The question is on the tip of my tongue, but something tells me the answer won’t be worth getting my head ripped off for.
So, I stay silent. The whole journey.
It’s incredibly suffocating in this car. Even with the music playing, the silence is so thick I can picture its tentacles wrapping around my windpipe and cutting off my oxygen.
We park and walk to a skyscraper building that looks more like offices than any restaurant.
Caden undoes the top button of his shirt, hooking a finger inside and tugging it forward, and takes a steadying breath.
This would be the time any doting wife or even girlfriend would give him calming words of comfort and reassurance to ease his nerves. But I’m not either of those things. So again, I stay silent.
Caden clears his throat. “Ready?”
“No.”
“Great.” He takes my hand in his and leads us inside the building. His hand is just as sweaty as mine.
This is going to be fun.
CHAPTER 25
ELODIE
We go to the top floor in the elevator, and I’m wafted with the powerful smell of fish as soon as the doors open.
It’s a sushi bar.
Shit.
“Uh,” I start stuttering.
Caden turns to me. “You good?”
Heaving a big breath into my lungs, I force a smile on and nod. “Perfect.” There’s no way I’m about to complain about this and give Caden any more reasons to hate me. Sushi bars serve chips, right?
He inclines his head, then leads us through. The guy at the front gives a cheerful greeting as we walk right past the huge queue of people waiting for a table.
We go right to the back of the restaurant into a private section with red velvet booths and crystal chandeliers dangling above them. The walls are made of glass, giving me a nauseating view of how far up in the sky we are.
Russell and his guest are the only ones in the section. But his guest is not the brunette I saw just a couple days ago at the party.
This one’s blonde but not like me. Hers is highlighted, a shimmering cascade of gold and platinum. She’s wearing a very tight, very revealing red blouse. The thin material barely containing her large breasts. And she looks about the same age as the previous girl.
I’m pretty sure I even look older than this one. How does Caden feel about his dad dating girls who are younger than him? What if they’ve shared girls?
I inwardly shudder at the mere thought, dismissing it entirely before I physically cringe. It’s none of my business what they do, nor do I care in the slightest.
Caden squeezes my fingers as we approach, and I steel myself, ready for another nightmarish interaction.
Russell spots us and gets to his feet, a huge grin coming across his face as he splays his arms for us. “You made it!”
Are we late? Did he think we wouldn’t come? My back is sweating so profusely that my blouse is beginning to stick to it.
Russell ignores his son and comes straight for me, taking my face into his hands in a too-intimate gesture for my liking. Considering what I predict Caden did to that guy who attempted to touch my face, he doesn’t seem in the slightest bit affronted by his dad touching me so intimately.
He studies me for a second and beams at me, those dark eyes sparkling. “Beautiful! Simply gorgeous! So good to see you again, Elodie.” He lets my face go and takes my hand in his, kissing it as he did the other night.
Russell’s dressed in another expensive-looking suit. Tailored to accommodate the wide expanse of his shoulders, the inflated chest. The cufflinks catch my eye in the light. Dazzling white diamonds outline a black stone circle, the golden letters WOOD engraved inside the circle. Customisedcufflinks.
