Her voice was cocky, overly confident. She sounded like she knew she was in the clear. I hesitated to answer, but they waited for me to answer. Something about the way they were so silent told me they knew, that I was the one behind the eight ball now.
“Yes,” I said, barely above a whisper, practically breathing it out of me.
“Well, we’ve come to receive some evidence that proves one of you right, and one of you wrong.” I looked up at Mr. Westwood glaring between the two of us. The lawyer looked like she was just served up something tasty, something fresh off the menu.
This was bad.
Chapter Eighteen:
**Trigger Warning: Mentions of SA/Rape**
Clint’s POV
I let Amber take over the conversation as my lawyer, I knew she was going to crush them. As one of my very close friends, I knew she was going to make them regret it! These vile creatures were going to fucking pay. The no fraternizing policy was there to deter people from wanting to seek out partnership with someone within the office. I didn’t want people dating, breaking up, and things getting weird. I didn’t pay much attention to the office gossip mill, but it was hard to miss when you heard it at the company party.
I was so against it, that I decided to make the policy stricter than any other company’s, because my last partner cheated on me. I had walked into his office one afternoon, the one in our penthouse, files in my hand for the new deal he was working on, and saw it. A live show for about twenty seconds, until I dropped the files and they both froze.
He and I had been together since college. I thought we’d make it. We’d been together over a decade! Then I’d started having suspicions about him. This went on formonths,with no answers about what was going on. He was getting more and more distant from me. It was to the point that I’d been asking questions and begging him to talk to me! I didn’t care! I just wanted to know what was happening with him, with us. The harder I tried to get him to talk, to work on us, the harder he pulled away. And gaslit me.
I didn’t notice the gaslighting at first. But when I did? When I started putting the pieces together, talking to Amber andanonymously asking that online forum everyone went to about their problems?
It clicked.
And that just pissed me off.
So, I hired a PI.
Before they could get back to me with the results, I’d gone home to our penthouse on my lunch break one day. I caught him mid-thrust with one of his coworkers he’d been ‘hanging out’ with.
I understood what that meant to him now. I picked up the files, and walked back out of the penthouse. Waiting for the elevator, a thought occurred to me. I walked back to the door, not bothering to open it all the way, and shouted, “Don’t stop on my account! But, Alex, youwillneed your shit out of here by the time I get off work today. We’re done.”
I slammed the door shut after that and walked away. I sold the penthouse and bought a new one closer to my office building. I completely abandoned the penthouse, the company I tried to start with him, everything.
And now I was a man with my own company, my own place, and no drama. I tried to stay out of that, and office gossip, as much as humanly possible. I wasn’t someone who liked nor wanted that kind of thing anywhere near me. I preferred to stay as far away as possible so when I’d heard rumors going around with some of the employees, talking about thecloseness,and how it seemed a little too close,between these two cheaters sitting in front of me, I was hopeful that it wasn’t true.
I’d heard the gossip since the last batch of people were hired barely three months ago. I’d been keeping an eye on thingsfrom the shadows. The gossip mill ran wild because everyone knew Caleb was married. Not just married, butnewlymarried. They should have still been in the honeymoon stage of the marriage. I’d been watching how Caleb interacted with all of them, and to me it seemed like he was just training and making nice with the newbies. After a while, when Caleb would go hang out, he seemed to pay closer attention to the girl, Becky. But it still wasn’t inappropriate. Then he started to put a lot of distance between the two of them.
I’d been paying even closer attention to these rumors and their actions. I didn’t need whatever this was to tarnish the company's reputation, open us up for a lawsuit, or anything that could negatively affect us.
By the time the Christmas party came around, I was hopeful that Caleb’s wife, Devin, knew he was stepping out or at least had the same suspicions as I did. I looked around the ballroom for her since I remembered her from last year’s party. She was incredibly sweet, always happily talking to everyone and never saying a bad word about anyone. Even the people who really deserved it, like Karen in accounting or Brenden from reception. Sade said that one of the newer associates came up to her and let them know she was passing by the balcony and heard what sounded like a very enthusiastic couple.
We headed there immediately, and what we saw still makes me sick to my stomach. She didn’t deserve this, any of this. It was a low blow and I couldn’t help it. I did something I’d never done before.
I intervened.
Caleb cleared his throat like he had a nervous twitch and that would get it out. I watched as Amber laid out all the evidence on the table before these two morons. The surveillancefootage stills, the text messages from both of them to each other during office hours. The final damning piece was the Instagram message from Becky’s personal account admitting the baby she’s pregnant with was Caleb’s.
His eyes bugged out of his head, staring at that photo like it was the first time he’d seen it. He stared at it so long I thought he was in a staring contest with the face in the photo. When he finally looked at her, he was white. Ghostly, ghastly, white. The shock quickly wore off, replaced by fury and rage towards the woman sitting next to him. His whole face went dark.
“We hadsexfor the first time Saturday,” His voice was hard, stating facts to us, but burning his glare right through her, “There’sno fucking wayyou’re pregnant withmy kid.” We looked from him to her, all four of us, like we were at a tennis match watching them lob jabs and information back and forth.
I wish I had popcorn.
She smiled at him like he hung the stars, reaching out to touch his face. He backed away before her hand could touch him, looking horrified, most likely at how calm she was being. Like she was somethingfoulhe wanted nowhere near him. She was so calm, so serene, that when she spoke that I almost felt on edge.
Almost.
“Caleb, honey. We hooked up weeks ago-” She tried to smooth-talk him, her voice trying to be softer than she looked.
