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Isaac never takes his eyes off him. “Have you paid your child support? If I’m not mistaken, you owe Stella quite a lot. And you haven’t seen your children in a year or so.”
“What I did or didn’t do isn’t your business,” Elijah snaps.
“But it is. Because you’re on my property, unannounced and uninvited while also harassing one of my employees. We take good care of our people here. Better care than you, for sure,” he replies, half-smiling and intriguingly calm. I’d be turned on if it weren’t for my ex-husband presently lingering between us with a sour look on his face.
“I don’t think you understand—”
“No, I don’t thinkyouunderstand the situation here,” Isaac cuts him off. “I need you to leave these premises immediately, and should you have something to discuss with Ms. Snow, by all means, do so through your lawyers. You are not welcome nor allowed to be here for one more second.”
Elijah gasps, unable to contain his shock. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“I could prove it and escort you out myself, or you could leave of your own accord.”
“I guess you’ve done well for yourself,” Elijah snorts a dry chuckle as he glances my way. “Fuck your boss and get yourself a personal bodyguard. Smart move, Stella.”
“Leave!” I say, tears of rage stinging my eyes.
“I’ll leave. But it’s not over. And don’t think for a second that your man here scared me off,” Elijah shoots back, then storms right past Isaac and trudges back into the Elizabeth. He’ll be gone soon enough, but I can’t even breathe anymore.
I can’t breathe until I feel his presence out of this place. A minute passes in the heaviest silence while I wait for that sense of relief—a sense that never comes, much to my despair. Isaac comes closer, and I can no longer hold myself together.
“Stella, I’m sorry, I should’ve come sooner…” His voice trails off when I start crying.
Everything comes out of me at once. The anger, the sadness, the fear, and the insecurity. Tears flow down my hot cheeks like salty rivers, gushing and seeping into the soft white collar of my maid’s uniform. I let it all go as he wraps his arms around me and holds me close. Closer and closer, until I can almost feel my spine cracking, but I welcome his embrace, I feed on this sliver of comfort, I cling to him with everything I’ve got.
I hide my face in his shirt to muffle the sobs and the wails of a year’s worth of misery. I shudder against him, soft as butter melting in a sizzling pan. It feels good, like home. A dangerous thing to experience when I’m trying to separate myself emotionally from this man, from the four of them, for that matter. Yet I cannot deny how much I need it. How much I need him. Them.
“He’ll never set foot in this place again,” Isaac says, his voice low while his hands rest on the small of my back. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I should’ve come out sooner.”
“It’s okay. I needed to say those things to him. He had to hear it. I just didn’t expect to see him. Not here, not now.”
“You’re going to be alright,” he says, planting a kiss on my temple.
I look up, briefly losing myself in the pools of his beautiful eyes. “Will I be alright, Isaac? Where is this headed? Will we ever really be together?” I’m not sure where the courage came from, but it’s a question that needed to reach the surface. We’ve been tiptoeing around this issue for too long.
“What do you mean?” he asks, clearly hesitant.
It’s enough to send a fresh wave of anger coursing through my veins. “What do I mean? The five of us have been doing this for months. Where does it end? Are we together? Or am I just a willing body you enjoy visiting once or twice a week?”
“Stella, I’ve… None of us have ever treated you like an object.”
“Yet that’s how I feel right now. How much longer are we going to keep this up? I have a life to rebuild. A career to recover. Two children to raise,” I choke up, having almost mentioned the third that’s on the way. “Are we together, Isaac?”
“I have a career, too,” he finally says. “A prospect in politics I need to be careful with. It’s not that simple nor that easy for me. For any of us. We should talk about this another time, when you’re not—”
“When I’m not what, exactly? Emotional?” I shoot back and yank myself from his arms, shaking with unkempt rage. “And I just got my answer, so don’t waste your fucking breath, Isaac. I know exactly where I stand now.”
“Stella, wait—”
“I need to get back to work. I’m just the maid here, remember?” I snarl and leave him standing in the garden with his thoughts and a look of shame on his face.
I’m furious. My heart is bleeding. This is too much to deal with. Elijah was the drop that filled the glass for me, because I just want to get today done and over with so I can hide in my room. So I can curl up in my bed with my kids and forget about everyone, about everything. I’ll start fresh tomorrow. I will have to call my lawyer, too, and see what I can do about keeping Elijah away. Hell, I may have to move us out of here sooner than I’d hoped, because I doubt Elijah will simply give up. I saw the determination in his eyes.
“I don’t know him anymore,” I tell myself as I go back inside, my feet heavy. “I don’t know anybody anymore…”
It’s a strange feeling to experience. This solitude against a current of incidents meant to chip away at my resolve, at my hopes and dreams for a better future. No, I need to pull myself together. I need to work the rest of my shift, eat something, and then spend some time with Ava and Lucas. And once I put them to bed, I’ll take a hot bath and cry my heart out until I’m tired enough to go to sleep without tossing and turning. That's all I can do today.
Tomorrow is a new day.
