Page 3 of Wrapped in Perfection

Why is she with such a loser?

I give her one last look and deliver the drinks to the table. When I turn, they step into the elevator. He has his hand roughly on her elbow. The doors shut, and I catch her fear-filled eyes.

I should follow him and rip his head off.

"Dmitri, Lorenzo seems to think we're willing to give him double what the property is worth," Boris seethes.

I groan inside.You're here to close this deal. Get your head in the game.The rest of the meeting only lasts another five minutes, but I can barely focus. All I want to do is go upstairs and learn everything there is about her. And I can't get her scared expression out of my mind.

1

Anna

Several Days Later

"We didthe best we could with the bloodstains, but we couldn't get it all out," the woman at the dry cleaners says while holding out Mitch's shirt.

My insides quiver. "Are you sure there isn't anything else you can do?"

The woman shakes her head. "I'm sorry, but we tried it all. That will be forty-two eighty-three."

I stare at the faded, reddish-brown stains.

It's his favorite shirt. He's going to be so angry.

Why did I pack it?

We should have stayed home. This wouldn't have happened if we didn't go. I knew something terrible was going to happen before we left. I could feel it.

My good friends, Jamison and Quinn, got married. Mitch and I flew to Chicago, but he didn't want to go. Like all my family events, I had to convince him.

I shouldn't have. The last time my brother, Chase, and Mitch were in the same room, they almost got into a fist fight. I worried about it and even told my best friend, Harper, to help keep my brother away from Mitch.

The entire weekend was a disaster, starting from the first night when Mitch left me in the bedroom, waiting for him in lingerie. After so many hours, I put on clothes to look for him and found him in the hotel bar. A waitress was on his lap, doing shots with him.

It's not the first time I've caught him doing inappropriate things with other women, but like always, he claimed it was innocent fun.

The next day, Mitch woke up with a chip on his shoulder. He wasn't happy we were in Chicago.

We only lasted about fifteen minutes into the reception before Quinn's brother, Steven, and Mitch got into a physical fight.

The police came, Mitch threatened to press charges, and we went back to the hotel. I sat in the room all night, not knowing where Mitch was, and the next morning, he came into the room and told me we were leaving in ten minutes.

I didn't argue. I didn't question the perfume I could smell on his skin. I packed our bags and tried my best not to upset him.

If we can just get back to New York, we can fix things.

I'm not sure why I lied to myself. I had been trying to "fix things" between us for the last few years.

I slide my debit card into the machine, sign the screen, and take the items from the woman. It begins to rain on my way back to our apartment. By the time I get home, my hair and clothes stick to my body.

My nerves escalate. I set the clothes on the armchair then go into the bedroom to change before Mitch sees me. He hates it when I'm a disheveled mess.

I change and am in the middle of drying my hair when my alarm rings.

Oh God. It's so late, and I don't have dinner made.

I put my hairdryer down and rush out to the kitchen and open the refrigerator. The chicken still isn't fully defrosted, and my gut sinks further.

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