The Con Man

Chapter Twenty-Three

Four Years Later

Alex looked out of the window of his office to the city lights of San Francisco. He was richest man in this city; not just this city, he was the most eligible bachelor in the country right now. He was billionaire and the CEO of Knight Inc. He now had the world at his feet. His company was amongst the best in the country. He was at number two, only a step behind Hawking & Son Co. The name of that company made her his blood boil because it reminded him of her.

The year he met and broke up with her was hell for him. He drank and slept. That was all he did for almost a year. Then slowly the love and pain he had for her turned into resentment and hatred. Now he hated her. It was the hate for her that drove him to such measures that he wanted to be rich enough to destroy that company of hers. He wanted revenge from her. He had suffered from her love but she had gone and made a new home with another man and he was now the CEO of that company. It had come in the news that Isabelle Wright had taken a leave and given the company over to her husband.

"Probably pregnant again" Alex muttered.

He was going to destroy both of them. He wasn't going to buy out the company; that would be too easy. He was going to crash that company and turn it into rubble. He was going to destroy it. His love for her had turned him cold hearted and ruthless. He was now a branded playboy.

He never stuck around with a woman for more than a week and he avoided red heads like the plague. He avoided anything that reminded him of her.

There was a knock on his office door and a woman walked in.

"Hey baby" Stephanie, his latest woman cooed at him.

"What are you doing here?" Alex said in a bored tone

"Baby it like 10 at night and you were not there at your place. I am missing you baby." She opened the top few buttons of her blouse, exposing her cleavage even more.

Ale growled and strode towards her. He pushed her against the wall and locked the office door. He then lifted her skirt and hurriedly opened his pants and thrust into her without warning. He did not make love. This is what he had turned into, cold and ruthless and with only one purpose in his life; destroy Isabelle.

----------------------------------------------------------

Isabelle sighed as she looked at the bills piled on her table. The biggest one was the one from the ER department from last week when she had to take in her daughter, who had asthma.

"Mama" her three year old daughter Hazel walked into the living room of their small rundown apartment. It was a small, one bedroom apartment, the cheapest Belle could find.

"Yes baby. Please wait for a minute. Mama needs to look through the mail" Belle leaned down and kissed Hazel on the cheek.

She had her father exact hazel eyes. Her hair were beautiful, they were dark brown with a hint of red, especially when sunlight reflected of them. Hazel was the reason Belle continued with her life.

"But mama I am hungry!" Hazel said and was about to throw a tantrum

"Hazel Alexis Knight! Don't even think of that" Belle tried to look stern but the cute look Hazel had on her face made it difficult. Belle scooped her off the floor and put her on her lap.

"Just a few minutes, okay sweety?"

"Okay"

Belle quickly went through the pile and made two stacks, one which were needed to pay within this week and one which she could get an extension on.

Belle then got up and poured Hazel cereal in a bowl and helped her into her high chair. Belle was worried about her daughter. She barely was making the end meet and now Hazel was diagnosed with asthma.

Belle had shifted across the country to San Jose, California. When Belle had shifted here, she had money in her account to help her. With that money she had bought a small but nice apartment in a good neighborhood. Next to that apartment was a small flower shop which was for sale and Belle immediately purchased that as well. The next two years went by smoothly, though Belle was lonely but once Hazel came into the world, Belle moved on faster. She had money to pay off the bills and necessities for her pregnancy. She made an okay living from the flower shop, she managed at accounts and employed a girl who managed the sales but soon the money from her account ran out and things went downhill. She took a loan from the bank which dug her grave deeper. She had to move out of her apartment and sell the flower shop. Belle could have gotten a job in the business world but she couldn't, George had made sure of it. She had tried applying to a few places but was rejected instantly. She knew George must have done something because she couldn't possibly be rejected from so many places especially with her Harvard degree.

So from there Belle had shifted to her present apartment and struggled to make the ends meet. She worked at an antique shop which was owned by an old couple. She handled the accounts and the pay was okay. Then her second job was of a waitress at a nearby diner. The pay was not that good but she was able to take Hazel along with her and let her play in the boss's office that had turned into a good friend of hers. Janet was a very sweet and outgoing lady and she adored Hazel. However Belle mostly kept to herself.

Belle went into the washroom to wash her face and looked into the mirror. Her hair was now jet black and cut very short. Her curls fell around her face and ended just above her shoulder. She usually wore brown contacts and hid her blue eyes. It was her way of forgetting her old self. She had buried her past behind her and the only thing from the past that had come along with her was a framed picture of her mother. Belle missed her mother so much. She didn't want anything to do with her past. It was nothing but bad memories. Hazel was her life now. She had finally started to stop crying over him. She knew he was a rich businessman now. He was all over the TV and newspaper all the time. He was in San Francisco and that city was close to where she lived, this was also another reason to why she changed her appearance. Sometimes Belle felt so frustrated with how weak she had become and how she didn't fight back at all for everything that happened to her but then she would remember George and his threats and she would try to calm herself down. She couldn't let that devil anywhere near her baby.

Belle sighed, trying to push all this to the back of her mind.

The door bell rang and Lucy, a seventeen year old from across the hall came in to babysit Hazel while Belle went for her job at the antique shop.

Belle explained everything to Lucy and grabbed her handbag and left for work.