Page 5 of The Second Ending
It had been. Marcus was nothing like the men Ashleigh was around most of the day. He was older, for one thing, twenty-eight to her twenty-two, and well-muscled from his time working on the construction crew, something he did part-time, even while studying. He was tall, focused, smart, and ridiculously good-looking, with dark eyes and thick wavy hair that always flopped over his forehead.
Their first meeting became another, when Ashleigh brought her notes for him, and then another, as they discussed thematerial, and then another as they found they liked each other a great deal.
And when Ashleigh was accepted to law school and decided to move out of her parent’s house, moving in with Marcus seemed completely natural.
At the time, he was living in a small flat of an old house that his uncle’s company had bought to fix up. It wasn’t large, but it was big enough for two, and over the next four years, as they’d worked towards their degrees, they’d made it a cosy home.
By the time she reached this part of her story, Ashleigh’s wine glass was empty. Liora reached for the bottle to refill it just as the waiter arrived with their meals—risotto for Ashleigh and a plate of pesto-smothered pasta for her friend. They abandoned their conversation for a moment to discuss freshly-ground black pepper and parmesan cheese for a moment, until their waiter wished them bon appetit and strode off to his next table.
“So, what happened?” Liora asked around a mouthful of agnolotti. “It all sounds Harlequin-Romancy so far.”
Ashleigh took another sip of her wine. “My parents found out.”
“What?” The fork hovered in the air as Liora’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean, ‘found out’? Didn’t they know?”
Mumble.
“Please tell me I didn’t hear you correctly.”
“I never told them.” This was hard to admit. “I’m not proud of it now, but it seemed to make sense then. Perhaps...” She looked up at her friend. “I knew they’d never approve of him. They didn’t approve of anything I did without their input. I didn’t worry about them coming over to see me, and I went back to the house often enough that they believed me when I said I just had a roommate. But, if I’d known then what would’ve happened, I might have kept quiet.”
Liora said nothing, but gave Ashleigh the silence to form her thoughts. Eventually she said, simply, “It was a mess. They found out and meddled, and enough awful stuff happened that we fought. God knows why we let them do it, but they managed to break us up. It was horrible. Just another case of my terrible decisions ruining my life.”
“Oh, Ash…” Liora reached over to cover Ashleigh’s hand with her own.
“I tried to get in touch… I realised how idiotic I’d been, but he wouldn’t answer my calls or reply to emails. I suppose I don’t blame him. And the really stupid thing is that now, this man who wasn’t good enough for my ridiculous family, has turned his uncle’s little company into a huge development corporation, and he could buy and sell them a hundred times over. And he’s the one I have to deal with for this case I’ve got going on.”
CHAPTER 3
MARCUS
“If you slamthat door one more time, it’s going to come off the hinges.”
Marcus spun about on his heels and glared at his EA. “I don’t recall asking for your thoughts on the structural integrity of this building.”
“You’ve been a bear since yesterday, after the meeting about the field. I didn’t hear anything too surprising. What did I miss?”
“Nothing.” The word sounded more like a growl.
Shelley shook her head. “If you say so. When you’re ready to be human again, we need to go over that document the investors have sent in… Okay, later. It can wait till tomorrow, if you think you’ll calm down by then. Go home, or go for a run or something to work out your demons. Keep them out of the office, or they’ll want a raise and benefits, and enrolment in the company’s pension plan.”
Marcus gave her another glare, but then relented.
“Yes, boss.” He blew out a heavy breath. “Finish whatever is necessary and then take the rest of the day off too. You deserve it for putting up with me.”
He shut down his computer, packed up his stuff, and left, being careful not to slam any doors behind him. Really, what was eating him?
Stupid question. He knew exactly what it was. How had seeing Ashleigh again, after all these years, thrown him off like this? He was over her, completely. Had been for years. Hadn’t thought of her at all. Ever.
Except every night.
Damn that woman, coming back to mess up the life she had already destroyed eight years ago. The heartbreak had been bad enough, but the duplicity—that had been the kicker, the knife that twisted in the already-mortal wound.
Marcus stormed his way to his car, which he manoeuvred through the streets of Toronto until he arrived at his house, not so far from that first little flat he and Ash had called home for those precious years. Then, it had been a tiny set of rooms with a floor that creaked and a roof that leaked. Now he lived in a whole house, not just part of a floor, and the inside of the Victorian structure in the Annex, near the university, had been remodelled and updated until it was all but a showroom for what his company could do, but… Hell, it was empty—a house but not a home.
Damn it! He still saw her everywhere, no matter how much he hated her.
The rational part of his mind had long since understood that the real enemy had been her family, not her. She had been a victim to their machinations as much as he had. The Lynches had lied to both of them, set them against each other, and succeeded in breaking them up, but he was still angry. So very angry. She must have worked it out faster than he had. And she had gone along with it.
