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The afternoon went by peacefully as the kids played and we relaxed in their presence, but before I knew it, it was time to get ready.
As I was finishing, someone knocked on the door.Shit!I thought. I had totally forgotten about my “date” for the evening. I used the word “date” loosely as she really wasn’t a date, not in the typical sense of the word.
When the gala invitation came out for an important work event, I was not even going to go at first until Sloane and Chase talked me into it. I know they were trying to get me out of my room, out of my shell and back to living again. I didn’t know anyone to ask, and I didn’t want to go alone as I was sure to get pity looks from all my business acquaintances who knew I had lost Sarah, so I took drastic, albeit stupid, measures. I hired an escort. Not my classiest moment and it is definitely not something I would normally do, but I was desperate.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, right? She was also a safe decision. Since she was only a paid escort and not a real date, there was no chance of romantic feelings being an issue. She was gorgeous, that much I learned from her online profile, but she wasn’t exactly my type, and both of us knew this was nothing more than a business transaction.
The only problem was I hadn’t planned on Katya and her son being at my place when the escort arrived. It wasn’t like I cared whether or not Katya saw me with another woman, but what if she could somehow tell that my ‘date’ was someone I’dpaidto spend the night with?
That would be humiliating, to say the least.
I was in the bedroom still getting ready when the person on the other side of the door knocked again, and I realized I was trapped. There was no getting out of this. I had to go let this woman in—and risk whatever judgmental looks or snide comments Katya decided to throw at me.
I felt like such a dick.
Chapter Sixteen
Katya
Iwasonthefloor playing with Luca and Kenlee when someone started knocking on the door. I thought nothing of it since Zane already told me he ordered a special dessert for Luca, so I got up and yelled down the hall, “I’ll get it.”
“No wait!” Zane called out, but I was already on my way over. I opened the door, and was surprised to see a raven-haired beauty with a supermodel body standing on the other side. Her satin, emerald green dress was stunning and her hair and makeup were flawless.
Suddenly, I was very aware of my own appearance. I doubted this woman would ever be caught with a “messy bun”, no makeup, and sensible shoes. Not even in her own home. Nope, definitely not. She looked me over, sized me up, determined I was not a threat and asked where Zane was.
“Oh, uh, Zane?” I said, as if I didn’t know who she was talking about. It wasn’t my finest moment, but I was at a loss for words.”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m looking for Zane Grey. I’m supposed to meet him here. This is the correct room, isn’t it?” She smiled, but there was an icy quality to her expression.
I was not about to let this woman know she bothered me, so I held my head up high and told her, “Yes, this is the correct room. Zane is in his room getting ready and should be out shortly. Please, come in and have a seat.” I then walked over to Kenlee, picked her up, and began feeding her.
A look of relief came over the beautiful bitch’s face when she looked at me and said, “Oh, you’re the babysitter. I see.”
She appeared visibly relieved when she realized that I was just there to watch the baby while Zane went to the gala, and it took everything in my power not to roll my eyes at her obvious slight. Thankfully, a second later, Zane came out and she and I were no longer alone.
“Oh good,” he said, smiling awkwardly at the woman. “You’re here.”
I glanced his way and was immediately taken aback. I knew he was good looking but seeing him in a tuxedo made me see him in a whole new light. Even his date looked shocked.
Embarrassed and ashamed of my thoughts and of my reaction to his date, I picked up the baby and told Zane I was going to take her to her room. He had a strange look on his face that I couldn’t quite decipher, but it didn’t matter. He said okay, kissed Kenlee goodbye, and left for the evening.
Is she his girlfriend?I couldn’t help but wonder. Then I shook the thought from my mind and tried to distract myself.
I turned on the television for background noise while I started making dinner. Luca asked for his favorite, spaghetti, so I put the water on to boil. Just as it began to steam and bubble, I saw the breaking news story. I momentarily forgot what I was doing, and the boiling water splashed across my hand.
Damn, that hurt!The pain was not enough to keep me from wanting to find out more, so I turned the volume up and ran cold water over my hand. The cause of my distraction and subsequent injury was an image of Aleks scrolling across the screen.
I turned the water off and moved to the couch to find out why my boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, or whatever he is, was a headliner on the evening news. At this point, I shouldn’t be surprised, but it turned out that Aleks was a bigger piece of trash than I could have imagined. Now, it was clear why he hadn’t been blowing up my phone trying to contact me and drag me home. He was in jail!
The bigger surprise was that I wasn’t shocked. The news anchor explained that he had been arrested for domestic abuse charges last night and this gave the police a chance to question him on something they had been watching him for before last night. Breaking and entering which was bad enough but where he was breaking into was even worse. The morally vacant loser I lived with was breaking into his grandmother’s house of all places. The same grandmother who had been “Missing” since 2010.
I never knew the full story about his grandmother that I hadn’t met, and I never asked too many questions because I guess deep down, I didn’t really want to know. Not because I’m heartless, but because I was fearful of the truth. Part of me always wondered about his grandmother’s house that he stayed at sometimes. I was just thankful for a break from him when he stayed there.
But breaking into her house is low even for Aleks. Especially when he had an apartment that we shared. And did the police suspect Aleks had anything to do with his grandmother’s disappearance? I shuttered at the thought of that.
I had absolutely no idea why and only God knew the reason, but I had to admit, I could breathe easier knowing Aleks was behind bars, at least for a little while.
Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived. Like always, panic and anxiety took up residence in my brain. To be honest, I was tired of them living there rent-free but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to evict them.
