Chapter 0018

•ELIJAH•

“Elijah, we need to talk. I want you to let her go and find someone else to do business with. You and I both know that there are so many other great architects that you can find out there. Didn’t you hear how she talked down on me and made me feel small in front of you because you haven’t made me your wife yet?”

I sighed as I took off my clothes after we had just returned home from work. I was tired and didn’t want to go through this with her again.

“Are you even listening to me?” She asked as she walked to me. “I don’t want you to work with Darla anymore, Elijah. She’s probably planning something else to do to get you back after she succeeded in getting you to spend an hour with her inside that elevator. Can’t you see that this was all her plan? To get you back to her.”

After taking off my shirt and pants, I turned to her, cupped her face in my hands, brought her face to mine, and kissed her.

Once she loosened to the kiss, I picked her up, took her to the bed, laid her down gently on the edge, and ripped off the dress from her body.

In my mind, I thought of Darla and the dress that she was wearing when we were in the elevator and how it hugged her body so tightly and revealed her gorgeous figure that caused a little sweat down my spine.

After ripping off Abigail’s dress, I spread her legs open got between them positioned myself between her, and thrust inside her.

She released a soft moan as I grabbed her neck and choked her gently. She bit her lower lip and moaned my name under her breath as I filled her with my length.

“Ah yes, Elijah…”

It didn’t take long for me to release on her stomach and roll down next to her with Darla’s face in my mind and thoughts of her crippling all my nerves.

“What happened? Are you finished?” Abigail asked as she turned to me.

“What do you mean?”

She scoffed. “Are you serious? You never release before I do, and even if you do, you don’t stop until you’ve made sure that I’ve reached my own orgasm.”

“I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”

“You must be joking.”

I sighed as I got off the bed and wrapped the towel on the bed around my waist so that I could go and get a quick shower before dinner.

“I’m going to take a shower, Abigail. I don’t have time for this right now,” I answered as I walked toward the bathroom door before she stopped me.

“It’s her, isn’t it?”

I turned around and looked at her. “Darla is my business partner, so I want you to keep a little distance from her. If you cause trouble with her, you will be defying my authority in my company, undermining my work ethic, and sabotaging my profits. Do you understand me?”

“Doesn’t it matter how I feel when I see her with you at your company? Shouldn’t I be concerned that you spent an hour with her in that elevator? No, Elijah!” She snapped as she walked toward me. “As long as you’re my man and I have your ring on my finger, I have every right to tell you about your business partners who make me feel uncomfortable, and if you love me just like you always preached, you will make sure that she leaves!”

“She’s not going anywhere, and if you’re going to nag me about this again, I’ll call this engagement off, because I see it makes you think that you can control my life and who I do my business with,” I said before I turned around and went inside the bathroom.

“That's not going to happen, Elijah. Not when you're the reason I lost my child and haven't been able to conceive again,” she pointed out as she walked inside the bathroom.

I scoffed as I turned to her, infuriated by her accusation, which was an insult, considering that I did everything that I didn't want to because I wanted to raise the child with her.

“How was the miscarriage my fault, Abigail? First of all, you accused me of trying to get back with Darla because you lost the baby, and now this?” I snapped.

“If you answered your call that day when I called you, my baby would've made it, and I wouldn't be treated as a failure to bring a child by your family.”

“You know what? Pack your things and move them to the guest room. We both could use a little space from each other.” I walked inside the shower and turned the faucet to avoid hearing her talk.

***

The following day, when I arrived at work, I found an envelope from Mikael and his text explaining that he was able to get everything about Ethan within 36 hours.

I sat down on my chair, opened the envelope, and went through it before the conference meeting in an hour.

There were articles about Ethan’s work and interviews about how he got where he was after discovering his talent in math and economics when he was in grade 8.

Mikael also managed to find all the things that he was keeping from the public and didn’t mention in all of his interviews because of their insensitivities.

But what caught my eye above all else was a picture of him with a woman who had posted the picture in her private profile, which was a week ago.

I looked at the picture and I was convinced that the woman with him was not just anyone, but someone that Darla probably didn’t know about, and that meant that the bastard was cheating on her and lying to her.

Perhaps this was going to pave the way back to Darla.