Chapter 18

Nathan

Fridays no longer held the appeal to me that they used to. It was no longer a day that I felt relaxed and ready to start the weekend. It was no longer a day that gave me excitement because I was going to get to spend the weekend with the woman that I loved. It was just another day, one that meant the liquor stores would be restocked, and I could pick up my favorite whiskey before going home and drowning myself in my living room.

After the whole thing at the pub, I figured it was better if I just stayed inside, alone, drinking in peace and quiet. I was tired of hearing John’s voice trying to pull me out of the funk that I was perfectly happy being in. He didn’t get it. I was done with women, and the marks that Amanda left would stay there forever. I leaned back in my chair for a moment and then shot forward, startled as the door flew open. My secretary was chasing Lindsey into the room.

“Mr. Robertson, I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer,” my secretary said.

“It’s alright,” I replied. “Thank you.”

My secretary gave Lindsey a nasty look and pulled the door shut behind her as she walked out of the room. I looked up at Lindsey who was standing there, out of breath, straightening her clothes. She looked perfect as always, and I wondered what the hell she was doing in my office. I sure was glad that I wasn’t in the middle of a meeting or conference call with some important client. I motioned for the chair, but Lindsey shook her head. I sat down in my chair and grabbed the pen, twirling it through my fingers.

“Lindsey,” I said. “Are you lost? Jacob’s office is three doors down.”

“I’m not lost,” she said.

“Okay, then what can I do for you today?”

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out, obviously gathering her thoughts. I knew that this was going to be about Amanda, and though I really didn’t want to talk about her, I was slightly curious why Lindsey was barging through the office door. She walked around the chair and grasped her hands in front of her.

“You have really messed up,” she said. “You are completely wrong about Amanda, and you have no idea what kind of damage you have done.”

“Lindsey,” I said, sighing. “I appreciate your appeal on Amanda’s behalf, but what happened is between her and me. I’m sure you are trying to help, and that’s nice and everything, but we don’t need others meddling in this.”

“Like John?” she asked.

“John was only relaying important information to me,” I said with irritation. “It was the same thing you would’ve done if you were in his place.”

“Maybe,” she said. “But I would have first made sure that what I was telling her was the truth, not take some ridiculous story from someone I was sleeping with.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “He got that information from someone he trusts.”

“He shouldn’t trust her,” Lindsey said.

“Would you mind talking to me straight?” I asked. “All of your riddles are starting to make my head hurt.”

“It was Sarah, my little sister,” she said. “She is sleeping with John. She is the reason all of this happened.”

“I really don’t see how one girl is the reason behind all of this,” I said nonchalantly. “She didn’t force Amanda to get married. She didn’t force Amanda to lie to me, or to go behind my back, or to do any of the things that she did. I’m sure Sarah is a really easy target, although I don’t understand your part in any of this, but it doesn’t excuse Amanda’s deception.”

I had to admit, I was a little surprised to hear Sarah’s name yet again. I didn’t know that John was sleeping with her, if he even was at all. Either way, nothing about what Sarah did to Amanda’s ex had anything to do with Amanda being married and trying to trick me into marrying her. I was starting to get irritated, and my patience was running thin. I was hearing Lindsey out because she was Jordan’s fiancée, but that was the only reason. Otherwise, I would have had her escorted out of the building as soon as she walked through my office door. Amanda was really going above and beyond this time, and I was tired of the games.

“My sister is the reason you broke up with Amanda,” Lindsey insisted.

“I know what Sarah did,” I said. “She slept with Amanda’s ex on purpose. Amanda told me the whole sob story when we were dating. I met Sarah once when we were in a restaurant. She made some snide comment to Amanda and got her all upset. Though now, I am thinking that those tears might have been all for show.”

The scene from the park started to play in my mind. She really did seem genuinely upset, and that had been the exact moment that I fell even further in love with her, thinking she was the woman that I was going to spend my life with. It had been a ruse, and I wouldn’t even be surprised if Sarah was all part of the giant scheme to get my money. Or maybe she had fooled them just as much as she had fooled me.

“No,” Lindsey said. “You don’t understand. She’s the reason that all of this current day situation is happening. She is the person behind it, and she cannot be trusted. My entire life, Sarah has been jealous of Amanda. She has always done things to try to keep her from being happy. This time, she really went above and beyond. You have to hear me out. This is not what you think it is. John is being played for a fool, too. Don’t you care that some woman is using him for her own sick scheme?”

“First of all, I still have no idea what you are talking about,” I said. “Secondly, it is not surprising if what you are saying is true about a woman using a man. It seems there isn’t a single decent woman left, no offense. I’m sure you truly love Jordan, but that would make you the exception.”

“You are a very stubborn man,” Lindsey said, sitting down in the chair. “Listen, Sarah has been screwing John before you ever met Amanda. When you started dating her, Sarah saw an opportunity to further torture my best friend. She fucked some guy and had him create a fake marriage document. She then went to John, acting like she was so worried about you, his best friend. She gave him the document and showed him some woman’s marriage license online. The woman just so happened to have the same name as Amanda, but she’s like forty-six and lives in Iowa. From there, John had his ‘proof,’ and of course, everything after that looked suspicious. I have known Amanda my whole life, and I would know if she were married.”

“Wow,” I said, laughing and clapping my hands. “That is a very elaborate story. Did you get that from her, or are you in on this, too? What’s in it for you? She must really want my money.”

I shook my head and crossed my arms in front of me, still snickering to myself. If I wasn’t cocky about the whole situation, I wouldn’t be able to hide just how much this whole conversation was tearing me to pieces. Why couldn’t she just leave me alone? Why couldn’t she just understand that she got caught in a lie and move on to the next poor schmuck that she was planning on conning out of money? My heart was breaking in my chest, and all I could do to cover it up at that moment was laugh.

“I am not joking, and I am not part of any scheme,” Lindsey said angrily. “I have never been away from Amanda for more than a couple of weeks. She is not married, and she has never been married. In fact, the only time I ever even heard the word marriage out of her mouth was when she told me that the two of you were going to get hitched. She was the happiest that I had ever seen her in that moment. She really loves you, and it’s not a scheme or a joke. Sarah is the reason why your life and her life are being completely ruined. I don’t know what I have to do to prove that to you.”

“That’s the whole thing, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“I have mountains of hard evidence proving that what John is saying is actually fact,” I said. “You come barging into my office, full speed ahead, spouting off some ridiculous story about your little sister’s vengeful tirade, doing everything she can to ruin Amanda’s life for no good reason at all, and you don’t have a lick of hard evidence. I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“You need to wake the fuck up,” she shouted. “You are really going to lose her for good.”

“I’ve already lost her,” I said. “In fact, I never had her. She has never been mine because she belongs to someone else.”

“She doesn’t belong to anyone, nor will she ever, no matter who she marries,” Lindsey snapped.

“You know what I mean,” I said with a smirk. “You can’t lose something that you never obtained in the first place.”

“You are making a huge mistake,” she said, picking up her purse and turning to the door. “There has never been anyone else in this world for Amanda. Even before she met you, she loved you.”

She walked out of the office, and my face began to droop down. I could feel the pain surging through my chest, thinking about Amanda and the love that I thought we had. I stood up and walked over to the bar, pouring myself a big glass of whiskey and setting it on the desk. I made my way to the door and stuck my head out.

“I need you to cancel everything on my schedule today,” I instructed my secretary. “I don’t want to be disturbed under any circumstances, and there are no exceptions. The building could be burning down around me, and you leave that door closed and that intercom off. Hell, tell people that I went home for the day to get them off of you if that helps. Not John, Jordan, or anyone else. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, looking at me with worry.

“Thank you,” I replied, closing and locking the office door.

I sat down and started drinking, thinking about what Lindsey had said and everything I had been through with Amanda. She had gone and done it, just like John, planting that tiny seed of doubt in my mind. I had never heard of John screwing Sarah, and if he had slept with her more than once, I was sure he would have told me about it. John was not the kind of guy to cover his territory twice, which made me believe that the entire story was a load of bullshit.

I sat back in my chair and downed the glass of whiskey, staring at the bottom of the glass. I was completely down, and I could feel myself growing closer and closer to a full meltdown. Everything I had worked so hard for and built meant nothing to me at that moment. All that I cared about was the full carafe of whiskey on the shelf. I got up and grabbed the bottle before settling down in the chair by the windows. I drank myself to the point of blacking out that day, passing out in the chair of my office, trying to forget. It was definitely not my finest hour.