Chapter 22

Jessibelle

Well, that was fun while it lasted.

That’s what I kept repeating to myself, over and over, whenever I thought of Zach and what had happened between us.

I hadn’t heard a word from him since I’d left his house in Atherton the past week, and I couldn’t exactly blame him. No doubt he’d reconciled with that woman, and the two of them were off living out their outrageously perfect lives together. Good for them. That must have been nice. My heart twisted up into an angry little black ball every time I thought of it, but I kept repeating the words to myself—that was fun while it lasted. I tried to convince myself if Zach was happy, I was happy, but I wasn’t at that selfless part of our relationship yet. No, I still wanted him and the thought of some other woman getting her hands all over the man I had been falling for was enough to make my stomach twist up into a sick mess.

And then, of course, as though things couldn’t get any more complicated, there was Aston. He had come swinging back into my life, promising me the world on a silver platter, if I’d just give him another chance. I turned him down—because of course I would—but what he was offering was undeniably attractive. I mean, he’d told me he would leave the case if I wanted him to. That was a big deal. A huge one. And if I took him up on it, maybe I’d have a better chance of winning my first major court case. That would look good on my record.

As nice as it would’ve been to get rid of him once and for all, I knew I couldn’t lie to his face and let him think there was a hint of a chance between us. That wouldn’t have been right. I would never get back with a man who had cheated on me. That was for sure, and I didn’t want him to think I was gullible or stupid, even if it was in aid of my career. No, I’d just work harder at nailing this case, and I welcomed the distraction for the time being. Anything to get my mind off Zach and Brandon and the whole freakin’ mess my love life had turned into over the last few weeks.

What were the chances both Zach and I were faced with exes wanting to reunite at the same time? It was a weird bit of cosmic symmetry, one I felt was a little too coincidental to be nothing more than a coincidence. So, I threw myself into the case, hoping to pull my mind away from everything that had happened over the last month.

And I finally spotted something, amongst all the papers and complaints and shareholders. A common thread, at last.

Zach’s brother.

Johnathan Rose was a few years younger than Zach. The two of them had grown up together, best friends, and when Zach had gotten sick, his brother had stepped in to help out where he could. But that wasn’t the only thing that had my hackles up.

Every single part of the company that had filed a complaint against Zach had Johnathan as part of their board. Now, that wasn’t such a big deal, but from what I gathered from the shareholders emails, he had a hand in pushing them to make those complaints. Okay, fair enough. Maybe he just didn’t want to put a divide down the middle of the family while he tried to keep the company afloat. That would’ve been all right in and of itself, but there was more. Much more.

I wasn’t sure why no one had thought to do the research on Zach’s brother before now. I guessed because he was part of the family, and most people assumed he had his brother’s and his father’s best interests at heart. But I went deeper, staying up late, vanishing into shell company after shell company before I found what I was looking for.

It didn’t have Johnathan’s name on it, but it had the name of one of the companies he’d started to cover his tracks. A business, as far removed as he could get it from the one Zach ran, that had just filed the patents for new software that would challenge the one Zach had built his company on. If he managed to get the funding to get the business off the ground, it could seriously destabilize what Zach had worked so hard to create. I stared at the name of the company on the page in front of me, wondering how on Earth it got that far. Was I the first to stumble upon this information or were other people aware of it too? Had the shareholders been offered a stake in the new company if they stuck with Johnathan through this?

I glanced at the clock. It was already ten in the morning. I’d been up since four after I woke up with a sharp realization about the case and rolled out of bed to investigate. I should head to the office, or at the very least, call in to tell them I was working from home. I let my head drop back and let out a sigh. My brain was too full of the information I’d just come across for me to be able to focus on anything. I needed more coffee and something to eat before I spoke to anyone human.

As I got to my feet to grab my things and head out for a bite to eat, there was a knock at my door. Who the hell was that? I hurried over to the peephole and peered through it to find Aston looking back at me.

I pulled the door open, irritated. I’d made it clear the night he’d given me a lift back to my apartment that I didn’t want to talk to him or be with him or forgive him and he was wasting his time pursuing any of that with me. But he obviously hadn’t paid any attention to my little speech, judging by the enormous bouquet of roses in his hands.

“Jessibelle,” he smiled at me broadly, and pushed the roses into my hands as soon as I’d opened the door. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“Yeah, well, I’m kind of busy right now,” I snapped, taking the roses because I didn’t know what the hell else to do. “Could you get out of my way? I’m on my way out—”

“I need to talk to you” he said, pushing forward into my apartment and ignoring my protests. “About the case.”

“Well, actually, I’m just doing—”

“I quit the case,” he turned to me, spreading his hands out wide as though I should’ve been amazed at what he was telling me. My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure how to react.

“So, we can be together, and it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest,” he explained, as though I somehow hadn’t gotten that. I shook my head.

“Aston, seriously.” I pointed to the door. “I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t know how I can make that any more obvious.”

“Hear me out,” he insisted, and I rolled my eyes at him. I hated that he was still fucking up my life, hated that he was still rolling into my world and grinding everything around me to a halt just because he couldn’t see what was blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention.

“I let you take me to dinner, remember?” I pointed out. “That was me hearing you out.”

“Why did you come to dinner with me if you didn’t want to talk to me?” he threw back, clicking into debate mode, and I fell silent. He had a point. I mean, I knew it was because I was freaking the hell out over Zach and Alana getting back together, but I couldn’t tell him that.

“I thought you deserved a chance to talk,” I admitted. “But that evening was it. That was all you’re getting from me. Can you get that through your thick head?”

“I just wish you’d give this a little thought,” he went on, sliding back into patronizing asshole mode, his natural state of being. I dumped the roses on the table next to my laptop and closed it, making sure he couldn’t see the information on the screen.

“I have given this thought, Aston,” I spat back, my patience running dangerously thin. “I’ve given this all the thought it needs, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that you are the last person I ever want to see. You fucked me over in the worst way you possibly could. Do you get that? Do you understand?”

The words fell out of me frantically, as though I was trying to convince myself as much as him. He had spent so long crushing me under the weight of his manipulation, of his faux-love, and I could feel myself being drawn back in against my better judgement. I didn’t want to fall for him again, and every fiber of my being was repulsed by him, well, almost every fiber. The handful that weren’t were urging me to hear him out and to take him back, because it wasn’t as though I had anyone else waiting for me now. He lowered his eyes to the ground, took a deep breath, and then began to speak, as though what he was saying was of the most monumental importance to me.

“Cheating on you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” His eyes went misty. “I see that now. But I was scared about the commitment we were making to each other, so I—”

“So, you stuck your dick in someone else?” I threw my hands in the air. It felt satisfying to lay it out for him. He apparently didn’t have a comeback prepared for my response. He fell silent, and as soon as he did, I heard another set of footsteps. One that I recognized.