Chapter 59 CHAPTER 059
"Is there something wrong?" Amelia's soft voice wafts up to me, pulling me back from the depths of despair I was about plunging into. I look at her warm eyes. I don't want to be yanked away from her yet. What would I give to spend another reckless endless night with her?
I look at the hickey on her neck and I thirst for the soft feel of her velvety skin in between my teeth. My back is lined with scratch marks from her nails and if I could preserve their sting, I would.
"Uh, I don't know..." My words trail off when my phone vibrates in my hand. Chris is calling again.
"Excuse me, let me take this." I say, bringing the phone to my ear.
"I'll make coffee." Amelia leaves the room.
"Linc, you motherfucker." Chris's voice booms immediately I push the answer button.
"Good morning to you too." I snap lightly.
I have been friends with Chris since college. When we were young and insane. Over the years I like to think I have mellowed down but Chris is still on about that life. He claims to be a playboy for life. He is forty two and the idiot still keeps late nights, goes to wild parties with models and cocaine like he was still a college sophomore.
I think we drifted because whilst Chris had rich parents and hence his future was secured, I didn't. I lived off him to an extent when we were in college but I had to stay away and focus on securing my future at some point. I partied at night with Chris and our wild group of friends but I studied during the day.
But throughout the years, we still managed to find some middle ground. We both didn't want kids. And marriage wasn't a top priority. Chris is still a bachelor, never been married. I met Kathryn and she charmed me into a marriage that ended when she found another subject to charm. Chris attended the wedding and the funeral. He never knew about how the marriage went because I was self conscious he would laugh at me for falling out of our dumb pact to never get married and having it blow back in my face in the most ironic way possible.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Chris says, he sounds oddly sober for this time of the day. He is usually fighting off a hangover or trying to get one.
"What are you talking about?" I sit on my bed. My head is still reeling wondering why Abbie called so many times. Charlotte's can be explained by my unusual unexplained absence from the office.
"That broad blew you off. I told you not to get married to her. She looked like the pictorial reference for materialistic. We have met countless women like that, I don't know how you got fooled." Chris says and all my thoughts grind to a halt.
"Wait? What?"
What is Chris going off about this morning?
"Don't tell me you haven't seen it? What have you been up to since last night? I don't know you to be this out of depths. Some french fucker gave an expose about how he fucked Kathryn and you guys were separated before her death. He's made it into some kind of romantic crap about finding true love and some shit I couldn't bother reading through. He had intimate paintings of her and is trying to sell it at a crazy price."
A thrumming goes off in my head. A dull ache thudding behind my eyes. Fuck. I go silent and all I can hear is Chris's breathing over the phone.
"You really didn't know? What the fuck? It is all over the news. Though you look like an angel because here is a guy who buried his ex wife and took responsibility for his stepdaughter even though she hurt him. I mean, not to talk bad of the dead but everyone is calling Kathryn a bitch." Chris says, his surprise mirroring mine at the fact that Arthur fucking Beau played me.
He was never going to not talk about his relationship with Kathryn. He was only trying to get extra money from me. Probably to set up a more extravagant exhibition. He knew roping my name into his business would get him visibility. Much more, Kathryn's name. The fucking rat.
"Fuck. Let's talk later, Chris." I say and end the call before he can cuss and ask me not to dare hang up on him. Whether he is calling to taunt me or console me, I don't know and can't deal with right now.
I dial Abbie's number. It rings for a second before she picks up immediately.
"Mr. Dmitri." She says into the phone. Her voice is solid and professional, not betraying the frustration she must have felt when she couldn't reach me all throughout yesterday. It must have been urgent and her hands were tied.
"Hi, Abbie. I am sorry you couldn't reach me yesterday. I don't have the full idea of what happened yet. Give me everything I need to know now."