Chapter Twenty-Eight

~Nicole~

I stared at James from across the couch, not quite sure what to say. We’d had quite the morning that I definitely hadn’t expected, and I was still reeling from everything.

So, he’d been bankrupt at one point in his life? That was certainly intense, but I supposed a risk when you were dealing with large businesses. The only thing I was bothered by was why Jason thought that was some sort of great secret, and why he had reacted so strongly.

Although I couldn’t see his face because I was behind him, I could easily see how his shoulders tensed and his spine went ramrod straight. Heck, it was more of a reaction than he had when he found out I was pregnant. Did he really think that was a big deal?

I mean sure, I was depending on him for a whole lot of financial support right now, but even a month had already put me into much better standings. Even half a year would set me up for a much better life and give me some wiggle room for emergencies. Would it be ideal? No. But would it be life ruining either? No, not really.

“I suppose I should apologize,” James said, shifting somewhat uncomfortably.

“Why do you think that?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

He looked surprised at my reaction, like I should be shocked and appalled at the revelation. “Because I’m supposed to be supporting you and the child. If you’re depending on me, I suppose you deserve the full truth of the person you’re relying on.”

“While I do agree that would be nice, I don’t think you owe me a long history of your past -except medically, of course.” I tried to order my thoughts so I wouldn’t say something stupid. “Look, while I vastly appreciate everything you’ve done and have agreed to do for me and the little bean, it’s not necessary for my survival.

“While it would be inconvenient if all of this vanished tomorrow, I would live to see another day. And the fact of the matter is, the longer this situation last, the better off I’ll be even if it suddenly disappears. I’ve already managed to save three hundred dollars in this first month, and that’s with all the other things I’ve bought to settle in here, like towels and some pots, hygiene supplies and the like. A year from now, I’ll have a tidy little nest egg.”

“I…I see. Do you don’t feel…lied to?”

“No, not really,” I answered with a shrug. “I’m glad I found out now, but it really doesn’t matter much. Maybe I’ll save a little more, but is your current business in danger of bankruptcy?”

“No, not at all,” he laughed. “We’re doing better than I could ever dream, and even if everything absolutely tanked tomorrow and we lost all of our clients, we would be in business for another two years minimum.”

Wow. Two years, huh? Even if the absolute worst happened, it seemed like I would have plenty of time to make sure I was set. And that was even if the worst happened. “See? Then the two of us have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” He deflated slightly, as if he was relieved. We were quiet for several minutes before he shifted a bit uncomfortably again. “So…who exactly was that man and why is he intent on bothering you?”

I sighed. I probably should have known that was coming. And it wasn’t that I wanted to keep secrets from James either, but I was so sick of being emotional in front of him and I knew that telling him exactly who that man was guaranteed to put me back into a place I didn’t want to be.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not comfortable.”

“No, it’s not that, I… just…” Why the hell was I still letting Jason affect me so much? I had just stood up to him and read him to absolute filth. If I wanted to keep the peace, I had long since ruined that possibility. “It’s just a lot.”

“I understand. But I’ve got the whole day.”

Right. I took a deep breath and tried to figure out where to start.

“Okay. So, when I got out of college, I got a job in that same city at a call center. It wasn’t my dream job, obviously, or what I had gone to school for, but it paid the bills.

“Or, it did until they eliminated their bonus structure and commission set up and switched to minimum wage plus cents on the dollar for every sale. Suddenly my checks were going from five hundred dollars a week at thirty-five hours, to less than three hundred.

“I tried looking for another job, I really did. But all I had on my resume was fast food work and the one call center, so places that paid better wouldn’t hire me, and the places I used to work at weren’t enough to live off of.

“So, after four months of trying to make it work, I had to move back home. Back to Podunk town where people still call me oriental and marry their cousins. It wasn’t awful at first, mostly because I stuck to myself, but being unemployed left me feeling so empty. So useless.”

I could feel everything coming back to me. The anxiety, wondering if my degree was useless, thinking that I was a failure. What kind of twenty-two-year-old couldn’t get even the simplest of jobs?

“Day in and day out, I would fill out all these job applications online. I got a couple of interviews, but never managed to land the job. One person said that I was overqualified. Another wanted me to work overnights and my mom didn’t want me coming into her house at random times of the night or early morning. Two turned out to be scams. It just seemed impossible.

“Naturally, I started to feel bad about myself and I wanted some positive attention. So, I downloaded some dating app and started swiping. Almost everyone was a dud, except for this one guy.” Oh boy, here it was. I steadied myself, willing my temper not to spike. “He was handsome, a cop, and when I did some snooping, I found out that he was a real golden boy of the community.

“Of course, I agreed to a date after that! He took me to a great Mexican place and honestly, it was enchanting. Great conversation, he listened. I thought I had found a Prince Charming, and when he dropped me off at home, he gave me a kiss and wished me goodnight.” I belatedly thought it might not be the best time to tell James about my past crush and how great he thought I was, but it wasn’t like I was in a relationship with the billionaire.

“I went to bed excited and finally feeling better about my life, but the next day when I went to friend him, I couldn’t get into any of my social media. I had to reset all of my passwords via my back up emails, and by the time I got it all together, I found that almost all of my photos had been deleted, strange statuses had been posted and a bunch of messages were sent to random people.

“It took me all day to do damage control, but eventually I got it right and put it out of my mind. Jason and I started texting, planning our next date, and I offered to come over and cook for him.

“We set it all up for that weekend and I was on a cloud. But then, about the middle of the week, I came out of the grocery store to find all of my tires slashed. By then I was starting to be suspicious but ti was too late.

“Turns out that Jason’s ex was not nearly as charming, and she was determined to ruin me so she could get back with him. Of course, I didn’t find that out right away. By the time I did figure it out, she had already done too much damage.

“Posters all over town posted lies about me, rumors and edited screenshots of my social media were spreading to all the younger people in town. She knew the social network and I didn’t, plus she had that latent hometown racism on her side.

“It all happened so fast. In two weeks, I went from a nobody in town -which is how I liked it- to infamous. I hated it. Everywhere I went, there were whispers and looks. I had no peace, and I was constantly getting nasty messages online.

“But then, when someone wrote my number in several bathroom stalls around town, I couldn’t take it anymore. I went to Jason and I asked him for help. His ex was out of control and I needed his help. He was a cop after all, who better to help me?”

I snorted at that, remembering how naïve I had been back then. I had been so sure that he was going to help me. How wrong I had been.

“I will never forget how he looked at me, like I was the stupidest woman that he had ever met. He told me that it wasn’t really his business, and since he was trying to get the promotion to deputy, he couldn’t risk his reputation dealing with a civilian matter.

“I tried to argue with him, telling him that it was his ex who was doing all of this and if he had warned me about her in the first place, that none of this would ever have happened. He said that he had no way of knowing this would happen since his ex had left him alone for the past month.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought I could trust this guy and he sold my reputation out for a stupid promotion that he didn’t end up getting anyways! So, I tried to survive. I tried to keep my head down and just find a job.”

I laughed at that, but it was dry and bitter. “I thought that it couldn’t get any worse, ya know. That I had hit the proverbial rock bottom. But then the rumors hit my mother’s bible study and someone broke the window in her car.

“That was apparently the line for her, because she wanted me out. She said I was ruining her place in town and that I always came off like I thought I was better than everyone else. We’ve mostly made up about it now, but it crushed me then. My last vestige in the world was gone.

“So that’s why I left and went to Vegas. I wanted to go somewhere so completely different where I would just be a cog in the machine and no one would know me from Eve.” I chuckled again, thoroughly amused. “And we all know how that went.”

“We do,” he said, sharing my laugh. Despite how tense our morning had started, it was much better now that both of our secrets were out. “You certainly had a rollercoaster of a few months.”

“I really did,” I said, sighing. Now that I had just spelled out one of the worst experiences of my life, I was feeling a little emotionally empty. “I’m sure you get now why I have such troubles trusting people. Everyone I’ve ever let in has always hurt me for their own self-interest. So, when I thought I could be pregnant, I knew I had to run. I couldn’t risk that you were just like everything else.”

He reached forward, his large hand covering my own. “I can’t blame you for what you did. As much as I wish we could have worked through this together from the start, I understand exactly why you did what you did. To be honest, if I was in your shoes I probably would have done the same thing.

“You are an incredibly strong woman, Nicole. And I’m sure you know a part of that, but I don’t think you get just quite how incredible you are.”

I blushed. How did this stern, intimidating billionaire always know what to say to turn the situation on its head? It was uncanny -not that I was complaining.

“Well, I don’t know about that…”

“I do,” he let go of my hand and sat back, pulling out his cellphone. “So, how about we see what’s available for delivery this early?”

I nodded, more than eager to put everything behind us and never think of bankruptcy or Jason or terrible exes. “That sounds great. After that, we can call the lawyer and actually do something productive.”

“Perfect. So, are you feeling traditional, or do you want to shake it up a little?”