Chapter 7
Nina
“Cole Emery? The Cole Emery?” my sister, Clara, had her mouth open wide in surprise.
“Shhh….keep it down!” I looked around me suspiciously, as I sipped my glass of Bloody Mary hungrily, hoping that it would magically cure my hangover somehow.
“Nina, do you know who he is?” she continued, dropping her voice to a whisper.
“By the sounds of it, I should?” I said and fixed the large dark sunglasses that covered half my face. I hadn’t wasted any time in calling Clara to meet me for brunch the moment I left the hotel. She worked for a financial firm, made a lot of money, worked crazy hours and never had time for anything. But when I told her over the phone what had happened the previous night, she dropped everything and met me in fifteen minutes. She was the only person in the world who I could be completely honest with and receive no judgments for my actions.
“He is one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the country, Nina,” she said, tipping her head to one side, like she was disappointed that I didn’t know who he was. Her words took a few moments to sink in. Cole Emery was a billionaire?
“What does he do?” I asked her in a meek voice, and I watched as Clara’s cheeks flushed to a bright pink.
“He’s a private wealth manager. Runs his own firm. He made his first million when he was just twenty-five. The man is a genius,” she said and leant towards me over the small table we were sitting at. My eyes widened, I would never have imagined Cole to be that guy. It was obvious that he was rich, but I couldn’t have guessed that he was that rich.
“The hotel you spent the night in, he owns it,” she continued, when I hadn’t said anything for a few moments. When I looked back at Clara, I saw that she was glaring at me. Eventually, I shrugged my shoulders.
“That doesn’t change anything. I still don’t know him. We got drunk and got married. It doesn’t matter who he is or how much money he has,” I said, and drank some more of my drink. Clara sighed loudly and sank back in her chair, glaring at me rapidly the whole time.
“It’s just crazy, that’s all I’m saying,” she said.
“I know!” I replied and slammed the glass back down on the table.
“Cole Emery…he just never appeared to be the kind of man who would make such a rash bad decision. He heavily calculates every step. He only makes right decisions,” Clara said, shaking her head.
“Right business decisions maybe,” I replied and Clara continued shaking her head.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” she continued, looking away from me now. She seemed to be more in shock than I was.
“What are you saying, Clara? That he married me last night because he had a reason to? We were drunk out of our minds. So drunk that I can’t even remember it happening,” I hissed at her. I wanted her to give me a solution. I needed her to be on my side, rather than drool over Cole. She snapped her head back to look at me and licked her lips nervously.
“Yeah, you’re right…he was just drunk,” she said and I glared at her with my brows crossed.
“What else could it be?” I asked her and Clara bit down on her lip.
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine that you have something he wants,” she said and I sat back in my chair and looked away from her. She must have caught the distant faraway look in my eyes, because she suddenly reached over and caught my hand in hers.
“It’ll be fine, Nina. It was just a drunken mistake. In a few years, you won’t even remember it,” she said and I realized that hot tears had begun to prick the back of my eyelids.
“My wedding was supposed to be special. It was supposed to mean something, Clara. I was holding on to the hope of that for so long…and now this happened, and it just feels like there is no hope for me, for the real thing,” I said, and sniffed. Clara tightened her grip on my hand and shook her head.
“This means nothing. You’ll be laughing about it. If he said he’ll take care of it, I’m sure he will. You don’t even have to see him again,” she said warmly and smiled. I forced myself to smile as well and then nodded my head.
“I hope so. I’m so embarrassed and angry. Especially by all the things he said in the morning. It felt like he was making fun of me for being upset about this. I wonder how many times he’s done this before,” I added.
“He said he hasn’t done it before. And even if he has, just forget about him and lets move on,” Clara offered and I sighed.
“That’s the thing…I can’t just forget about him. Even when I knew it was just supposed to be a one night stand, I had a feeling that he was leaving an impression on me. There’s something about him…” I said and allowed my voice to trail and fade away. Clara was looking at me like she pitied me.
“I know what you mean. Cole Emery has the reputation of being a heartbreaker. He is the perfect combination of power, brains and good looks. I’ve never met him, but I can imagine being totally floored by him if I did. And he clearly seduced you, so I don’t blame you,” she said in a sympathetic voice. I felt a sudden bubbling sadness inside me, the kind that I knew I wouldn’t be able to push down. I should have simply walked away from him when I could, and now my life was tangled up with his.