Heather

Amaryllis

"How was last night, Did a handsome British man win a date with you?" Jen asks me as she sits in the chair opposite mine, no good morning wishes or permission to enter my office, No manners at all.

"You and Lan need to stop gossiping about my life."

"No can do, you have more drama than both our lives combined, we like it that way."

I roll my eyes at her and reach for the aspirin and orange juice she had ready for me.

"When do you both even get the time to talk, we reached home around midnight and then he left for his place, that doesn't leave much time for gossip?" She's flustered at an off-hand question which piques my curiosity, but she swiftly diverts my attention.

"We find time for gossip gold, So a date with Nicholas?"

"Not happening, and I need you to get me Taylor on the line."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, just Nicholas knows about Matteo and It seems he's been watching me. This shouldn't be possible because Taylor assured me he had every PI in the city on his payroll and no one would ever be able to track me in the city. If Nick has been tracking me then that will answer how Matteo found me. I need to hire a new security company." I turn around in my chair and lean my head back waiting for the aspirin to kick in.

"You don't need to call Taylor for that, Lan is the one who tattled on you."

I spin around faster than a rocket's launch into outer space.

"What the hell!"

"Don't be mad and don't tell him I told you. But Nick and Lan were talking and he was pissed at Matteo for the nonstop bids, so it just slipped out, I guess."

"That man-child! I am going to kill him!"

"Heath, calm down, we don't need Godzilla running around the floor, I don't have adult diapers stocked for the staff." I am fuming when Milo chooses to welcome himself into my office. Great! Another headache.

"What the heck do you want?"

"That isn't a very pleasant welcome for someone about to be running this place." His overconfidence and snobbery tick me off, Jen notices that I am only a second away from punching him.

"Running this place? You couldn't even afford to walk in this city if it weren't for Matteo."

"You are one to say, the girl who's mooched off people her whole life, The Austin's and my best friend."

"Don't even dare to talk about my family, if you think you have any power over me because I let you all stay in my office let me burst that bubble now. I am not the same twenty-two-year-old who left without a fight, if you try to create a mess of my life again I would make sure your best-friend knows you are the reason I left."

"You think he would care, after what you did?" He tries to sound confident but my threat rattles him. Milo could delude himself as much as he wants, but he couldn't deny the fact he was the one who made sure that I never saw Matteo again, even to ask him why he used me. And if Matteo knew what he had stripped him of, Milo will loose everything.

He leaves my office like he had entered it. Jen turns to me, "What is your history with them, I though Matteo was the only bad guy."

"Matteo may have been the one to point a knife at my heart, Milo drove it in. Anna and Jonah were the friends who knew I was going to be stabbed and kept mum, so I could be Matteo's plaything."

"Matteo cheated on you?"

"No, I wasn't the one who got cheated on." A silent oh is her reply. She briefs me about my day knowing that work will be the best distraction.