Chapter 72

Chapter 72
Zander threw the phone into Elvie’s hands. It was fully charged and ready to be used. It should have made her happy, but it didn’t. She enjoyed having sex with him and butting heads with him in the newsroom, but what was the point of all this? Love might not be on the cards for him, but she was getting more attached, setting herself up to get hurt more than she already was.

“Open the glove compartment,” he said, still staring at the busy road ahead.

And yet again, Elvie had the feeling that he knew exactly what she was thinking. She opened the glove compartment. “What am I looking for?”

“Just open it.”

She patted the mostly empty space, her hand coming to rest on the familiar shape of her old iPod. She yanked it out and squeaked. Her precious iPod, with the thousands of songs she’d collected over the years, was back in her hand, and it felt glorious.

“Did someone find it at your old mansion?” she turned to him.

“Yes. I did. The night you bailed on me.”

Elvie frowned. “Why did you never give it back?”

He shot me a look she couldn’t decode—maybe bewildered, verging on annoyed. “You stole something from me, so I stole something from you.”

“What?” she raised her brows.

“Nevermind.

She sat back, considering this. He rubbed his jaw.

“Who’s Kipling?”

Kipling was my notebook. But of course, she didn’t miss an opportunity to mess with him.

“A friend.”

“A good friend?”

She nodded. “Very.”

“How long have you known him?”

Elvie grinned at this. She didn’t know if Zander was aware he was jealous, but she saw it from the outside. “Long enough.”

They drove onto the long main road and parked at his building. He rounded the car, took a duffel bag from the trunk, and they went up to the ground floor and out to the street.

“Where are we going?” Elvie asked as he flung the duffel bag over his shoulder, looking royally pissed and completely disturbed by what they were doing.

“On a date.” He sighed, like she was forcing him to hang out with her at gunpoint.

“Huh?" She laughed. She’d ignored him for just over four days, and he was taking her on a date now? Imagine what would happen if she actually went through with what her brain told her she should do on a daily basis and cut things off with him completely.

Completely out of his life.

“What the use of announcing our divorce if we'll date?" She asked.

“It was all for a show, Elvie. You should have known that by now!”

“What? You are seriously sick! One moment, you were so—”

“Just leave it to me to handle the press, okay?”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’m taking you on a date. What’s not to understand?”

“What’s with the duffel bag? Is that in case you’re bad at romancing and have to kill me before I tell anyone?”

They rounded the corner to the park and headed straight to the meadow. He scoffed. “I can charm the panties off of a nun.”

“Charming your way into underwear and into hearts are two different skills.”

“I’m a good multitasker.”

“Not to mention, I haven’t agreed to date you. You never even asked,” she pointed out.

“I thought it was a given.”

“Why?”

“You gave me backdoor access—a woman’s version of expensive jewellery.”

“Anyone ever told you you’re a delusional piece of work?” she groaned with mild irritation. Yet she loved this version of him.

“I already told you everything about me; we had mind-blowing sex. We have a daughter. We are husband and wife. What else do you want?” he halted and looked at her like she just grew ten massive evil horns on her forehead.

I want you to love me like I love you! She thought to herself.

But, of course, she didn't voice it out loud. She wasn't that insanely obsessed with him just yet.

“Should I answer that, Mr. Zeus?” she instead countered.

He smirked. “Is that an actual question? I can count on one hand the number of people I know who haven’t called me that.”

“Just because I like it when you boss me in bed doesn’t mean I want to be with you.” She blushed, fighting the urge to look down and break eye contact. He stopped at the John Lennon memorial, where the word Imagine looked back up at us.

Imagine that Bella is wrong. That I am capable of falling in love. That I am heading into a collision of feelings. That lust and heartache are going to crash together soon, and tragedy will explode.

He laced his fingers in hers, turned her around to face him, and tapped her nose. His lips tilted up arrogantly. “You have skulls on your shoes.”

“You have skulls in your eyes.”

“Are we feeling morbid today, wife? What with the skull thingy?”

“No. Just deadly.”

The park was swarming with people. Clusters of tourists, couples, cyclists, parents, and children. Even though Zander wasn’t clad in his usual expensive suit, they still looked so different. For one thing, he was ten inches taller, a few years older, and reeked of a privileged air she lacked in every way. Up until now, she wondered why her parents were friends with Zander's parents or even with Matheo. Her family was average and ambitious. But to belong to Zander’s circle of friends was still beyond her. Now, looking at him like he didn't even belong in this park, and she had dressed like a teenager. He’d dressed like a millionaire. And the way he stood, tall and proud, made people stop and stare.

Zander put his mouth on hers and kissed her in front of everyone—soft, slow, and seductive.

“I wish Thea was with us; she could run the park while I kiss her mommy,” he murmured under her ears.

“She’s with the nanny; they have swimming lessons.”

“I know," he said as he kissed her like no one was around, like they were alone in this city, this park, and this planet. He pressed a possessive hand over the small of her back and jerked her to his body.

Then he caressed her cheek. His lips dragged from her lips to her ear, and he whispered, “This is where I went every time my parents fought, which is not often. And this is where I went when Matheo and I started emotionally fighting after my parents deaths. Partly because he blamed me. And this is where I went when I knew he would have his staff driving around looking for me. They never came into the park. This was my place.”

Elvie sighed. “You never told me this before during our marriage.”

He shook his head.

She added, “Well, maybe because we seldom talk or see each other?”

"I'm sorry about that. I was in the middle of banning myself and looking for my parents murderer.”

“I thought it was an accident?”

“Yes, it was to some or to the police, but I know it was staged. The bus driver told me that someone paid him to mess with the break, thus causing the accident at the intersection.”

“Really? Who would do such a thing? Your parents were very good people. They don't have enemies.”

“I know. And until now, I'm still looking.”

“Do you know who?”

“Yes, but I'm not that sure yet," Zander replied with a sigh.

Elvie's heart fluttered inside her ribcage, and she saw Zander not only as the man he wanted people to see but also as the person he really was. Not completely broken, but definitely cracked enough for pain to spill through the fissures.

They unpacked the duffel bag under a huge tree. Zander was surprisingly organised for their picnic. “I think it's a good idea to call the nanny and bring Thea so she can enjoy the park.”

Zander nodded his head. “Okay, I'll call the butler.” He halted and took his phone out of his pocket. A few seconds later, he smiled at her. “They are coming."

“Good.” Elvie nodded. “She loves it here.”

“I know," Zander replied as they spread a blanket, and he took out grapes, cheese, crackers, wine, and fancy chocolate. She told him there was no way he’d done this himself, and he admitted he’d given his housekeeper pot in exchange for these goodies. She laughed, and he threw a grape at her face. It made her laugh harder.

The sun was glorious, and she laid on the blanket and stared back at the sky, munching on almond chocolate that melted between her fingers. He sat next to hers, staring at her intently, like he expected her to get up and run away any second, like she could evaporate into thin air, like sharing this place with her meant something to him.

“How was your relationship with Joey?” he asked. “I know that you guys are close back in college, but... Well, things change, right?”

“I know... because of those evil drugs. Damn! I thought at first you were using too.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“I never tried once. I tried to warn Joey about it, then I started distancing myself from him. I was not that stupid, you know. Being addicted to such substances could lead nowhere in life, and I have so many things on my plate.”

“Yeah, you were so in love with Kristal at that time that you couldn't see me hahaha!” she awkwardly added, hoping he wouldn't detect the bitterness in her voice.

“I'm in love? Not so much. I thought I was."

“Really?”

“I thought I loved her; in the end, I realised I didn't.”

“Because she was in love with Patrick?” Elvie asked with confusion.

“No, because I like someone else but am too foolish to realise it at that time." He smirked at the blue sky, like the clouds had cleared up especially for them.

Woah! Really? Who could that be?

“When I started distancing myself from your brother, Patrick, Kristal, and I were a team. Maybe because Kristal’s parents were busy running around with their business and Matheo made a point of sticking his dick into everything with a pulse, it wasn't long before we knew Patrick was her biological son. Then the three of us figured out early on that we had to have each other’s backs to survive.”

A few minutes passed, and Elvie nodded. “You must miss your parents so very much.”

Zande sighed. “Losing someone close defines you. I trust you know that by now. I’m sorry about your parents; I know they were—well, shall I call them—not the best parents in the world, but still, they are your parents,” he said. And he meant it.

“They sell me out; they sacrifice me for the sake of money and fame. Of course I was saddened, and yes, you are right; even after all that, they are still my parents. I'm just sad I didn't tell them what I felt. That after I left, I mean, after our divorce, I was so alone.”

“You were never alone. I hired someone to look for you, by the way.”

“Why?”

"Because, um, because you never took the money that you deserved.”

“It wasn't my money, Zander, besides, after what happened back then that night, I thought I had no face to—um, you know, face you. Can we not talk about it?”

“Okay,” he agreed. “But we are not done talking about it, okay?”

She nodded her head. She looked down and stared at a chocolate cube slowly melting in her hand, glueing her forefinger and thumb together. 

He stuck his hand in her hair and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I'm not sorry that I tricked you into marrying me again. But falling into the wrong hands is just as bad as crashing into nothing. And I won't let you fall into the wrong hands.”

His phone, sitting between them, buzzed, and she looked down at it. The name Kristal flashed, making her heart sink. He hit ignore and tossed the phone on the other side of the blanket.

“You can answer it if you need to.” Don’t cry.

“I don’t need to.”

“I will never understand your relationship with her.”

“That makes the two of us.”

So end it! She wanted to scream. His phone started dancing on the blanket again. She rose on her forearms as he sent the call to voicemail once again.

“I want to go home.”

“Wife, no, not yet. I mean,um—Thea is coming.” His phone began to vibrate for the third time. Zander muttered, “Jesus Christ,” and shoved it in the duffel bag, zipping it shut and throwing it against the tree.

He sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. “Hey, hey…”

Elvie stood and began to clean everything up. He didn’t say anything else until they’d arrived at his building. She continued toward the train station, and he groaned, easily catching up with her steps. “Elvie, let me get your ass home.”

She ignored him.

“How about our daughter, she is coming…come on!”

“Leave me alone, Zander.” Elvie stopped. Hot anger bubbled and sizzled behind her ribcage. “Huh? How about that? How about stop doing this thing where you treat me like I mean something, only to go and fuck someone else? Because it doesn’t matter that you don’t love her, or touch her. If anything, it is much, much worse. You’re not giving up on us—whatever we are—for some great love. You’re cancelling it for some sick need to get back at whoever you thought needed your revenge. And yes, falling into someone else’s arms would have been wrong, but wrapping your arms around Kristal is nothing short of disastrous. So don’t you dare lecture me.”