Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (73 page)

“You didn’t think to give me the benefit
of the doubt even for a second, did you? Even though I had never lied to you.
Hell, I had convinced myself somehow that you thought I was a half-way decent
human being, which was a refreshing change.” He started to look angry again, as
though the full implications of my reaction were finally starting to sink in.

“I do think that you are a decent human
being,” I said in a desperate attempt to smooth out the situation. “But you
have to look at it from my perspective too. Mrs. Brian told me that no matter
who you were screwing around with, your wife always came back in the end. Like
there was some sort of a repeating pattern and she said you two were meant to
be and any girl who thought you would put her before your wife was deluded!”

“So you would rather listen to a crazy old
bitch than trust me or hear me out?” He was clutching the hem of his shirt
tightly; it made me afraid. His temper was clearly rising.

“It’s not like that. I am sorry about what
your mother has been putting you through,” I said genuinely.

“So you believe me, then?” He met my eyes
in surprise.

“Of course!” I said at once. “Why wouldn’t
I?”

He shrugged. “You didn’t believe me when I
said there was nothing between Gina and I, so why would you believe this?”

“Because I know you better than to think
you would make up some story about your mother trying to kill herself just to
get in my pants.”

“That’s reassuring,” he said
sarcastically. “You can get back to work.”

“But–”

“Go!” he shouted, pointing at the door.

With that I was dismissed as he jumped
back into handling whatever paperwork was in front of him. I walked back to my
desk feeling confused with a million questions in my mind. So where did we
stand? He had ended it with his wife for me, despite it risking his
relationship with his mother. But he hadn’t mentioned anything about our
contract or where we stood in regards to that…

I wanted to ask him, but he seemed to be
in a foul mood and I didn’t want to upset him even further. Nervous about my
mother’s hospital bills, I decided I would wait a couple of days and then bring
up the issue with him. I just hoped that I hadn’t caused problems between
Zayden and his mother. What if she got so upset that she tried to kill herself
again? The thought of that sent a shudder down my spine. I would never be able
to forgive myself for causing that. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea for him to
have ended things with his wife. Since I couldn’t get myself to go back in
there and tell him that, I wrote him an email.

Zayden,

I don
’t
know where we stand in terms of our contract right now, and I don’t need to
know for now. I did, however, want to apologize for not giving you a chance to
explain it about your mom before. It must be hard for you to deal with this
situation. The last thing I would want in the world is to cause your mother to
be upset and do something that hurts you, just because I couldn’t handle the
fact that you were married. Please don’t rush to end things with your wife – I
believe that you are not sexually involved with her because I trust you – but
perhaps you should take more time to sort things out with your mom before
ending it so suddenly. I promise I won’t let it affect our contract, regardless
of what happens to it.

Aria

P.S. I really do think you are a decent
person, a little more controlling than you need to be, but better than most men
I know.

I waited until it was time for me to leave
before hitting send so that I wouldn’t have to watch him read it.
 

---

The Friday after Zayden ended it with his
wife, I was hanging out with Nick and Stacey in our living room, when I got a
phone call from my mom.

“Hi mom,” I answered, surprised. “Isn’t it
a little late for you to be calling? You are always in bed by ten. Is
everything okay?”

Mom giggled nervously, suggesting that she
must be a little tipsy. “Everything is okay, dear. Or I think so. I don’t know.
The last two months, my hospital bills had been paid by this day but it hasn’t
gone through yet this time, and I wanted to check to see if everything is okay
on your end.”

Shit. I felt my face grow hot with
frustration. The month was not over yet, technically. But perhaps this meant –
it could mean – had Zayden decided our contract was over after all and he
wouldn’t be making any more payments?

“Mom, I have to tell you something,” I
said, resigned. “Please listen very carefully and don’t get upset with me.”

“Why would I get upset with you?” she
asked sounding surprised that I would even suggest such a thing. “You have been
wonderful, Aria, helping me with my hospital bills like this! I only hope I get
the opportunity to do something great for you in return someday.”

“You have mom, you did that little thing
where you, you know, raised me?” I tried to sound cheerful but my insides were
at war. How was I going to explain it to her? The contract was not exactly
something she would approve of; it would sound, no matter how I put it, like I
was selling myself. She would not be able to handle that. I had to come up with
a better story. “Listen, mom,” I started again. “I may have lied to you a
little bit, but it was so you didn’t feel uncomfortable about those payments.
My loan never exactly got through.”

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath
until she spoke, “What do you mean your loan never got through? You have been
making payments! I have the receipt!”

“That wasn’t me,” I said sulkily, as
Stacey threw me a pillow for comfort.

“What? I don’t understand. Of course it
was you!”

“It wasn’t. I mean it was. It’s
complicated. My loan got denied so my – uh – boyfriend, who has a lot of money,
offered to lend me the money, which I am to pay him back after finding a job.”

“Boyfriend?” She sounded shocked. “You
didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend, Aria! Since when do we hide things from
each other? It’s not, oh god, it’s not that awful boy who broke your heart last
year, is it?”

“No mom, it’s someone else, and we hadn’t
really figured out what we were for the longest time so I never felt like
talking about it.”

“So the guy was willing to give you sixty
thousand dollars before even putting a name on your relationship? I don’t get
it, Aria. I hope you haven’t been doing anything illegal. I’m not worth the
trouble.”

“No, mom, no no! Nothing illegal, I
promise. Like I said, it is very complicated. But I haven’t done anything you
wouldn’t approve of mom,” I said crossing my fingers.

“
I don
’t know, Aria. You didn’t even tell me about this guy,
and he has been paying all this money.” Her voice was shaking slightly.

“I will be paying him back, I promise!” I
said honestly. “But I think for now the payments will have to stop because, uh,
we broke up.”

“Aww, honey! Are you all right? Maybe I
should come over and spend a few days with you.”

I thought about that for a second and
realized it was a horrible idea. If she came here it would be easier for her to
find out exactly what the deal between me and Zayden was.

“Don’t be silly, mom.” I tried to sound as
cheerful as possible. “We were not even dating for too long. He was a good
boyfriend but he began to get controlling and that pissed me off so I ended it.
I am not even upset about it! Worried about your hospital bills, sure, but not
upset. And I will find another way to continue your payments. You trust me
don’t you?”

“Of course I trust you! But I feel like I
am putting way too much pressure on you with all this money business. You are
twenty years old; how can I expect you to come up with forty thousand more
dollars just like that? Especially if your loan got denied. Oh, those rascals!
You actually work at the bank and they would still deny you.”

“It’s okay, mom, it really is. We will
figure something out, you know I will. Please don’t worry about this for now.
It’s late, go to bed, I will call you soon and we will make a plan. Everything
is going to be alright.”

“As long as you are okay, honey,” she
said, sounding apologetic. “I am so sorry about all this.”

“Don’t be! I am fine and if I can’t even
help out my mom when she needs me, what’s the point of anything?” I asked
brightly. “Goodnight, mom. Sleep well. You are going to be okay. We are going
to be okay.”

“Goodnight, baby. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I whispered and hung up,
feeling extremely anxious.

Even though I had told her I would figure
it out, I had no idea what I was going to do. There were only a couple of days
left until the month was over, and if Zayden really had decided to back down, I
hadn’t the slightest idea how I was going to get us out of this pickle.

“What is going on?” Stacey, who had been
silently listening to my whole conversation finally spoke.

“What is going on, Stace,”
I said sullenly.
“Is that I am so very
fucked.”

Chapter 6

Zayden

My last encounter with Aria had not been
nearly as satisfying as I would have thought. Giving her what she wants did not
make me feel the slightest bit better, but rather it made me feel weak; an
emotion I had never been able to identify with in my whole life. She had sent
me an email afterwards, which I unconsciously chose to ignore. Who cared if she
felt guilty about my mother? She hadn’t exactly given me the opportunity to
explain myself. I couldn’t help but take this time to make her as anxious and
vulnerable as she had made me feel. I fully intended to make the payment to her
mother’s hospital, but she didn’t need to know that yet. For another couple of
days she could go on without knowing whether I was going to do it or not.

Meanwhile, I had my mom and Gina to deal
with, and I figured I would start with Gina, who to her credit hadn’t told my
mother anything. Perhaps for the same fear I had that she would react in a
perfectly irrational manner. And I had come to believe that regardless of the
fact that she was a royal pain in the ass, she really did care about my mother.

I had invited her over for breakfast at
one of her favorite restaurants, so that the angry phone call wasn’t the last
she heard of me. Subtlety was the secret to making sure this ordeal went
smoothly from all directions, not that I had definitively decided that I was
going to end it.

She arrived about ten minutes late,
looking as though she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy even underneath the
multiple layers of makeup, and I felt slightly uncomfortable. Oh well. As long
as she didn’t start crying in front of me, it wasn’t my problem.

“
Hello,
” Gina said, sitting across from me. “
I am sorry I
’m late, I just–”

“It’s okay,” I said and waved my arm
nonchalantly. “Not important. Thank you for coming here, especially after that
phone call.”

“Yeah, that phone call, it was really
something,” she said and attempted a meek smile. “I have been spending the last
few days half hoping you were joking.”

“I wasn’t,” I said and frowned. “For what
it’s worth, your deal really did sound tempting and I was seriously considering
it. But then you came into my office the other day and put on a show, which I
am still paying for.”

“What do you mean?” She looked genuinely
surprised. “I wasn’t putting on a show. I was in the area and came by to say
hello. I thought we were friends and that was acceptable.”

“We’re not friends, we never were. You
know full well why you were there that day, and so do I so let’s skip all the
pretenses, shall we?”

There was a long silence, during which
Gina pretended to be surveying the menu intensely. When she eventually looked
up to meet my eye, she said in a barely audible whisper, “I thought there
wasn’t anyone else.”

“I thought you didn’t know what I was
talking about,” I snapped.

“Look, I did not come in there with the
intention of ruining things for you and whoever this girl is. I was, however,
curious to find out if there was anyone at all. Because despite of what deal I
tried to make with you, I guess some part of me wanted to believe that we could
be a real couple one day, which would be impossible if your heart was someplace
else.”

“Why? Why do you even care, Gina? You
never loved me, by your own admission. And you know what, maybe I would have
agreed to whatever you had to say, if I had gotten the chance to explain it to
Ar – the girl – before she saw it the way she did. That made the decision for
me. You kind of brought this onto yourself, you know?”

She started tearing up upon hearing those
words. “Yep, which is why I have spent extra time bawling my eyes out the last
few days. I figured it was something like that. But like I said, I wasn’t
putting on a show for her, I was just testing to see if you were lying about
there not being anyone else.”