Page 16 of Corrupted Memories
“It was Sebastian, wasn’t it?” Brittany asks, breaking the silence. I ignore her, not moving from the kitchen or looking away from the documents.
“I don’t know,” I say when she huffs out an annoyed breath.
Her face twists, staring at me with distrust. “You two know each other, though?”
I narrow my eyes. “Why?”
She shrugs, crossing her arms and looking at her manicure as if the conversation is beneath her. “He just acted like he knows you.”
“I don’t know Sebastian.” I tell her the half-truth because I don’t know him. I thought I did, but it was just a mask of the man lurking beneath.
“You know Jeremy is a great guy,” she says. “He doesn’t deserve to be cheated on.”
Irrational anger coils in my chest, and I stare at her, daring her to make a real accusation. I raise my eyebrows and she rolls her eyes, glancing around at my small apartment with a frown.
“I don’t think I ever realized how little you decorate.”
Yeah, it’s hard to add your personal touch when you’re moving addresses every other year. My heart squeezes. The way I’ve lived the past six years has been for nothing because in the end, he still found me. But neither of them know that, so I don’t bother with a reply.
Jeremy comes in, his packed bag slung over his shoulder as he walks over to me. It’s only a drawer’s worth of clothes since he usually stays over when he has difficult cases, and it’s easier than lugging back and forth. He shares an apartment with a coworker, so we never went to his place.
His sad eyes study my face wistfully. “You understand, right? I don’t want this.”
I swallow the emotion clawing at my throat. “You understand that I didn’t file it, right?”
I don’t understand why he’s in such a hurry to put distance between us. If he believes that I didn’t file a restraining order, then he would be willing to fight to prove it’s fraud. I almost wonder if the disastrous party night is what has him running with his tail between his legs; perhaps he’s sick of me.
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The judge is well respected. I can’t?—”
“And obviously bought. I didn’t sign that.”
“If there’s any doubt that someone has power to file on your behalf, it would jeopardize Jeremy’s credibility. Just let us handle it, Gianna,” Brittany says, coming to rub a hand down both of our arms. If I didn’t know that Jeremy has no desire for her, I would have flung her hand off. But what’s worse is I don’t hate her touching him as much like I loathed her touching Sebastian that night.
Jeremy pulls away from her, his hand reaching for me before he drops it. “I’ll talk to you when I can, Gianna. I love you.”
Biting my tongue, I watch him as he waits for me to say it back. When I don’t, he nods with a sad smile and they leave as suddenly as they came. I slump down onto my couch, my hands shaking. This is Sebastian’s first move, I’m sure of it, but I can’t figure out the point.
A few hours after Jeremy left, I got a text with an address in Manhattan and I knew exactly who it was from. I debated telling my brother, but instead I slipped off the bracelet and used the back entrance to avoid his security detail. This was something I needed to do myself, to end it once and for all… or help Matt put him away.
My heart slams into my ribcage with every minute closer to the city and farther away from my apartment in Jersey. My knee bounces in the back of the taxi. At the same time, it’s like a boulder lifting off my chest, to travel outside my chosen cage without fear of being caught. When the taxi pulls up to the curb of the high-rise in the middle of Manhattan, I pay the driver and then climb out of the car, tugging my jacket tighter around me. I’m not sure if the shiver is from the nippyair or trembling nerves from facing Sebastian again.
“Don’t be a weak bitch, Gianna. He’s only a man,” I mutter under my breath and head inside. The front receptionist watches me curiously as I bypass her without a word and walk straight to the elevator. If I know Sebastian, then he’ll have a large corner office that overlooks more of the Hudson River than the rest of the city.
His eyes, as clear as ice, lift to mine as I walk into his office. He speaks into the phone with a slight curl of his lips and I glance away, cursing my traitorous body as heat clenches in my core at the blatant desire in his stare. I study the room, unsurprised to find it void of anything personal. No photos on the walls or on his desk. A collection of books and knickknacks line the shelves, but I know he couldn’t tell me a thing about them.
In college, I’d only been to his apartment a few times since he preferred coming to my dorm. His place had been the same, minimalistic and deprived of anything that could tell me about him. Sebastian has always been a person who keeps everything close to his chest, leaving it all to the imagination for anyone else. My throat aches when I think about the months we had spent sprawled on my bed, discovering his favorite movies and music slowly through observation.
“You didn’t even ask who texted you. You just came, no questions asked?”
I frown at his anger and turn to face him. “Who else would it be? I knew it was you.”
The glower grows, his jaw working back and forth. “I would think your brother would have taught you better than that.”
I glare at him, narrowing my eyes. My thumb brushes against the bare skin where my bracelet usually rests. “He has, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who would text me to come to Manhattan. I know you’re the reason Jeremy received a restraining order. I don’t know how, but I’ll get it resolved.”
He leans back in his chair, resting his clasped hands on his stomach. “You won’t. The judge owed me a favor.”
My mouth drops open at his smugness. “That’s—that’s illegal.”
