Chapter 41: Chapter 41

"I need your help."

Sam looked up from the papers she'd been studying as her assistant hurried into the office, wearing a harried look.

"What's wrong?" She pushed up from her seat, alarmed to see the usually calm woman looking so anxious.

"It's Lola." Jane wrung her hands, glancing over her shoulder towards the door. "She...she showed up drunk to work and she's kinda making a scene in the work space."

Of all the foolish…

For several weeks, matter of fact, since Ryan had left for Maui, Lola's behavior towards work had teetered at the edge of unsatisfactory. The woman had been sullen, well, more than usual, but most times simply looked downright miserable and pale. There were days when she simply didn't show up for work, but Sam had let that slide, since Ryan, who was her direct boss, wasn't even around. She'd figured it was probably due to a personal issue anyway.

In all, Sam had steered clear of the woman, going through Jane whenever she absolutely needed to interact with Lola.

Showing up drunk, however, was another matter, and she would have to deal with her.

She took a deep breath and motioned for Jane to lead the way. As they stepped into the hallway, Sam could hear the commotion coming from the open work space.

Damn Lola.

"I can't wait to leave this fucking place anyway!" Lola's voice was shrill, punctuated by the sounds of something slamming on the desk. "Eleven years...eleven...fucking...years and this is the thanks I get. I hope you all burn in hell!"

A small crowd had formed around Lola, obstructing Sam's view, all eyes fixed with varying expressions from horror to glee at the unraveling woman. Sam tapped the man standing in front of her on the shoulder and the man looked back, then made way for her to pass through. Alerted to her presence, the staff moved away, giving her a passage.

Lola's desk was a mess of papers, files, stationary and two brown boxes, into which she was haphazardly stuffing personal items, muttering to herself as she worked, completely oblivious to the crowd watching her. However, her head jerked up as Sam approached, red rimmed eyes narrowing, hostility pouring from her in waves.

"If it isn't the great Ms. Fucking Bhaat." Her mouth twisted in a sneer. Her usual flawless make up was now a mess smeared over her face, mascara twin lines of smudge that lined her cheeks. "Come here to gloat?"

Sam's ire rose at the challenge, but she forced herself to remain calm since it was clear Lola was visibly upset. "What's going on, Lola? Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Lola sneered, stalking close to Sam, eyes flashing pure malice as she got in Sam's face, breath heavy with the smell of alcohol. "You're such a fucking bitch, you know that? Pretending to care when we both know you couldn't give a fuck about me."

Sam stared the woman down, keeping her temper under control. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you…"

"Oh you know what's going on." Lola snapped, rolling her eyes. "Don't play fucking innocent and just admit you're happy to be rid of me."

"Rid of you?" Sam shook her head in confusion. "Lola, you're not making any sense."

"Ryan fired me because of you!" Lola's voice bordered on hysterical, merging with shocked gasps from the audience. "He fired me, his best friend, the one person who's stood by him all these years. I was there for him anytime he needed me, I was there with him when that slut of an ex-fiance damn near destroyed his life. Me!"

Fresh tears streaked down Lola's cheeks. "But, then you had to come along and spread your legs for him, and I knew if I let you sink your bitchy claws into him that you would hurt him and his career just like Nicky did. I tried to save him, I did what I could to make sure you couldn't ruin him and the thanks I got was for him to fire me because of you."

The room fell silent as Lola's words dropped like a nuclear bomb in the small space. All eyes moved to Sam, who stood stunned, unable to move or even process the information. It felt as though the air had been sucked out of the room, her lungs struggling to take a breath.

Lola's words buzzed in her head. The stares of her co-workers were tiny pinpricks on her skin.

"What? Are you shocked that I knew you were fucking him?" Lola sneered, malice back in her expression "Bitch, that's not even the tip of the iceberg."

*******

Sam shut the door to her office and had to lean against it to support legs that suddenly seemed unable to bear her weight. A harsh sound reached her ears and it took a moment to realise it was her own breaths, coming out ragged and panicked.

She shut her eyes in an effort to remain calm, but Lola's face swam into view, the shocking words she'd uttered stabbing fresh wounds.

"Bradford even knows you've been fucking his son, he's known from the very beginning and would have fired you if Ryan hadn't cut a deal with him."

"Oh god!" She brought her hand to her mouth, trembling all over. "Oh god. Please let this not be true...please."

She crossed to her desk and picked up her phone, her hand so unsteady it took a few tries to unlock and speed dial.

Her pulse pounded in her ears, skin prickling with nerves and, most of all, disbelief. She could hardly believe she was about to have this sort of conversation with the man she loved.

"Hey, Sweetheart." Ryan sounded rushed and distracted. The cacophony of construction sounds going on in the background nearly drowned out his voice and indicated he was in the middle of work.

For a few seconds Sam was unable to speak for the near overwhelming sensations his voice evoked. Pain, betrayal, comfort, love. It was like her brain couldn't decide on what to feel at the moment and had let loose everything it had.

There was no way he could have known the truth and kept it from her. No, he wouldn't lie to her face and let her believe everything was under control while she had been used as some sick sort of bargaining chip.

Would he?

"Sweetheart?" Ryan spoke louder. "You there?"

"I need to ask you something." She gulped, and spoke the next words in a rush. "Please, I need you to be honest with me, Ryan."

"Hold on, I can't hear you with all this noise. Let me go somewhere quiet."

She waited, taking several deep breaths that only seemed to cause the beginnings of a migraine. A deep shudder ran through her as she remembered the looks on the faces of her co-workers seconds after Lola had tipped her world off its axis.

Some had been shocked, staring at her in wide eyed disbelief, a few had worn pitying expressions but one thing was clear. They now knew and were judging her. She could only imagine what they were thinking - probably that she'd traded in her body to secure her job.

She cringed at the thought, the migraine steadily getting stronger.

With her free hand she fished out her pills from her purse, and downed two just as the sounds from the phone grew muted as Ryan found a quiet spot.

"Okay, sorry about that." He chuckled and she could imagine him wearing a grin. "We're in the middle of laying down the floors for the pool and it's an absolute madhouse here. So, what did you want to ask, Sweetheart?"

Breathe, Sameera, breathe. She failed to take her own advice as a sob escaped when she tried to open her mouth. She clasped a hand over her mouth, hoping he hadn't heard it.

"Sam?" To her dismay, He picked up on her tone and she could hear the urgency on his own. "What’s wrong?”

"Your father…" she broke off, at a temporary loss for words.

"What did he do, Sam?" His voice took on an edge. "Has he been giving you a hard time?"

"Your father knows we're together." She tried to keep the desperation from her voice, but her control was not the best right now. "He knows we've been having sex, he knows we lied to him about it."

There was silence on the other end, then Ryan let out a colorful curse that reverberated in her ears.

"What did he tell you?"

His lack of surprise sent the last tendrils of denial slithering away and she shut her eyes in pain.

"You knew, didn't you." She forced the words past the lump that had risen in her throat from trying not to cry. "All this time, even before you went away, you knew and you kept the truth from me."

"Sweetheart, I can explain."

"Explain what exactly?" She gritted out. "That you lied about your father knowing, or that you hid the fact that my job was on the line...wait it even gets better…the two of you used my job as a bargaining chip to get back with your ex? What part are you fixing to explain, huh?"

"Jesus! Sam, listen, it's not what you think." He blew out a breath as though trying to remain calm.

"It's true he tried to get me to go back to my ex, but I shut that down quickly, because like I told him, he had no grounds to fire you just for being in a relationship with me. I promise you, making any deal with him was never an option."

"I don't know what to believe, Ryan. I thought I could trust you, I really did and then it turns out you've been hiding the fact that my career was in jeopardy, knowing how much it means to me, and how worried I've been?"

"Sam, I'm -"

"What's worse, I had to find out from your assistant, who basically told the entire office that the only reason I still had this job was because you cut some kind of deal with your father so we could keep seeing each other and now everything I've worked so damn hard to achieve, every win, every step has now been called into question with people wondering if I actually put in the work or just slept my way to the top."

Her voice broke as the dam holding her emotions back burst on a fit of huge, heaving sobs that wracked her entire frame. "How could you do this to me?"

"Fuck, please don't cry. I'm so sorry." He sounded tortured. "I swear I was only trying to protect you but I was wrong to keep things from you, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry I trusted you." She cried out, "I'm sorry I let myself fall in love with you, even think you'd be any different from all the other rich, entitled assholes who think they can meddle in people's lives any way they want."

He made a strangled noise, that was a mix of pure anguish and surprise. "No, please don't say that. You know me, Sam. You know I'd never set out to deliberately hurt you. I love you, Sameera, please believe me."

Sam shook her head, his anguish echoed in her own emotion. She squeezed her eyes shut, as though she could shut out the words that broke her heart.

"I don't know you." She whispered. "You lied to me, went behind my back and kept things from me. You tricked me into agreeing to give our relationship a chance when you knew full well what I was afraid of. How am I supposed to keep working here when everyone thinks I'm a slut? How am I supposed to function knowing everyone is judging me?"

"Sam, I'm going to catch the next flight back and we can talk about this, figure out our next steps. Please just...wait, I promise we'll sort this all out."

"No." The word came out in a panicked rush. "No more, please. Just...don't. I need you to leave me alone. I don't want your help, you've done enough. Just stay the hell away from me."

She ended the call, cutting off his protests. Almost instantly, it began buzzing again, but she tossed it on her desk and buried her head in her arms.

*****

Sometime later, Sam couldn't be sure if it was minutes or hours, a sound drew her from the foggy cocoon of misery she'd been wrapped in. Lifting her head, she blinked, disoriented and startled to find the room darkened. A glance out the window showed that dusk had fallen over the city.

She must have cried herself to sleep. Her phone, which she'd set on mute after ignoring over a dozen of Ryan's calls, lit up with a new message and she reached for it, squinting at the illuminated screen for the time.

7:15 p.m.

She'd been here for three hours. She also saw 40 missed calls and god only knew how many messages and winced. Most of them were from Ryan, but there were a few calls from Jane and some were work related.

She pushed to her feet, wincing as her muscles protested being inactive for so long. Her eyes felt swollen and gritty and her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

The sound came again and she realised it was a knock.

"Who is it?" She grimaced at how gravelly she sounded.

"It's me." Jane's muffled voice came through.

Sam called for her to come in, switching on the lights. Jane entered, balancing a tray with tea things in one hand.

"I figured you'd need some tea." Jane gave her a warm smile as she crossed to set the tray down on the coffee table, busting herself with fixing a cup. "There's some sandwiches as well, turkey or egg salad, your choice."

Sam came to sit on the couch, accepting the cup. "Thank you."

She breathed in the lovely aroma and took a cautious sip of the hot liquid, sighing in small relief. "Thank you, I needed this."

Jane straightened and nodded. "Are you alright?"

Sam took another sip as she considered the question. Was she alright? In the space of a few hours, her life had taken on the feel of a soap opera. The man she loved had lied to her, her co-workers probably thought the worst of her, and her boss knew she had slept with his son and lied to his face, her career was in shambles.

"Not really." She responded, staring down at the liquid in her cup. "Did Lola leave?"

Jane grimaced and nodded. "She left a couple of minutes after…" she trailed off and shrugged apologetically.

After she'd announced to the entire office that Sam was nothing but a slut who had Ryan wrapped around her finger with her 'magic pussy' as Lola had so eloquently described it. Goddess, how had her life come to this?

She was hit with the urge to crawl home, bury her head under the covers and not emerge for weeks until everything was over, but Sam had never been the type of person to cower from her problems. Still, she was in no mood to tackle any of that mess right now.

Not while her heart was in so much pain over Ryan. She was still too hurt, too angry to think straight right now. She had made a mistake by trusting him, by believing he respected her enough to let her handle her own issues.

How could she continue to love him? How could she convince her heart to stop loving him so it wouldn't hurt this much.

Because right now, she felt ripped to pieces, slowly bleeding out, broken and betrayed.

She needed space to think, to figure out her next steps. She needed to go home. Draining her cup, she set the china down and stood.

"I'm going home." She announced. "I'll probably be unreachable for the better part of tomorrow, so any urgent issues should be addressed to Brian and Stephanie."

"Okay. I'll let your driver know you're ready to leave." Jane hurried out, leaving Sam to gather her things.