Chapter 0017

•DARLA•

‘This fucking bitch.’ I groaned as I walked straight to Elijah’s office and found him with her.

I wanted him to warn his girlfriend or fiance- so I heard, to stay away from me before I caused trouble for her or him by dropping the business deal, even though we were just offered more benefits for the contract that would span over 6 years.

When he saw me, he quickly got up from his chair while Abigail tilted her head and looked at me from the opposite chair she was sitting on behind Elijah’s desk.

“Darla, is there a problem?” He asked as he walked over to me. I closed the door behind me and closed the little gap between us.

“I want you to tell your girlfriend to stay away from me or else, I’ll be forced to report her harassment to the board members before I exclude myself from the project and take my skills elsewhere where I wouldn’t be insulted for something that I don’t know about.”

“Abigail insulted you?” He asked as he tilted his head and looked at her while she stood up from her chair and walked toward us.

“I’m not a fool, Elijah. I can see through her that she’s here to ruin our relationship. Can’t you see that she’s after you?” She chimed in.

“If you don’t put her in her place, I’ll have no choice but to drop everything because I didn’t come here to be disrespected. Not by a woman who has nothing to show but a man who's barely been able to make her his wife,” I snarled at her before turning my back and walking out of the office, heading to the elevator opposite his office.

“Darla, wait!” He said as he rushed toward the elevator and got inside before the doors closed and Abigail’s face boiled with anger when the doors closed in front of her.

“I’m very sorry for what happened between you two. You being here is exactly what this company needs, and I’m not going to let anyone jeopardize our cooperation.”

“If that’s the case, please tell her that I’m not someone to be played with, especially now. I won’t ever hesitate to walk out of this company and never look back. I have many offers that would gladly replace this project and still keep my bank account popping.” I exhaled as I prepared myself to walk out of the elevator as we got to the ground floor.

“She won’t be a problem to you anymore, I promise.”

I scoffed as I waited for the elevator to open, but when it took longer than expected and the button lights went off, I started panicking, dreading the idea of the elevator being stuck.

“Darla, I -”

“Why’s the doors not opening, what’s going on?” I interjected him panicking.

“We seem to be stuck, I don’t know. This has never happened before, let me call my secretary to get someone to find out what the problem is.”

He took out his cell phone and quickly made a call while I kept pressing the buttons, trying to see if anything would happen.

“Someone better come and open this elevator!” I snapped, realizing that I couldn’t call Ethan and inform him about the problem since he left with my handbag in the car while I was going to the restroom.

But after a while with no idea of what was happening, Elijah and I slid down the floor and sat down opposite each other.

I looked at him and shook my head at how the universe decided to play such a funny prank on us when I never imagined being alone in a room with him ever again.

“How’s California?”

“How’s California?” I scoffed at the thought of him trying to make conversation about California. “Well, it’s amazing. If Ethan hadn’t convinced me about this project and how it would benefit a poor community in Detroit, I don’t think that I would’ve come back here.”

“Oh.” He breathed, visibly disappointed to hear my response, but I didn’t care. “But Atlanta was your home, Darla. You grew up here and lived your whole life here.”

“California is now my home.”

It became quiet for a while until he decided to break the silence.

“Did you ever think of me like I have the past five years you were away? Have you ever wondered where we could've been if we never broke up?”

“Honestly, no.” I shook my head and scoffed. “I don't regret anything about how things happened between us. I found Ethan and married the love of my life. If you and I remained together, I wouldn't have known such great love.”

He looked at me for a moment. “I’m happy for you, Darla, and all your success. I wish I wasn't so blind back then to see how brilliant you are. I'm sure if the universe brought us together under different circumstances, we wouldn't be here today having this talk. But I'm very happy to see you.”

“Thank you, Elijah. But as soon as we are out of here, I hope that we won't have this talk again. I'm here for business and nothing more. So, I'd appreciate it if you and I strictly regarded each other professionally.”

He sighed. “If things happened my way, I would’ve never brought you so much pain. Things happened so fast, and I -”

“You loved Abigail, Elijah, I get it. It doesn’t matter now. We don’t have to talk about our marriage as if it were ever real.”

“I -”

The elevator doors creaked open before he could say anything, and when we tilted our heads, there was a whole team of electricians, including Abigail and Ethan.

I got up from the floor, walked to Ethan, and hugged him as tightly as I could.

“Are you okay? They’ve been trying to get the elevator to open for an hour,” Ethan said as I leaned back from him.

“Yeah, I’m alright.”

“I’m sorry about the elevator, I’m sure it won’t be a problem anymore,” Elijah said as Ethan and I looked at him.

“Yes, it won’t be a problem anymore because my wife and I will never use that elevator again. And I want you to stay away from her,” he said as he took my hand and walked away with me.

When I tilted my head and looked back, I saw him and Abigail hugging each other, and my heart made peace that they belonged together.

Just as I always thought whenever he crossed my mind.