The Bodyguard's Duty ✅

Chapter 48 - Ripples

"By hurting him?" Kristen immediately replied.

"I rather have Ethan hate us, than him hate himself when the relationship ends up in tragedy." Camilla said assuredly.

Javier was sitting at the other end of the table with doubt clouding his mind. Whilst he agreed on the sentiment that it was better to end it sooner than later, Javier didn't expect to have zero contact with his son during this difficult time for him.

Given all of his previous relationships, Javier had assumed Ethan's breakup with Thomas would have been no different. But days went by as Javier felt like he had overstepped his boundaries, by promoting Ethan to drift away from his boyfriend.

"I just wanted the best for Ethan, and Ethan deserves better than a relationship five thousands miles away." Javier admitted with sadness clearly in his voice.

~~~~~~~~~~

In a different country and on another day, Thomas walked into Giles' office after being summoned by him.

Thomas sat on the seat opposite as he asked, "Why am I here?"

Chairman Giles Miller had recently received a disturbing phone call that involved his Managing Director. Giles had called this off the record meeting to discuss the issues about one of his employees.

"Mr Miller, we have received a warning that you have been sleeping with one of our clients. With good authority, I have recently been told that you have established a relationship with Ethan Shelton."

Thomas couldn't deny that any of that wasn't true. But the way it was phrased made it seem a lot more shifty and creepy. "It wasn't like that... And we're not even together anymore."

"So are you stating that there is no relationship between you and Ethan Shelton?"

Thomas uncomfortably swallowed the lump in his throat as he also shook his head. "It ended last week."

Giles looked directly into Thomas' eyes as he let the seriousness of the main issue be known. "Mrs Shelton wanted to file a complaint about you, for abusing your position of power and seducing her son."

"That's bullshit!" Thomas shot up from his chair as he shouted out in protest. "I never did anything to persuade Ethan into a relationship with me, and there's no fucking way I would even think about doing that to Ethan!"

Giles no longer spoke to Thomas as the chairman of NG&P. The serious expression was now gone as the sentimental side of Giles came out. "How are you feeling about it all?"

Thomas thought that he was doing the right thing by breaking up with Ethan, because he couldn't put either of them through more heartache. But that didn't stop Thomas from hating himself, after making Ethan feel a similar set of horrible emotions.

"I feel like shit," Thomas admitted. "I knew breaking up with him was going to be difficult, but I didn't know it was still going to be this hard after a weeks time."

"Have you spoken to him since?" Giles asked.

Thomas' eyes drifted to the phone in his pocket. He felt grief and misery wash through him as he recalled how their last conversation was when they said goodbye.

"I've cut all contacts with Ethan." Thomas told Giles truthfully. "If we need the breakup to be serious, then I can't risk it by talking to him again."

When Thomas arrived back home after leaving Ethan, there were a couple of phone calls that Thomas left ringing. While the text messages were more persistent to begin with, time went on as Ethan reached out to him less and less. It eventually got to the point where Ethan stopped trying, because Thomas had ignored him at every potential encounter.