Rebound (41 page)

“
No. No. No. No. No. No!”
He came forward, knelt before me, and raised his hands to hold me
at the waist. “I’ve always wanted you, that wasn’t ever in
question. Everything we’ve experienced together was real. It was
always about us; me and you.”

“
If you think I could ever
believe that, after all the lies these past few months, you’re
delusional.” I choked.

“
How can I prove that what
was between us is real?”

“
There’s nothing you can
do or say. We’re over.”

“
No, please. I’ll do
anything. I’ll tell you anything you need to know.” He
pleaded.

I shook my head. There were so many
questions that I already asked him. He chose to be silent. I didn’t
think the answers would make a difference anyway. Our love affair
was broken. My love affair was over.

Without making any promises, I needed
to know his truth. Could I ever trust his story?

“
I don’t think anything
you say would change anything. The damage is done. I need to move
forward.” I proceeded to walk to the door. He grabbed my wrist, and
gave me a pleading look.

“
Can you please sit?
Please let me explain.” With my wrist in his strong hand, he tugged
me to the couch. “I didn’t know about Pentagon’s take-over of
Parisi. I mean I knew that we were acquiring construction companies
that would be used to build Pentagon’s future project, The
Pentagram.” I smirked at the name of the new venture that destroyed
my life because I’d felt like my life had been cursed. Pentagram
was a fitting name for a project that set out to destroy lives for
its creation. I rubbed my temples.

“
The Pentagram? Hermanas
Malditas. I’m definitely fucking cursed.” I spat, pulling away from
his hands.

He pulled his hands back and placed
them on his jeans, rubbing his thighs. “I didn’t know about you. I
had no idea that you were employed by the construction company or
that you were married to the President of the company. I learned
all of that later.”

“
How much
later?”

“
When Pentagon needed
Liberty. There was a dossier on you that I read after I met
you.”

“
How soon after you met me
did you read it?” He sighed and shrugged.

“
I read it that day. You
listed your current employers when you registered with my office,
and I saw Liberty was one of them. After you left, I talked to
Brady and he confirmed the names of Liberty’s employees, and he
messengered the dossier to my office. I confirmed through pictures
and information that it was you. We decided that we needed to get
close to you to acquire inside information to purchase Liberty. I
went to the gym. You saw me. I asked Paul for more information
about you. I told him I was interested in asking you out. He didn’t
tell you that I’d asked about you.”

“
Where did the dossier
come from?”

“
Brady had one created for
everyone of importance, which was only three people. At first he
only targeted Alice and Ross, but when he learned about the will
and your ability to inherit part ownership, he had one made on you.
It had information about your work history and your marital
history, so I let everyone know that I was going to be the one to
get the information from you.” He kneeled before me, seeking to
make eye contact, but I wouldn’t give him the
satisfaction.

“
I wanted to date you
because I was attracted to you from that first moment I saw you in
my office. You affected me so quickly. I couldn’t fake that. I’m
not Brady. I couldn’t bear the thought of any of my friends being
with you. I just had to see how far we could go, even though I
accepted a ‘job’. The job also meant protecting you.” My stomach
rolled over at his calling our relationship a ‘job’.

“
Did you know that Brady
used my sister-in-law for personal gain?”

“
Yes.”

“
Is that how all of you
operate? Have a woman fall in love with you to get her to reveal
secrets and help in the acquisitions?”

“
That wasn’t how I
operated. Zipper, Kent and I were busy with our careers. I got
married, so I didn’t use women for gain.”

“
But you didn’t find it
morally repulsive or despicable when the others did it because you
chose to do the same thing to me.” I retorted.

“
It was
business.”

“
Business?” I interjected.
“I didn’t think it was business when I made love to you. I didn’t
think it was business when I told you I loved you. I didn’t think
it was business when I saw myself married to you, thinking about
having . . .” I shook my head and took a moment to collect
myself.

“
Did Brady have anything
to do with Aida suggesting to Ben that I sign a contract of
repayment to the company?”

“
I don’t know. I didn’t
know anything about that debt. I just knew that you were married
and that it dissolved soon before we acquired Parisi.”

“
Did the dossier have any
information about my debts?”

“
Yes. We’d planned to make
you an offer that would eliminate your debts, if we couldn’t get
information on Liberty without your knowledge. We didn’t need to
make an offer because I got your key to Liberty and it was used to
obtain information about the ownership of Liberty and Alice’s will
in testament leaving you and Ross fifty percent joint ownership in
the Inn.” The tears flowed. My body shook with pain in his
admission that he played a huge part in ripping the Inn away from
Alice, and from me.

“
You also filled in the
gaps when we had conversations about Alice and Ross. We were able
to proceed with information that we got early on.” He
continued.

“
This all makes so much
sense now. You don’t think that my debt is connected to Pentagon?”
I spat.

“
You just connected the
dot for me. I have debt created by the discrepancies of Parisi’s
business, a company Pentagon was working to acquire for building
Pentagram. Pentagon wanted Liberty as a site for Pentagram. I
worked for both companies in the crosshairs of
Pentagon.”

“
You didn’t work for
Parisi and Liberty at the same time. The connection is
coincidental, Perla.” He reasoned.

“
Pentagon was willing to
offer me money for debts created by Pentagon’s initial sin—getting
my sister-in-law to trump debts that would leave me beholden until
some knight in shining armor came along to offer me money to get me
out of this overwhelming obligation. But your dick was so good that
I left myself open to give you exactly what you needed, a key to
Liberty and information that would make it all too easy to take it
over. And I’m still left with the fucking debt I never created.” My
hand went to my face, restraining the tears from falling. So much
was revealing itself so fast. I felt dizzy with the information
overload.

“
When did you take the
key?” I needed to know now that all was falling into
place.

“
The second night you
slept here, after your shift at Liberty. When we made love . . .” I
felt an ache in my chest and a wave a nausea coursed through my
core.

“
We fucked. It wasn’t
love.” I slapped my hand to my forehead. I wanted to flog myself
for my stupidity.

He closed his eyes and swallowed
before he continued, “I took your key and gave it to an associate
of Pentagon, who followed up with duplicating the key. He returned
it in the morning when I met him on my run. I put the key back in
your purse and went into the room to make love to you because
that’s what I felt for you.”

“
Give me a fucking break,
Matt. You didn’t love me two days after fucking.”

He cast his head down and covered his
face with his hands. “Perla, please don’t dismiss my feelings. I
know you’re angry because we used you for Pentagon’s benefit, but
what I wanted from you was more. I still want you. You’re a big
part of my life, and my future.”

I rolled my eyes. I thought through
his previous statement: Pentagon couldn’t have known I would work
at Liberty after ending my work with Parisi. It was coincidental. I
reconciled with the fact that I may never know how it all
connected.

“
You said that you’d been
trying to buy Parisi at the same time you were working on the
Pentagram project, how long had you been planning on purchasing
Liberty?”

“
Pentagon . . .” he
corrected, “Pentagon wanted both companies simultaneously. We’d
been working on Pentagram for years, at least five years in
conception and three since we started the development plans. We
made offers to the properties on the acreage and we had a few
refusals, but eventually Pentagon bought all but Liberty. It took
that long. We acquired Parisi over a year ago . . .”

“
And Aida died about eight
months ago. When did Brady start dating Brigit?”

“
Perla, I don’t want to
talk about their personal lives.” He groaned.

“
Oh, that’s rich,
literally. You all knew about my fucking personal life before I
learned anything about you, yet you can’t tell me anything about
theirs. Always protecting the boys. ‘Bros before hoes’, isn’t that
the saying, Matt.” He shook his head.

“
I signed my contract and
separation agreement with Ben a year ago. I’m trying to figure out
the situation with Aida. It doesn’t make sense.” A pounding began
in the back of my head, and I tried to suppress a yawn. I was tired
from a full work day and these turn of events knocked me for a
loop.

“
I have to go home. I’m
tired.” I rose to walk to the door. I reached for my keys in my
purse and found the key to Matt’s apartment. I started removing the
key from the key ring.

“
What are you
doing?”

“
I’m returning your
key.”

“
No, Perla . .
.”

“
As of today, I have
absolutely no use for this key, Matt. I don’t intend to use it to
walk in and out of that door.” I put it on the table next to the
front door.

“
Wait, please. We have to
work through this.”

“
I worked through this
already.” I turned around. “You and your friends used me. How do we
get passed that? How do I work through the fact that your company’s
quest to continue making millions . . . oh sorry, billions, ruined
my life. You were part of that plot. I want absolutely nothing to
do with you or Pentagon. You didn’t just fuck me, you screwed with
my life and people I loved, and you’re so egotistical that you
thought I would stay with you after that revelation. Fuck
you!”

“
How did you find out
about Pentagon, Perla?”

“
Does it
matter?”

“
You didn’t know about the
company or my connection before today. All of a sudden you come
home and spout off history and accusations.” He started getting
angry. I could tell by the furrowed brows and gruff
voice.

“
Spout off accusations?
You mean the truth, right? You don’t need to know who told me or
how I found out. The fact is I know now. I hope the money you make
from Pentagram was worth the pain caused to not just me, but the
Parisi family. And I beg a merciful God that Alice never finds out,
and if she does I pray she will forgive me for destroying her
beloved family business. She’d rather have left it to me because
she trusted me, but was probably harassed in her vulnerable state
to let it go. Her defeat and loss of Liberty will probably kill her
faster than the cancer.” I walked to the front door. He rushed at
me and pulled me to him. He turned me to face him. One arm around
my body and the other snaked up to my face. His large hands held me
at the back of the head. He gripped my hair, ensuring that I face
him.

“
Perla, I know I fucked
up. I wish we hadn’t met under those circumstances. What we have is
real. I want to make this up to you.” Desperation choked his
words.

“
The circumstances in
which we met were real, Matt. I was injured and I went to your
office for help. You chose to use those circumstances to follow
through on your mob’s plan for your financial gain. You always had
a choice, and you chose wrong. And in my heart, there’s no coming
back from that.”

He kissed me. The ferocity in his kiss
caused my heart to skip a beat, and then pound profusely. I felt
betrayed by my body’s need for him to soothe me. My clit swelled at
the pressure of his body on mine and his touch on my skin. My
nipples pearled with his chest pressed against me. I had to get
away. I moved my face to reject his kiss. He kissed the spot below
my ear. His hands squeezed my hips.

“
Please, babe. Believe me,
it was all real. I love you. I want you. I need you. Don’t you feel
me?” His erection pressed on my mound. His hands slid down to my
buttocks and lifted me up. I stood on my tip toes. My clit was
stroked through my dress. His erection made harder by his jeans. I
gasped from the stimulation. With all my might, I pushed him away
and he dropped me to stand on my feet. I opened the front door and
exited.

In the hallway, a man stood at the
elevator call button. As I approached the elevator, it chimed its
arrival. Matt called out to me. I turned to see him plea with his
open arms. I walked into the elevator after the person and lowered
my head to the floor, dismissing Matt’s plea.