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“I knew it,” he gasped, choking as he bent over with a self-satisfied smile, releasing me and stepping back triumphantly.
It didn’t matter to him anymore if I left. Even if he suffered a bruised foot and an aching belly, it was worth it to be the first to report that Max Rider was cheating on Bunny Collins with Catherine Fischer.
They were total bastards, every single one of them.
Cat
They found me by lunchtime. My lovely lamppost stalker must have got the word out because they were crowding around the building. Harris, Walsh & Sons had extra security on hand for our more famous, private, or at-risk clients, and they were out in full force to stop the paparazzi from getting through the front doors. Which also meant we had no clients coming today either.
My office was high enough above the street not to hear them. I’d already had two random coworkers from different departments stop by and make small talk until I figured out what they were up to and chucked them out.
Dom had been checking in on me throughout the day. After the first two came around, Lucy had become my sworn protector against the dark forces of the office gossips who kept trying to see me.
All because I let my pussy lead the way instead of my head. I’d let myself get dragged under Max’s spell and fell for it again. I thought, just for a moment, maybe he had changed, that maybe we could make it work, heal all the pain and confusion, and come out the other side with something strong. The one time, the only time I let myself go and actually try, and he fucks it all up.
I’d been replaying our argument in my head ever since he left my flat, trying to remember why it was such a bad thing, why him putting off telling me the truth deserved me throwing him out… but the damage was already done. I couldn’t take back what I said, even if most of it was in the heat of the moment. I’d spent most of the argument fighting off another panic attack and stopping myself from launching into his arms and letting him kiss the pain away. Forgiveness wasn’t an option. I’d risked too much by showing him that part of myself. I was still beating myself up for being so weak and giving in to him.
I didn’t want him to just disappear. I wanted to be the one to destroy him. I thought I’d been angry when I first saw him grinning up at me from the chair right in front of my desk, the one I was glaring at, but it was nothing compared to the fresh rage rolling through me.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
He didn’t get to do this to me and just walk away. I didn’t care how much he cried and begged as I led him to my door. He would still play nights at Wembley, thousands of fans screaming his name. Thousands more were already pouring out their love and devotion to Bunny online. And me? I was Catherine Fischer, the new villain on the block, the woman everyone loved to hate. I didn’t get a say in my part of the story. The public had already given their sentence, and I just had to sit here and take it.
I rolled my glass paperweight in my hands like a crystal ball, hoping it would give me the answers to how I could wipe Max from my life, so I never had to deal with him again. I was stuck in this job with my flat and my family, but I wasn’t running, not this time. He walked back into my life; I was kicking him out of it.
He made a choice. This was the consequence. It didn’t matter if I’d spent every second since he left obsessing over him, dreaming of all the ways I could make him pay for taking advantage of me. Twisted, broken, petty thoughts of him bound under my feet, his begging falling on deaf ears as I tore him open, asking him again and again, 'Do you like that?’ while he cried my name until it echoed in my mind.
I was still consumed with the need to own him. I wanted to make him mine again, but only so I could ravage every part of him, leave him broken and dismantled. I was churning inside. The storm that had first appeared when I sat shattered and empty in the rubble of our love reared its head again, and there was no way to quiet it. I wouldn’t return to that place, no matter how much he chipped away at me. I wanted to show him what it meant to be a husk of meat and bone, left with nothing but his memories to carve away at him.
When I looked back, before we met again in my office, I used to tell myself it was just my first love, that everything seemed so serious and intense after I left because I had never experienced it before. If that was really the case, then why was I still so wrapped up in this? I was out of control, collapsing over the smallest thing. I tried looking back on our argument, seeing if what he did was really that extreme. Did it really warrant that kind of reaction?
It didn’t matter. I was done. If I saw him again, I would eat him alive.
“You’re looking pretty scary there, Kitty Cat.”
Startled, I looked up to find Dom standing in front of my desk. I loved the dark-green suit. It distracted me from the concern lacing his face. I’d been so absorbed in my thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed the door. I’d just been sitting here, repeatedly turning the paperweight in my hands as I thought of all the ways I could ruin Max.
My face ached; my eyes had been fixed on the chair before me, the one that held an imprint of him even though it had been weeks since he’d sat there.
I straightened my back, glaring at Dom. “What do you want?”
“Harris wants to see you.”
“Fuck.” I slammed the paperweight against my desk, growling from the back of my throat as I stood. There wasn’t a single part of my life Max wasn’t invading. Even though I knew the meeting with Harris was due, it still pissed me off. I told Max to leave with some dignity, but it felt like mine was slipping further away the longer I stayed fixed on him.
“Come on, hun, it’s not that bad.” He stood in front of me now.
He meant well, but it made me feel weak. All the chaos, and all that pain, everything that had ruined me so thoroughly, was freely rampaging through me, and I couldn’t stop it. I felt out of control, haywire, crashing at the smallest lie like I was right back in my flat all those years ago. The fresh pain of betrayal gouged me out, like everything I had done to build up and protect myself had been for nothing. I was still weak, still broken. I’d been knocked down so easily that I wondered if there was any point in trying? Then I remembered that knowing smirk Max gave me from the doorway, and self-pity was replaced with my old friend: rage.
I let Dom pull me into a hug but refused to soften into him. I needed to preserve the last of my strength to face my boss, to make sure I didn’t pound into him when he fired me.
Dom kissed my forehead before walking with me to the door, promising to wait for me, but I didn’t need him to. I never answered Jazz when she called back, I ignored every attempt Mum made to coach me through the scandal, and I avoided Grace even though it must have been a huge effort for her to phone. I didn’t want Harry to comfort me or one of Dad’s rough-but-awkward pats on the back. Even Lucy looking at me with a mix of awe and sympathy was getting to me.
I had to be stronger than this. It was ridiculous. I wasn’t giving up. I couldn’t, not when it felt like he was winning. I wanted to beat him, no matter what it took.
Cat
As expected, Harris gave me until the end of the day, and after two weeks, I would have a review. Apparently, the publicity was such a problem that some of our high-profile clients were considering changing firms. I knew he meant Christian and his Polish mobsters, but half of my clients had also requested a new attorney. Harris even had the nerve to say, ‘I risked a lot by taking on someone of your reputation,’ like he wasn’t desperate to become part of Dad’s inner circle.
