Chapter 24 Two Women Waiting
Seeing her step out of that car makes my heart stop completely.
Vanessa.
She's standing perfectly still, one hand resting on the car door like she has all the time in the world. She tilts her head back slightly and looks up at the building and my hand tightens on the curtain.
What is she doing here? Why now? The deadline already passed. Hours ago. So why is she back? What does she want? Where is Caius? Did she come back because she's done waiting and she's ready to burn everything down?
The questions pile on top of each other fast. My mind keeps jumping from one terrible possibility to the next.
I should go down right now and stop her before she reaches this floor, before she sets foot inside this penthouse again.
I take one step toward the door.
Then I stop.
The memory hits me immediately. Vanessa sitting across from me in this very penthouse, looking pleasant and interested and completely harmless, while twenty-four minutes and thirty-two seconds of my own voice piled up on her phone.
What if I go down there and make it worse? What if I say something else I can't take back? What if I walk into another trap I don't see coming because I'm too rattled and too frightened and too desperate to think clearly?
I can't. I cannot trust myself to be the one who handles this.
I need Caius.
I step back from the door and press myself against the wall beside Leo's window and pull out my phone. My fingers are shaking so badly I mistype his name twice before I get to his contact. I press call and lift the phone to my ear, keeping my eyes on Leo's sleeping face, trying to keep my breathing quiet enough not to wake him.
It rings and rings and rings but goes straight to voicemail.
I hang up and call again immediately. Same result. I hang up and try a third time, pressing the phone harder against my ear like that will somehow make a difference, like if I just want it badly enough he'll pick up this time.
But he doesn't.
"Pick up," I whisper at the phone. "Caius, please pick up."
But the voicemail greeting plays again and I end the call before it finishes.
Leo shifts on his bed, rolling onto his side, his small hand curling under his cheek. His eyes stay closed.
I watch him for a moment.
Then I start typing a text to Caius telling him Vanessa is here and I need him to call me back right now.
The penthouse is completely silent now but I keep waiting for Caius.
A minute passes. Then two. Then five.
Caius doesn't call back. He desn't text. His phone is either off or he's somewhere he can't answer, and either way it means I'm completely on my own right now and that thought alone is enough to make my knees feel weak.
I press my ear carefully against Leo's bedroom door and listen.
And this time, I hear something.
Voices.
My heart skips a beat. I try Caius's number one last time but it doesn't go through. Heaving a sigh, I open the door softly and step out walking towards the direction of the voices.
With every step I take, my heart beats faster and harder.
After some time, I reach the living room and the sight that greets me stops me cold immediately.
Mrs Micheal and Vanessa are sitting together on the large green sofa. Both holding a glass of juice and chatting. Actually chatting and smiling and having a happy, healthy conversation. On the same sofa. Vanessa besides Mrs Micheal.
They know each other.
Of course they know each other. Vanessa was with Caius for five years. Five years of dinners and events and weekends away. Five years of being part of his life, which means five years of being part of his family. Five years of sitting in this penthouse and drinking tea with his mother and being the woman that Mrs. Michael probably always expected her son would eventually marry.
And then there's me.
The assistant. The girl hired to fill the role Vanessa was supposed to have.
The blood drains from my face fast.
Vanessa sees me first.
Her eyes move to the hallway and land on me, and that familiar small smile appears on her lips.
Mrs. Michael turns at whatever shift in Vanessa's attention gives me away.
And the smile on her face... the pleasant one she'd been wearing in conversation drops immediately.
What replaces it is something I have seen before. That particular narrowing of the eyes. And disgust too.
She looks at me the way she looked at me the night I arrived.
Her gaze makes me feel small and shrink in the room.
I open my mouth to speak and say something, anything at least, but she beats me to it.
"Lia Sterling," she says. "Come sit down." She gestures to the chair across from them, her eyes never leaving my face. "We have something very important to discuss."