When he opened the letter and he saw that it was about his license, Jack didn’t know when he abruptly stood up and his eyes that were bulging out as though a saucer were laid on her face as calmly stared up at him. “What do you think you’ve done, Anna?! What the hell is wrong with you? My license? To be held for five years? Have you gone mad?!” Well, this was the reaction she had always been wanting to prompt out of him, and by god, it was so pleasing to watch.
“Why do you look so shocked, Jack? Have you already forgotten that whatever Anna Brayden wanted, Anna Brayden got? You seemed to be so surprised for a man that already knew how powerful I am, aren’t you?” She mockingly shook her head at him while she grinned happily. “What? Why are you giving me that look, are you going to beat the living daylights out of me?”
Jack couldn’t speak, because even though he had always known how powerful she was and after what had happened between them he had already applied for a job in different airline services, but he had never imagined that she had the power to have his license held. “Sit down.” She ordered, and he stared between her hand that was pointed at the chair opposite hers and the way she had crossed her legs and was watching him with fake empathy.
He did, not because that she had ordered him to do so but because he knew if he stood up for long, he might likely fall down due to how he was feeling dizzy. “Now, that’s much like a good man.” He glared at her and she lifted her hands up in surrender as she threw her head back and laughed, “I wonder what you’d do now that you’re fired, Jack, such a pity, right? Now that my offer of you being my bodyguard no longer counts, what are you going to do?” He still didn’t speak, and she now realized how much joy it must’ve given Jack that day when she couldn't voice a word out. Interruption was never a good feeling.
“I guess you have no other choice but to work in your father’s company which if I want, I can buy the biggest share of the company and make myself more powerful than Roberts Paul, the owner of the company could ever be. Do you think that will be a great financial idea? I'd be richer than I am now, don’t you think?” He curled his fingers into a fist, and she giggled. “Already? I have tons of bodyguards out there, Jack, even if you touch a single hair on my head, you’d be beaten to death.”
“Don’t you think that you’re crossing the limit, Anna?” He asked with a husky voice that gave way to what he was feeling in his heart. She knew if he weren’t trying to be strong, he would have already been crying by now, which was such a pity already.
“The limit? Are you even tasing about the limit, Jack?” She clapped her hands mockingly at him and chuckled, “So there had always been a limit? Why was a blind to it then? Or maybe when you crossed the limit you forgot to lay it back where it should be, right? Or the wind, oops...” She palmed her mouth, excitement bubbling in her eyes. For two weeks, she hadn’t felt alive until she saw the look in his eyes today. “The wind might’ve taken it far from where we are now, don’t you think?”
“Anna Brayden...” He began, but she immediately cut him off.
“If I were you, I would’ve listened to me like I did two weeks ago, don’t you think?” He gulped down a lump in his throat and she relaxed back on the chair, “I don’t care about the limit, Jack. We can go as far as we want since when you hired your best friend to fake-date me, really? How low you could stoop. I don’t care about any limits, I've warned you, didn't I? Wait until you’re in a financial ditch and it’s only Anna Brayden that could pull you out.” She stood up, the bitterness she had felt when he revealed to her that all that Charles game was a fake and he was only trying to hurt was back on the tip of her tongue. She stared at him with her eyes now glistened with tears, but she flicked them back, she had to be strong even for today. She would be the winner today.
She flashed him a wide grin and walked until it was only barely an inch between them. She leaned closer to his face with a smirk on her lips, “You have enough time to be writing lots of stories. It’s either you have them published in prints or a movie, with you being the actor, I'm sure it’d be a blockbuster. I can invest in the movie, just ask for whatever amount you need, I'd be there to help since I'm responsible for your unemployment, right?” She giggled and lifted her face up, “Lest I forget, you should extend my regards to Charles, oh, sorry, Henry Donald and tell him what I've done to you, maybe this time he’s not only going to fake-date me, right? I would become his Mrs. before he can tell me the truth, and guess what? It’d be damn fun.” She walked off in a gait as though a gazelle and blinded with rage, Jack hated himself to see the beauty in the way she acted just a few seconds ago.
❦
“Maya, it felt as though a huge rock was taken off my chest, you need to feel what I'm feeling right now.” Anna smiled as she spoke. What happened was like a fire that melted all that coldness she was feeling in her heart, she felt free and she knew whatever he was thinking of doing to avenge on her, would never be as worse as what she did to him. She knew so well that Jack Roberts would rather die than worked under his father but this time, she had forced him to do what he had grown up resenting just and fortunately, that was the only chance he had unless he wanted to be a gateman or the bodyguard he hated to hear her regard himself as.
Maya chucked lightly, “I can’t believe that I haven’t sensed any bad thing about Charles...” The loud hiss that escaped Maya’s lips was enough to tell Anna that she had forgotten to refer to him with his real name and she laughed. “Henry, they looked as though the strangers they had painted themselves to be. I hate those idiot and for Jack, I'm so proud of what you did to him. How dare him make you that miserable without you retaliating?”
“You need to see the way he looked; gob smacked is even an understatement. And what pained him the most was the license he couldn't have, what a blessing to the part of my brain that reminded me about his license, Maya.” She chuckled and Maya grinned.
There was a knock on her door, and she excused herself from the phone and went to the door. It was one of their maids, “What is it? Didn’t I tell y’all not to disturb me, Kate?”
She bowed down slightly and spoke, “I’m sorry but it’s Mrs. Brayden that asked me to summon you for dinner.” Anna hissed below her breath. She knew if she didn’t go for this dinner Mom might have the whole dining table brought to her room so they could have the dinner together.
She walked out of the room and was about to close the door behind her when Kate cleared her throat, “I’m sorry, Miss Brayden, but she has some guests and I guess you’d like to look more presentable.” She ducked her head down and Anna realized that was her own way of apologizing for pointing out that she looked like a homeless person and her hair was as though a bird’s nest.
She hissed louder this time and walked back to the room. In less than five minutes, for she was eager to get this over with, she walked out looking more presentable than she had looked before. Without glancing at where Kate stood waiting for her, Anna took the stairs two at a time, feeling even though being betrayed was a huge blow, but the fact that she had avenged on the mastermind was enough to cool her aching soul.
And behold, like Kate said, Mom was seated on their long and luxurious dining table together with another woman that looked quite expensive as well. She sat down and politely smiled at the woman, “Good evening, my name is Anna and I'm her daughter.” She smiled awkwardly because she had never gone through the awkwardness of introducing herself, wherever she went, there had to be someone that knew who she was.
“Of course, I know you, Anna! How are you doing?” She asked with a rich voice as she casually sipped her juice.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking.” Anna was trying as much as she could to sound nice so as not to embarrass her mother and she knew this woman must be one of her friends from their club.
“Anna, this is Katharine, could you remember the woman we’ve bumped into when we went out shopping after you were back from Florida when...” Anna had to cut her off because she knew if she kept silent, nothing could stop Mom from saying everything out. From how she met Nate, to how she had broken her heart.
She chuckled awkwardly as she nodded her head, “Yes, I recognized her. Thanks for coming Katharine.”
They ate their dinner silently as she tried as much as she could to act as though she weren’t hearing about what they were discussing. Did all Mom’s friends have to be shopaholics like she was? She wished this Katharine was a bit sensible, but it seemed its either she was exactly as crazy as her mother was or even worse. She quickly rounded up and stood up with a respectful smile on her face.
“I'm full, Mom. I'll have to go back to my room; I'm going back to work tomorrow.” Her Mother gently nodded her head but that sympathetic look was never leaving her eyes and Anna hated to see it. “Katharine, thank you, and I pray you go back safely.” She walked toward the stairs and heard Mom’s voice shouting, ‘Good night, Darling! Make sure you don't cry before you sleep, okay?’ She clenched her eyes shut and acted as though she had never heard what she had said.
“Why would she cry?” She heard Katharine’s voice before she banged the door of her room closed. Mom was looking for a way to tell someone that she had been dumped by her first boyfriend and fooled by the second guy whose name wasn't even the real one. There, she had gotten another woman as exactly as her.
Daphne sighed as she looked at Katharine, “It pains me to see her in pain, she got dumped twice. And she's the type of person that loves with everything she’s gotten. It wasn’t until two days ago that she began to speak again, it was a huge blow to her frail heart.”
Katharine looked so sad about this, “And she’s such a lovely and beautiful girl, why are men like this?”
Daphne sighed and stared at the place Anna had disappeared to, “I don’t know, I can’t say she’s not lucky exactly but when it comes to relationships, my Anna is always the one left to cry at the end. The first one dumped her for a woman he met on their anniversary, a year ago. And when she went there to celebrate their four-year anniversary, he proposed to those woman in her presence, telling her that he has never loved her...” Katharine gasped and palmed her lips. “And the second one was here to fake-date her, can you imagine? He used to be her bodyguard, unknowingly, the name he all told us wasn’t his real name. That jerk.” Mom fumed, and Katharine’s eyes beamed with what seemed like happiness or a solution to her own problem.