Page 22 of Trainer

“Even after what you saw back at the apartment,” Melinda continued. “I bet he sweet-talked you, right? Told you it was my fault? That I’m a bit of a loose cannon?”

This time I found enough breath to speak.

“S—something like that…”

Again, Melinda shook her head.

“Chase told me to set that up for him,” she replied. “He just forgot about it, that’s all. Typical billionaire, always passing the buck to someone else.”

My heart sank into my feet. I felt like my body had turned to stone. Suddenly the music in my head stopped playing and it felt as though a blanket of darkness had been thrown over the world.

I suddenly felt like a foreigner, a regular girl who’d wandered into a world of wealth she didn’t know or understand. I was just a lamb in a world of lions, and Melinda knew it. She was looking at me like she pitied me, and I suddenly wanted to get the hell out of there—especially before Chase got back.

If he was even coming back…

What if this was all just part of his game and he’d sent Melinda here to break the bad news to me and get rid of me while he went back to his apartment in the city that was still filled with girls?

It was all too much to think about…

I wanted to cry.

“Don’t worry, hun,” Melinda said, wrapping her fur-covered arms around me and pulling me in for a cold hug. “It happens to the best of us. I’ll get a car for you to take you wherever you want to go. Why don’t you go get your things and get dressed?”

“Okay…” I muttered as she let me go.

Slowly, I put one foot in front of the other and climbed the stairs like I was climbing Mount Everest. I found my way back to Chase’s bedroom, where I’d set my clothes before heading into the shower. Feeling like the world’s biggest sucker, I got dressed and made my way back downstairs to where Melinda was waiting. She was on her cell phone talking to someone as if she’d already forgotten about me.

When I reached her, she put up her index finger and finished her conversation while I stood there feeling like I was ready to melt into a puddle on the floor. Finally, she hung up and looked at me again in a way that made me feel even worse than I already did.

“There’s a car waiting for you out front that will take you home,” she told me. “It’ll take a bit longer than a helicopter but it’ll get you there.”

“Thanks,” was all I could say.

“Don’t worry, hun,” she told me, taking me by the hand and leading me to the door. “You’ll get over it. They all do eventually.”

My heart broke for the last time, shattering into pieces like a flower frozen with liquid nitrogen. I stepped out into the evening light and heard the door slam behind me and lock.

Taking out the trash, I thought miserably as another black sedan pulled up in front of the house. The window rolled down, and I half-expected to see Jeremy, the driver from before, but instead there was a serious-looking man behind the wheel who looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here.

“All set?” he barked at me. I jumped and quickly got in the back.

“Yes,” I said softly. “I am ready to go.”

Chapter Twelve

Cady

I was crying when I stepped back into the apartment. I was hoping I’d find Natasha at home in her sweatpants with a tub of ice cream watching Disney movies or Riverdale or something, but unfortunately for me she had a guy over and they were both wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, cuddling like a couple of new lovers.

“Hey, slut!” she called out happily as I came in.

“Hey…” I muttered, heading for my room.

“How’s your billionaire boyfriend?!” she called after me, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer. I just made my way into my room and closed the door behind me.

Like an overly dramatic child, I threw myself down on the bed and sighed every bit of air out of my lungs. The throbbing between my legs was a torturous, spiteful reminder from life that I’d just let myself be conned by a professional playboy and had given my virginity away to a man who’d probably run the same game on countless other girls before me.

I might be able to get over being naïve and falling for that, but my virginity was something I’d never be able to get back.

---