Chapter 1
Bella
“Welcome to DuPont Pediatrics,” I push my glasses up my nose a little and grab a pen with the other hand ready to take notes. I always take notes when I answer the phone regardless of the query, I guess it’s a habit.
“Oh, so you do know how to answer a phone?” my mother huffs down the line, the tone of her voice tells me how pissed she is. This is the third call this week, and it is only Tuesday. Christmas is a week away, so the clinic is busy. Being shut for a week makes people assume the doors might never open again because everyone wants in to see the doctors and they want in now.
“What can I help you with today?” I give her the same sugary sweet voice I use on clients and she huffs. Julie reaches over my shoulder to move the mouse of my computer, so I awkwardly lean away.
Julie doesn’t know the deal with my parents, but she knows there is tension and thankfully she isn’t one to gossip or ask questions. It makes working with her a great deal easier.
“It would be nice to have my daughter home for Christmas.” I shuffle so the wheels on my chair move and Julie can access Dr. Nathan’s schedule. I shoot her a thankful smile and turn to try to have this conversation in what little privacy this wide open office has.
“Is Riley going to be there?” She sighs at my question, it is a little louder this time.
“You know he is.”
“Well, then you know my answer.”
It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it is nearly six months now. I worked at my father’s dentist office, it was, still is a family practice, I just didn’t work there anymore. I never went to college, my mother trained me, and I had had a solid job since senior year high school. It was hard to walk away after three solid years, but I didn’t have a choice.
My father, Jeff Pembroke, gave me a look that still chills me to the bone when I approached him with the issue that I had. He didn’t believe his daughter and his respect for me that day disappeared. Riley Sanford worked with my father, he was a great dentist and seemed well liked by all his clients. He sadly did not know how to take no for an answer. He followed me to the gym one night, followed me to the change rooms and took photos of me naked. He said he would shame the whole family and broadcast them if I didn’t sleep with him.
I hadn’t slept with anyone, like ever. I sure as hell was not going to sleep with a man who thought he could get what he wanted anyway he could.
He blackmailed me for weeks. Months. He groped me when he could, he sent me pictures of his pleasuring himself. It was a nightmare and my father gawked at me like I was a thorn in his side. The shame he made me feel for speaking up was indescribable.
I left, I told Riley to publish the photos if he felt the urge and who knows one day he might. But as of right now he hadn’t, and I wasn’t going to be anywhere near that man for as long as I lived. So, Christmas at home with my parents was a no go because Riley and his girlfriend would be there. How he got a girlfriend I had no idea?
“I think you are being unreasonable.” Her tone was all professional not even a hint of a caring mother to be heard, and I could hear a small echo in the background which told me she was at the clinic in a room. Riley was probably listening, smirking, knowing he was once again winning. Asshole.
“Mom, he has naked photos of me. He sent me a dick pic. He groped me several times and I am being unreasonable.”
“Well, he’s moved on.” Like that mattered, he could marry and have ten kids and I still would not want anything to do with the man.
“Not the point. I do not even want to be in the same room as that man, if that means we never spend Christmas together because Dad can’t bring himself to pass up an opportunity to flaunt his wealth, then I guess we just won’t do Christmas anymore.” Or birthdays or any event really, Riley was always there. Just hovering in the background like the creeper he turned out to be. I shuddered at the thought.
“See how unreasonable that is? He is a partner…”
“What? Since when?” This was news to me and not news I wanted to hear.
“Oh, well you see if you rang more often, we would have told you the good news.” I bit down hard on my bottom lip, tears filled my eyes and I had to pray for patience or something a lot stronger. This was not a good thing for my life, he would forever be linked to my family now. I would never be free from him.
“Mom, I am really busy, I’ll call you back later.” She began to protest, but I pulled my headset off and reached over to end the call. I took off my glasses and set them on the desk, in case my eyes leaked and they began to fog.
This is what my life had come to. I was secluded in another city. I didn’t even know anyone when I moved to Austin. I found a job online I thought I might be able to do and applied. Thankfully Nathan DuPont was hiring. He hired me on the spot barely even glancing at my poorly constructed resume with no references because my mother wouldn’t provide me with one.
He had looked at me with those dark brown eyes, a small crease between his brows and seemed to contemplate something for a moment before he said, “start Monday, do not be late.” I felt safe enough from him because he looked at me with something other than lust and I refused to spend my life thinking all men were like Riley. Plus, Nathan had to be at least ten years older than my twenty years, maybe even more.
I sunk my hands into my dark brown hair and rested my elbows on the desk letting my fingers massage a little. Why was my life like this, what had I done to deserve this?
“Bella?” a deep rumbly voice I knew well spoke softly from behind. I quickly turned to see Dr. Nathan standing at the door to the small filing room, he tilted his head. I stood and followed him inside the small space. He moved, so he was out of sight from those in the waiting room and waited until I was too before he spoke again. “What’s wrong?”
I frowned a little, I was expecting to be in trouble for being a bad first point of contact. I was hired for my smile and cheery face, well that is what Julie told me. She said I freshened the front office up.
“Sorry, it was my mother, I won’t let it bother me.” Nathan had on dark trousers today and a light blue shirt with the arms rolled up to his elbows, it was a very good look on him. I swallowed and looked away, my face heating.
“Bella?” his voice was so rich it felt like chocolate syrup, though that is not at all possible.
I lifted my eyes to his and sucked in a breath. Nathan was indeed a good-looking man but that expression on his face right now was something else, something that made me think he wanted something more from me.
“Come find me if you need me?” I nodded but was confused. “I don’t want you retreating on me Bella, it’s taken me a long time to get you this far. I won’t let her undo all my hard work.” He took a step closer and lifted my chin with his finger. Electricity raced through my veins and my breath caught.
“I’ll always look out for you.” With that and one last long meaningful glance, Nathan stepped back and left me alone in the small room.
What the hell did he mean by, ‘it took him this long?’
I was almost afraid to find out.
Nathan DuPont was a man well out of my league.