the inability to make time for me?!”

“I didn’t know that I had to tell you about every business associate that I have.” I tried to avoid her and opened a file on my laptop to go through it so that I wouldn’t pay her much attention.

“I am your fiance, Elijah! I deserve to know if that business associate is your ex!” She snarled, causing me to shut my laptop and stand up from my chair.

“Enough already!” I growled, infuriated that she couldn’t give me just a day of peace with no nagging and endless questions. “I am working, and if you want something to do with your time, I suggest that you leave my office and go and find a hobby.”

“Is it me that you’re raising your voice at Elijah?”

“Leave my office and stop causing me drama before my important meeting.”

“You mean a meeting with your ex-wife?” She scoffed. “You have no shame to even stand here and not deny the fact that you brought her back here because you want to ridicule me when you get back with her, don't you?”

“Since you know what you’re talking about and have made your point, wouldn’t it be time that you leave me to do the job that pays both of our bills?”

She huffed as she folded her arms on her chest and shook her head while looking at me.

“You must think that I am dumb and naive as your ex-wife was during your marriage. I know you, Elijah. I know how you act when your heart is after another woman, so don’t you stand there and take me for a fool. Do you hear me? I’m not Darla!”

“Darla’s not a fool.”

“Oh, right.” She chuckled as she walked over to me. “Are you going to leave me for her because I lost our baby and have been unable to give you any child? Is that what it’s about? You want her to give you babies because I couldn’t?”

Her accusation caught me by surprise, and I couldn’t believe that she thought so little and evil of me as if the loss of the baby hadn’t impacted my life in any way.

“Is that what you think of me?”

“That’s how I see it, Elijah.” She arched her eyebrows. “You hardly do anything with me and always use your work as an excuse for not spending time with me. And now, you will be working with the woman who was close enough to take you from me.”

“But you’re accusing me of something that you know very well has been painful for both of us. If you think so low of me, why are you still here, Abi?”

My heart broke at the thought of my son and how he could’ve changed my life if he were fortunate enough to be born and live.

“If you’re so sure that you’re not doing business with her to spite me, I suggest that you call off the business deal and send her back where she came from, because if not, I’ll make sure that she never lives to tell the story of how she left Atlanta behind,” she threatened before she took the newspaper on the contour and left my office.

‘What did I do?’ I asked myself as the door closed behind her, regretting ever thinking that I would be any happier than I was when I was married to Darla for two years.