Chapter 56
Eve looked down the hall at the men carrying a piece of furniture up the stairs. She had stayed upstairs as long as she could until she’d heard people start going into the rooms, but the moments she had seen the transformation downstairs she’d been shocked. It felt like she had walked into a different house.
Though the furniture was clearly expensive, it was sturdy and comfortable. The spacious living room looked so homey. Nothing like Roman’s house in London. And there was still so much room in there, which was the whole reason they had wanted this house. Her father would have thrived here. But for some reason, Roman had done extensions, making the house bigger and more spacious.
Maybe he wasn’t used to living in small spaces. Would he live here? He had to be thinking about it because why would anyone do so much work on a stolen house and not live in it? But the most likely explanation was that he had seen the potential and this was just a business investment for him. That extension and opening up the kitchen had probably added so much value to the house that she would never afford it now.
“Miss Bright, do you have any questions?”
She pulled her attention back to the young lawyers in front of her and blushed. She had already forgotten their names. Though she had known she would meet them, she just hadn’t expected the shame that had come with it.
The two lawyers were dressed in their crisp, expensive suits and had been very patient in explaining every line of the agreement, even the fine print. And in doing so, her embarrassment had gone through the roof.
These men knew exactly what she was. These men had drafted all the contracts. All the rules and non-disclosure agreements. They knew everything.
Never had she ever wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole as she did this moment.
Though they hadn’t said or done anything that could be taken as judgemental, she felt judged. So fucking judged. Why did two of them have to come to see her? Did they do this often? Were they the part of Roman’s legal team that specialised in his nefarious contracts? Yes, you go make this woman sign her contract for Monday nights, and you go and prepare the paperwork to steal that house on Tuesday. They should be ashamed of themselves.
But still, she was the one burning up with shame, because she had signed the contracts in the first place.
“Miss Bright?”
“Sorry. No, no questions,” she said as she picked a pen up.
She had read the paperwork with them from beginning to end this time, but she had still been distracted. Still, she wanted these men to go, and she never wanted to see their faces again for as long as she lived.
She signed where she was told to while one of the men walked out to the patio where Roman was on his phone to call him in.
“Dad, I’ll call you later,” Roman said as he walked back into the house and shut the sliding door. “I can’t talk about that right now.”
Roman hung up and then smiled at her as he came to sit on the chair next to her.
“Do you want to go through the agreement again?” one of the lawyers asked him.
“No,” Roman answered as he took the pile of papers in front of her and signed under her signatures. “Is everything done?”
“Yes,” one of them said as he handed her her agreement and kept Roman’s. “If you ever have any questions, our number is on the agreement. Ask for James.”
“Thank you,” she said, trying not to meet his gaze. She knew her face was still red.
Roman didn’t get up to show them out, he stayed in the chair, too close to her for her liking.
“What’s wrong?” he asked gently.
“That was embarrassing,” she admitted. “I was so stupid to sign anything like that in the first place and now I’ve just had to sit here with people who know what I’ve become. It’s not me.”
“I know that now,” Roman said.
The way he said it made her lift her head to look at him.
“You weren’t like anyone else from the first day I met you. I should have asked you for dinner instead of all of this. Then maybe I wouldn’t have lost you.”
What was he saying? That if he had let things progress naturally then she would have been his real girlfriend? She stamped out the stupid hope that had started to bubble up in her heart and replaced it with the cold hard facts. She had been with him for fourteen months. If he really thought she was different then he would have said it at that time. He wouldn’t have laughed in her face when she had told him how she felt. He wouldn’t have taken another woman out and ignored her. He wouldn’t have kept her hidden like he was ashamed of her. And that last contract and everything that had happened because of it would never have happened.
“Excuse me. I have to go and look for a job,” she said as she stood up.
“They’re working upstairs now, so we’ll have to stay down here,” Roman said. “And you know that you don’t have to worry about finding a job right now. When we come out of this, I’ll help you.”
“I don’t want anything from you, Roman. I know you like to think that your money fixes everything and you can do what you like, but I live in the real world, and my life works perfectly fine when you’re not involved. I just want this to be over so I can fix my life myself.”
Roman looked away from her to look down at the table, but not before she had seen something flash in his eyes. Had she hurt him? What she had said was the truth. If she hadn’t gotten involved with him, she would have been going into her final year at university. She would have been going out with her friends and having mediocre sex with her boyfriends, instead of this unrealistic, mind-blowing stuff that Roman had introduced her to. She would have had more time to find suitable accommodation for her parents instead of believing she was going to buy them a house. She would have been happy. Content.
She wouldn’t have been sitting there feeling like a prostitute because she’d had to look the lawyers in the eye. She wouldn’t be thinking about what he had done to her upstairs and his offer to take whatever she wanted from him. He knew what she wanted from him! Craved from him. And sleeping with him for however long she was stuck here wasn’t going to give her that.
“I’m going to check how far along they are,” Roman said as he stood up. “You can make some lunch unless you want to order out, then just call Phillip to get it because it’s still crazy outside.”
And then he left the kitchen. She felt something in the pit of her stomach as if she had said something wrong.
But she had to protect herself this time around. She didn’t trust Roman and she couldn’t fall back into the old patterns because he would destroy her again.
She reached over the table to the controller and put the screen on. And then she sucked in a breath when she saw the number of people outside. It was a lot busier than the morning. Did they know something new? Her boss at the restaurant hadn’t given her a reason for letting her go, but now she was starting to wonder if Pam had opened her mouth and added her version of things as she was known to do.
If she had, would it end up in the papers? Was she about to start hearing that reporters were outside her parents’ house? Trying to sneak pictures of her father as he lay on the hospital bed downstairs? She would never forgive herself if that happened.