He was just a fraction of a second from exploding. Into a roar. A murderous rampage aiming to destroy everything in his office.
He was silently standing by the window, evidently trying to make sense of what happened. However, the thundering rage left his mind blank of all else except how could he have let her go?
You had no claim on her, his conscience argued. She's married. You fell in love with a married woman.
Letting her go so easily was a big mistake. Something kept nagging inside him. He should have dug deeper when he had the chance.
The weight of the world was upon his shoulders.
He sat down heavily in the armchair, rested his elbows on his knees, and lowered his face into both his hands. He rubbed his temples in defeat.
She's gone.
The memory of her bright, curious eyes, clouded with confusion and pain before she leaves haunts him. After she left, the scent of her clung to the penthouse. He could have sworn he could smell the scent of her perfume in his office too.
He remembers gazing at Hope for hours as she slept in his arms at the Bed and Breakfast. It was one of the best night's sleep he's had in a very long time. Her eyes fluttering while she slept, her long hair fanned out on the pillow, her flawless face soft and luminous. He recalled her lips were parted and her tongue darting out to moisten her dry lips. . .
It had been the most arousing sight he'd ever encountered and what was so unique about it was she was innocently sleeping. It wasn't a premeditated act. It was simply natural. True. Honest.
Envisioning her laying beside her husband, her body in someone else's hands. . .her head on his chest. . . Her lips on his. . .
His jealousy is raw and angry, filling him to the brink of madness.
"Fück!" He yells.
Zayn launched to his feet, whirled around and hurled the desk chair he sat on just seconds ago against the window. The glass panels shattered. He turned around and punched the vertical mirror against the wall, instantly bloodying his knuckles.
The paperwork he and Hope worked on so carefully over the past few days went scattering as he reached for the computer, lifted it, and slammed it against the desk in his rage.
There was a long silence filled with Zayn's ragged panting.
He did not pause until his fury was spent, and all that was left in his office was destroyed.
Zayn leaned against the wall in utter silence, shoulders slumped, his face etched in exhaustion and grief.
For the first time in his life, Zayn was left feeling like a loser.
He always believed he was happy. He had a family, friends he spent his days with and people he cared very much about. He got to go places and do things almost no one got to do. He believed his life was great.
Marriage was never a consideration. He liked having bed partners, not long-term girlfriends or a wife. He didn't intend to settle down, now or ever. He believed it just wasn't in his make-up. He never talked about it because he never thought about it. He never had aspirations about it.
Zayn never wanted to have children either.
Then Hope came along into his world and changed his entire life–his thinking. He wanted, no need, that life with her. No one else.
He never realized how unfulfilled it was until Hope entered his life and everything changed. He met someone who he would absolutely trade his life for. He met someone that meant more to him than his own life. He had never had that experience before.
She filled the absence, the void he had been missing.
All his life he unknowingly waited and found who he was searching for. The one person he could see spending the rest of life with. . .
His list of firsts was non-ending.
But she was someone else's.
He felt utterly defeated. His mind was weighted; his muscles ached. His heart sat like a lump of coal in his chest.
"Mr. St. James, you requested to see me?"
Zayn never bothered to turn around, hands still clasped behind his back looking out of the view in his office.
"I want a very thorough background check on Colin Edinburg and associates."
Luke clears his throat. "I believed I had one done for you not too long ago, sir. Is everything all right?"
"We've scarcely scratched the surface. Dig deeper. There has to be something we're missing. I want to know where he's been in the last couple years, the places he's visited. Down to the place and date he gets his car serviced. I also want to know more about Lily. What she did before marrying Colin. Where she went to school, family, what places she's visited. Every. Single. Detail. About both of them."
"Very well. I will do my very best." Luke acknowledged. "It will take some time to retrieve such sensitive information."
Zayn turns around, pinning him with a hard stare.
"There's more. Keep close tabs on Colin and Hope–I mean Lily. I want them watched. Take photos. Document where and who she visits, how long she stays, how many days, what she eats daily. . .I want to know everything."
"We need someone on the inside in order to fulfill that particular request Mr. St. James. In addition, I would need to hire men on watch twenty-four hours a day and another team who keep track of their activity outside the manor."
"Do whatever it takes. Hire whoever you need. Money is no issue. I want a full detailed description daily. But make sure they are not obvious. I do not want them to realize they're being watched."
"Rest easy. I only hire the best and they will blend in as bystanders. They won't question or suspect a single detail out of place." He assures him.
"Excellent."
"Oh and one more thing. Colin's brother–I know him as Jack. Their last names do not match. He goes by Evans. He claims he is his half brother. I want an extensive background check on him."
His former friend was keeping things from him and Zayn was hellbent on finding out what. Jack had always been a private person. He never spoke about his work and personal life now that Zayn thought about it. Hell, he never even knew the story behind Colin's wife. He never shared it.
He'd pretended not to know her when he saw her at the party. What was his motive? Why wait?
There was one thing Zayn hated. Liars.
"Jack Evans." Luke repeated the name jotting it down on his notepad. "Anything else you require, sir?"
"No, that will be all. Don't make me wait too long Luke. It is of utter importance."
"Do you suspect the lady is in danger?" He asks, scooting his spectacles higher up on the bridge of his nose.
"I do not know." Zayn replied in all honesty. "I sense something isn't right. Colin's story was too convenient and convincing, leaving nothing to question. We need more information if I am to question the story he provided."
An insistent knock at the door ended their conversation.
"Keep me updated." Zayn said to Luke's retreating back.
Sammy struts through the door dressed in leather from head to toe, brushing past Luke.
"You asked to see me?" He asks in a subdued tone.
Sammy's behavior was unusual. Zayn was used to hearing spunk and sass mimicking his actions and words.
Luke quietly shuts the door behind him.
Zayn takes a deep breath and straightens. "Yes I did. I know you are planning to depart this weekend but I must ask you to stay. For Hope's sake. I need you to be my anchor to her."
Sammy tilts his head with questioning eyes. "You want me to stay because of Hope? What for? To keep tabs on her?" He shakes his head. "Fat fucking chance, pretty boy. You let the universe decide and you let her go instead of grasping life by the balls!" Sammy nearly shouted. "You should have gotten on your knees begging her to stay. Fück her Husband!" He makes a ladylike stomp. "If you want her you're gonna have to fight for her on your own. I ain't gettin involved in another St. James blockbuster! Excuse me, I'm outta here!"
Sammy held his head high, turned away without another word, and marched towards the door.
Zayn rubs his temples, releasing a frustrated sigh. "Sammy, wait."
Sammy ignored him, nearly ripping the doorknob in his haste to flee.
"I never wanted her to leave, you know. When I took her home with me the night I found her–It felt right. Even then, I felt like her place was with me. Even in the condition she was in." Zayn's lips compressed into a small, bitter smile.
Sammy stops beneath the threshold, slowly turning to face him.
"I want to kill any man who looks at her. As you know I'm not in the habit of denying myself. I couldn't very well keep her for myself when she was married to a man she was sharing her life with before she met me. Letting her go was a supreme act of will. ."
The deepest regions of his heart a truth reigned.
That he loved her.
She was his joy, his strength. She was everything he was searching for, what he had been waiting for his whole life, without realizing it. Part of him had been missing. All the time he wasted in the presence of other females, the pleasure, the laughter, the desire, the delight, as much as it filled him to bursting, was never complete.
She was that part. The missing part that completed him. Now he knew what it meant to be whole.
Sammy eyes held his.
"She deserved to have a choice. . . And a chance to explore the life she shared with her husband. However, that does not mean that I have let her go but I have nothing to go on. I don't trust Colin. I need to make sure she's ok. I need you to keep close contact with her. You're her only friend after–."
"You think she's in danger?"
"Possibly." Zayn replied.
"Why don't you contact her yourself?"
"Something tells me Colin knows Hope and I were close at one point. I do not want to cause any unnecessary trouble for her and trigger his jealousy. Men do stupid things when they're jealous."
Sammy quirks an eyebrow. "Men like you...?"
Zayn nods and closes his eyes briefly. "Precisely, Men like me." He agrees.
Sammy was quiet for a long stretch of time. Pondering his words.
Sammy re-enters the office and shuts the door. "She needs to visit the nail salon every two weeks to get a fill. . .It'll take her thirty minutes to drive into the city for the appointment. I can meet up with her and make sure she's being taken care of."
An unexpected guest opens the door and enters.
Zayn's eyes go wide. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed Sammy's bewildered expression.
"You had a party here and you didn't invite me?"
Uncle Brett?
He closes the door quietly behind him, his full head of snow white hair combed back from his face. For someone in his seventies, he still had a ruggedly handsome face. His body was fit thanks to the endless hours he spent at the gym. Dressed in a smart suit he pulls a cigar from the inside of his jacket pocket and dives back in to retrieve a cutter and lighter.
Carefully, he finds and seats himself on one of Zayn's plush leather chairs facing his desk and crosses his legs casually like he didn't have a care in the world.
Zayn and Sammy watch transfixed, as he cuts the end of the cigar, slides it between his lips, and carefully flips a metallic lighter allowing the flame to engulf the tip. He takes deep puffs to begin the burn. Smoke is released from his mouth and nose.
Without taking his eyes off of Brett, as if under a spell, Sammy absentmindedly digs into his handbag and takes out a pack of cigarettes. He slips the tip between his lips, lights up the tip and takes a deep puff mimicking Brett's actions.
Zayn tilts his head and sends him an odd look. "Sammy what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Sammy blinks in surprise as if awakened from a trance, his mouth full of smoke as he tries to speak, coughing several times and swatting away the cloud before him.
"I didn't know what the hell I was doing! I was under a damn spell. Told ya y'all cursed!"
Brett chuckles to himself as he leans back in his chair, cigar nestled between his index and middle finger and looks around him.
His mothers uncle displayed his never ending carefree attitude. For as long as he could remember, Zayn had never seen him angry. He was playful, a jokester and always acted more like a close friend than an uncle to his mother, to himself and Zayn's siblings.
"Care to explain what the hell happened here?" He asks, directing his attention to Zayn. "Looks like King Kong paid you a visit."
Zayn's eyebrows rose.
"This is definitely an unexpected surprise. I did not know you were visiting." Zayn answers.
Brett took another puff of his cigar. "Stop beating around the bush, kid, and answer the question."
Uncle Brett was carefree but he also had zero tolerance for bullshit.
Zayn wanted to remind him the hotel was a non-smoking establishment but he held his tongue. Now was not a good time.
So instead he did as he was told and started from the beginning. During his retelling, Sammy righted a chair, sat and listened, cigarette still in hand.
"Well I'll be damned. The playboy's compass finally found its final destination and she's taken?" Brett threw his head back and laughed. "What are the odds?" He laughs some more.
"I'm glad you find this so amusing." Zayn murmured. He felt like re-enacting his King Kong episode all over again.
Sammy's eyes go round and he makes a crazy sign.
Brett collects himself and clears his throat. "No offense, kid. But it sounds like a fishy situation to me."
"I'm telling ya, the St. James' curse is real. Y'all cursed!" Sammy exclaimed from behind him.
Uncle Brett leaned back in his chair and made a steeple with his fingers, his cigar nestled between his lips.
Zayn raised a brow. "How so?"
Brett shrugs. "I don't know yet. You never found dirt on the husband? How the hell did he not find her earlier?"
"He believed she was dead." Zayn explained. "I checked out his story and everything seemed in place."
"Sounds like he covered all his bases. As in he planted the information for you to find." Brett elaborated.
Zayn and Sammy share another look.
"Her so-called husband comes in prancing on a white horse and carries your girl away and you're here throwing a tantrum instead of digging deeper to find where he slipped." Brett shifts in his seat. "When you've lived as long as I have your eyesight weakens yet you see through people with wiser eyes. The lines aren't so blurred. . ."
"I know I fucked up. I should have dug deeper but it was so unexpected and came at me from nowhere. Even after I retrieved the information I still couldn't shake the feeling something more was missing."
"Look kid, I know you've never experienced something like this before and you're the type of guy that gets what he wants when he wants it, but you need to be prepared for disappointment. Nothing may come from this once we receive more information. He may be the real thing. What are you going to do if that happens?"
Zayn shook his head. "Something doesn't feel right, I'm sure of it."
Brett crossed his legs and took a long puff from his cigar and eyed him carefully. "You love this girl?"
"He's balls deep in love with her!" Sammy exclaimed in one of his sharpest lisps, his leg bobbing anxiously while he took insistent puffs of the cigarette still lit between his fingers.
Zayn sends him a glare. "Keep your mouth shut and put out the cigarette!"
Brett smiles and nods his head in understanding. "So this isn't one of your exploits where you hate losing to the other guy?"
Zayn runs a hand through his disheveled hair in frustration.
"Uncle Brett I'm about ready to go Tasmanian devil on you and your cigar!"
Zayn's patience has been tested beyond his limits. With nothing else within reach he swipes the only item left on his desk, his office phone. It slams against the opposite wall.
Brett throws his head back and laughs, a full hearty laugh from deep in his chest. He had a hard time subduing it as he watched Zayn's furious expression and he coughed a couple times before he was able to calm down.
Brett sends Sammy a look over his shoulder. "You're right, he is balls deep."
Sammy smiles sweetly and crosses his legs. "Of course I am."
Zayn shakes his head and releases a deep breath. He looked upwards praying for patience. "You still haven't told me the reason you're here."
"You're mother. She voiced her concerns about how you haven't been checking in regularly." Brett shrugs carelessly. "Usually when one of your kids is in trouble, the patterns are the same–lack of communication. I picked up on the pattern of course but I never mentioned it to your folks."
"What was your excuse for coming here then?" The last thing he needed was his family's interference.
Now that he was dealing with trouble himself, he did not blame Jasmine for the extreme measures she took to keep what she went through to herself. The extended efforts made for Camelia scarred both him and Jasmine.
"I told everybody I was bored and needed a vacation. I said I was planning to visit England then make it out to Italy and Greece to visit some old friends. I volunteered to check up on you while I was here."
"You cannot tell them." Zayn insisted.
"Of course I'm not going to tell them." Brett scoffed. "It'd be a shit show."
He envied his uncle's calm, easy-going attitude.
"Italy and Greece can wait. Remember there's not a problem in the world where you can't find a solution for. What do you need me to do? Looks like I'm going to have to dirty my hands."
Zayn narrowed his eyes. He needed someone who they knew nothing about nor have seen. Brett was . . .older. People tend to believe and never question seniors–he would have no motive of any sort for them to question.
Zayn almost laughed despite his anger. If he voiced his last thoughts, Zayn was sure Brett would punch him square in the face.
"How well do you drive on the right side?"
Brett lifted a fine eyebrow.
_____________________________________________________________________
Thanks for reading! A special thanks to all the votes and comments on the last chapter. I know many of you were surprised by Hope's double life.
I love Uncle Brett, hope you enjoyed having him back!
Next update is Friday.
Please vote, comment, share and add to your public reading lists!
-Shaz