Page 19 of The Butterfly Effect
Annoyance filled me with her warning. She had worked for his family before, but I couldn’t imagine her ever having worked with William as closely as I had recently. I especially couldn’t imagine her being the object of his almost torturous attention.
“Trust me, I know.” I couldn’t hide the frustration in my voice. “What did you actually call for, Jenna?” I already knew my mom probably told her to call me and check in or ask me for something she didn’t want to call for herself. She said she was trying not to be a nagging mom, so she had us do the nagging for her. It was the only reason my sister ever called me instead of texting or just catching up on visits.
“Mom wants to know if you’re coming home for Thanksgiving.” She instantly sounded more like my equally-annoyed-with-our-mother sister, the one I missed every so often. Sometimes I wished she’d call more, but she wouldn’t. I also knew if she did, I’d probably wish I missed her more.
“Probably not.” I wouldn’t tell her it was because I wanted to stay home and pout and drink way too much wine on my couch in my underwear, but I already had a full-sized pumpkin pie on the counter with a fork ready for the occasion. “Just tell mom I’m really busy at work.”
By the time my sister hung up, my hands had mostly stopped shaking. It seemed like longer than a few minutes had passed since I was pinned to my car by my client and previous coworker, but the consistent throbbing in my wrist reminded me otherwise. A purple bruise was already forming under the skin, and I cursed before putting my car in drive.
It was seeingher ashy-blonde hair in rippling waves down her back and her skirt hugging her hips and showing off her curves that made me not regret the stop for coffee. I was running a bit late this morning, but I hadn’t made coffee at home and would need it to get through the day. Sleep hadn’t come easily last night. All I could think about was the look in Julianna’s eyes before she rushed out of the office. It was frustration and nerves, with a hint of something it had taken me most of the night to decide on. Guilt.
She stiffened when I stepped up next to her at the counter. “Let me grab this.” I pulled out a twenty and ordered a coffee for myself before paying the young barista. Julianna rolled her eyes but didn’t object, and when I caught a whiff of her sweet honey scent, I breathed her in.
“What are you doing here?” Something was different about her today. The heather sweater she wore brought out the ashy color in her hair and the gray ring in her eyes. Her eyelids were lowered, and there were dark circles under her eyes that suggested I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get much sleep.
Part of me was instantly angry she was up all night. Had she been up with someone? I wanted to demand she tell me who she was with, but instead, I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms, lifting my eyebrow at her.
“I’m not allowed to get coffee?”
“Sorry, that was rude of me.” She scrunched up her face, a twinge of the same guilt coming through her eyes, and I couldn’t help but notice her shy away slightly. I scowled at seeing the demanding woman who had gotten her way in every argument so sheepish.
She leaned back and put her hand up in self-defense when I reached out to her. The relief that washed over her face when her name was called was unmistakable, and she rushed the few steps to grab her drink. When she reached for it, the sleeve of the sweater slid up her wrist and a flood of anger coursed through me. Deep purple and black bruises wrapped around her wrist, and when I looked closer, it looked swollen. A growl escaped my throat.
“What happened?”
She rushed to pull her sleeve back over her wrist, looking away from me and sighing but staying silent. “Julianna.” There was a sense of warning in my voice that made her step away.
“It’s nothing. Thank you for the coffee. I’ll see you at the office.” She held her cup up in a cheers gesture, pasting on a smile to hide the shame that painted her face. She hustled away, slipping quickly through the front door and into the small parking lot.
My coffee stayed on the counter behind me, and I rushed out behind her, catching up when she reached her car and grabbing her arm. When I pulled her to face me, she gave a terrified shriek and crumpled against the door of her Jeep, covering her face with her free arm. I stepped closer to her and used my free hand to lightly guide her arm from her face. Her eyes flashed with fear.
“Jesus, Julianna. I’m not going to hurt you.” She didn’t relax, but her arm did. The defensive stance held her still and unmoving against the side of her car.
“Please,” she whined breathlessly. My dick twitched at her plea, and a wave of guilt came over me. She looked helpless, like she was begging me not to hurt her.
I narrowed my eyes and slowly slid her sweater sleeve up her arm. She squeezed her eyes shut and winced as I revealed dark bruises halfway up her forearm. A red fog clouded the edges of my vision.
“Who did this?”
She shuddered before releasing a quiet sob. When I looked at her face, tears rolled down her cheeks in a steady stream. I had the unfamiliar urge to pull her to me and hold her, wanting to kiss away her tears, take her to my room, and keep her there for days. That wasn’t what she needed, though. It wasn’t what I needed, either.
“I have to go,” she whispered. Julianna slid her sleeve back down to cover her wrist at the same time she opened her car door and slid in. She closed the door without giving me another glance and started the car. She closed her eyes, and the way she gasped for one deep breath after the next made my stomach sink.
Quickly grabbing my coffee from the counter inside, I jumped into my car and followed her out of the parking lot. I needed to follow her and pull into the parking garage at the same time so I could convince her to tell me what happened, but after she took a second unnecessary right turn, it was obvious she was trying to lose me.
Begrudgingly, I let her and made my way to the office. She needed time to gather herself, and I knew I wouldn’t see her Jeep in the garage, but when she wasn’t there yet, my stomach still sank. I quickly made my way inside, intending to close myself in my office until she arrived and then drill her for information.
The coffee I’d stopped for was already cold, but I drank it anyway. I needed the bitter burst of caffeine. I swiped a stack of files off my desk, papers fluttering to my floor and littering it with paperclips that had come off the bundles.
“Fuck!”
If my walls were as thin as they seemed, then someone outside of the office would’ve heard my outroar. My anger echoed in the small room, and my chest heaved with my breaths. The longer I sat here without seeing Julianna walk into the office, the more the anger filled me.
When I’d stopped her from drinking the tainted drink the night I met her at Anthony’s, I took my anger out on her. I was angry she would’ve ended up in a bad situation had I not stopped her, but then I couldn’t help but think about the way she repaid me forsaving her,as she put it. My mind filled with images of her falling apart beneath me, more and more the rougher I got with her. Had someone else gotten the same kind of rough with her? Given the way she’d cowered away from me, that wasn’t it.
It was almost an hour later when Julianna strode into the office, still in the same gray sweater but with her hair pulled up in a loose ponytail. She had a smile plastered on her face, and had I not seen her this morning, I would have thought she was almost giddy. Her face wavered slightly when she sat at her desk, and I caught a quick sympathetic glance from Katie.
She was only in her seat for a few minutes before I was going to burst. I hammered angrily on the keyboard as I pulled up the internal messaging system, knowing the message would pop up on her screen almost instantly after she unlocked it.
