Exposure_A Stone Billionaire Series Novel Page 24

  I’ve never heard her snort.

  “Let's have lunch first,” Athena suggests. “I'll have Evan pick up some folic acid. And vitamins while you're speaking with you father.”

  ***

  After lunch I'm ready to head out the door in my flats, when Evan grabs me by the hand, pulling me back into Athena's bright and airy apartment.

  “Are you going to tell him about the baby?” Evan asks.

  “I wasn't planning on it quite yet,” I rest my hand on my stomach. “I haven't even been to the doctor yet. There's nothing to tell.”

  “What if he wants to go with you?” Evan asks.

  “Evan, we aren't even together now. I don't want him going with me,” I am firm on this.

  “Why are you still wearing your wedding ring then?” Evan's smirk annoys me.

  “Here,” I slip it off, folding his hand over it. “For your safe keeping.”

  There's a knock at the door, however, before I can get out. “Package for Ava Winthrop?”

  “I'm…” I sigh. “Whatever,” I look at the delivery man, signing for the small package. “Where do I sign?” he points to his little machine, and I scribble whatever I can before taking it and ripping it open to reveal the pear-shaped yellow diamond ring.

  I thought we'd lost it.

  There's a note, from Vishal and Avvy.

  This ring could've made their lives so much better!

  It would've given them and their children everything in the world!

  But they sent it back to us somehow?

  The note reads: We hope your marriage is as happy as you were the day you got married.

  This brings tears to my eyes, and I must sit down.

  Remembering that day all too well, and the people we were back then.

  “Do you want me to keep this too?” Evan asks, and when I look up, he's bent down in front of me as I nod.

  “Are you going to cry again?” he sighs.

  “I just start crying.

  “Come here,” He pulls me roughly into his arms.

  He holds me as I burst into big baby sobs.

  I wonder how our marriage just fell apart, how I fell in love, how my mother, my flesh in blood could be someone who would just, destroy parts of me, little by little.

  “I know what she did to you; I know every detail might haunt you for the rest of your life. Try not to let her destroy this too,” Evan offers.

  “I can’t,” I shake my head, straightening up, emotionally drained and the day isn't over. “I can't because now she's part of my marriage too.”

  I take the elevator up to Noah's, and when I open the door, into his expansive penthouse, Corban is standing there, looking bewildered at the sight of his wife.

  Handsome in a dark grey suit, with a crisp white shirt underneath.

  His blonde hair, those eyes, that face.

  Everything is even more irresistible to me now.

  It must be the hormones, I tell myself.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask, trying to sound confident, as I stand my ground, realizing that the engagement ring is still in my hand.

  I have no pockets to stuff it in, so I just ball up my fist, trying to hide it.

  “I was, just, here I guess,” he mutters.

  “That's not an answer,” I tell him.

  “So, what? I haven't seen you in a month. I couldn't call, I couldn't see you. You wouldn't let me,” Corban explains.

  “Well, you didn't deserve it,” I brush past him. “Where's my father?” I demand. “I didn't come for you. I didn't come back for you.”

  “I don't care what you came back for,” He tells me, the fire back in those eyes of his.

  They're as blue as ever, almost green, as the light streams through the large open windows.

  God how I love those eyes, his dark hair.

  Everything about his presence screams to me.

  Hormones.

  “I'm here. Like it or not,” He is firm with me.

  We share a child together, I think to myself.

  I want him or her to have his eyes.

  His sense of passion.

  I want them to be like the both of us wrapped into one.

  A large part of me still wants this man.

  The larger part of me wants to run.

  I make for the door, but Corban, my Corban, grabs my arms gently, from behind.

  “Don't… let me talk,” His whisper is in my ear, and every single hair on the back of my neck stands on end, I turn my head ever so slightly.

  Before I know what's happening, those soft lips are on mine, and I'm kissing him back, I'm letting him.

  I let him wrap me up in a passionate kiss, and I realize that hole in my heart is filled with him, and I can't change that.

  The space between us doesn't change, as he deepens the kiss.

  I pull away suddenly, out of his grasp, leaving him shocked.

  “No!” I stamp my foot, a childlike gesture, but I must make a point. “You're not going to fix this, not by kissing me, not with anything! You used me!”

  “I feel so hard for you Ava; I love you. That doesn't change!” Corban pleads with me.

  “But Elizabeth! She changes everything!” I scream back at him. “Everything! You set me up!”

  “But look at things now! You know who you are! You can't tell me, that out of everything that came out of this, all of it was bad!” he makes his point.

  “You weren't there!” I yell at the top of my lungs. “You weren't stuck in a windowless room, with a light bulb, in the damp cold, swinging in and out of consciousness in a mini dress, with no human contact, for days!”

  He falls silent at this.

  “You weren't there for the way she mentally broke me,” I finish, my voice cracking.

  Hormones.

  God damn it.

  “No, I wasn't. But we did everything in our power to get you back. Doesn't that count?” Evan asks.

  “Yes, yes you tricked her into coming back to New York,” I laugh harshly. “And now she's running her prostitution ring, tricking girls into the same old thing like before. The only difference is; she isn't tricking me!”

  “I still love you!” He yells at me. “That doesn't change! I was never going to do anything she asked! If she wanted to-”

  I cut him off. “You still have everything! You did what she asked! You destroyed a part of me- and worst of all, you agreed to do something! The woman kept me from the one thing I wanted my entire life! You know what I went through!” I can feel tears pricking my eyes as I prepare to leave.

  Nothing changes how much I care about him; how much I love this man.

  It's so hard to walk away, but I must leave him.

  I must walk away.

  “You know what I went through,” I whisper.

  Corban follows me.

  “But we're so lucky to have found each other,” He tells me simply. “Do you know how long it took me to find someone who changed me as you did? Don't you think we would've found each other anyway? This is a once in a lifetime kind of love!”

  I open my hand to reveal the ring, remembering the note, and he notices I'm not wearing my wedding ring.

  “Oh… you're not,” He takes a step back.

  “No,” I shake my head. “I'm not. But I will give you this back because it's of no use to me now,” I tell him coldly.

  “Alright,” He accepts the diamond. “I'll have to make sure this gets back to the safety deposit box before my mother notices it's gone. Not that she will.”

  “Your mother?” I ask.

  “It's…” he laughs. “It's the ring Noah gave her.”

  I laugh harshly.

  “That's rich. It's cursed. You cursed us.” I spit back.

  Then I storm off, pressing the button for the elevator multiple times as Corban tries to speak.

  “Don’t,” I cut him off angrily. “I can forgive you. I can forgive for what you did; you must give me time. But that woman destroyed my life, and you… you
agreed to work with her to save your goddamn business, and you didn't even deny that's what you agreed to. You just did it; you didn't even know who I was, you didn't ask questions,” I feel on the brink of tears.

  “I can forgive you with time. But I can't be with you again. There's too much there. There's too much for me to go back to the way things were,” I try to remain firm, but my voice waivers.

  “Ava, I need you,” Corban pleads.

  His voice puts me in physical pain.

  I want to comfort him somehow.

  “Isn't forgiveness enough?” I ask. “Isn't it enough that we can be civil? That no one loses anyone?”

  “You're still everything to me!” he raises his voice. “Don't you get that! It doesn't matter what happened with your mother, none of that meant anything to me, because I fell so hard for you, that I lost parts of myself, and I got back a part of myself that I forgot even existed. You brought me back to life Ava, doesn't any of that matter to you? Don't see that I'm a different man? I'm different than I was before you, and I'm not the same without you!” his voice bellows in the hallway.

  I press my lips together, knowing that I'm different too, without him and with him.

  “I can't help any of that,” My voice sounds helpless. “That has nothing to do with me, Corban. Nothing.”

  “Ava… just please. Give me a chance,” He tries again.

  “I can’t,” I shake my head.

  “You can,” He takes me by the arms. “I can't imagine my life without you.”

  “It's not a life without me,” I explain. “We're just not together. You'll find someone el-”

  “I can't be with anyone else when you are the love of my life,” His passionate reply comes, and I can't handle anything else, I can feel tears pricking my eyes, and I attempt to turn away from him, walking towards the elevator and hitting it multiple times.

  But he turns me around, kissing me again, only this time I don't have the strength to stop him, because the elevator doors have swung open and I remember the note from Vishal and Avvy, and everything from Fiji comes rushing back to me.

  I feel the rush of emotions and I can't stop our lips from crushing together in the heat of the moment.

  Pressing me against the elevator wall, his hands on the bare skin of my back, I want Corban.

  I want to be back in his arms.

  My hands entangle in that hair of his once again, his arms wrapping tightly around my waist so that I can't move.

  Not that I would, even if I wanted to because I'm captured by the kiss, and the insanity of the moment between us.

  The harsh reality of the situation has disappeared, and all I can think about is the fact that we are kissing, and it feels better to be kissing this man, then to be fighting with him.

  “Come home with me, just once,” He pleads

  “Corban…” I bite my lip, so tempted just to be with him again.

  I want this as much as he does.

  “I need you in my bed,” He insists.

  “You've already ruined me once,” I whisper.

  “Then let me do it again, and again, and again,” his whisper is hoarse with desire.

  I want him just to take me, take me away and forget everything that ever happened.

  Go away, never come back, forget all the people in our lives.

  Somehow, I manage to escape.

  I manage to gain my bearings and press the button for the floor below Noah's.

  Leaving him alone in the elevator before I stumble into Athena's apartment.

  He is stranded and alone in the hallway.

  When I close the door to Athena's, locking it behind me, leaning against the door, I am still touching my swollen lips, thinking about how I just want to kiss my husband again.

  I wonder how I managed to say no.

  I know that no one will ever measure up to that man, in bed or otherwise.

  I couldn't possibly find a man that will do the things that he does to me, even if I wanted to.

  Despite what he's done, a large part of me is still very much in love with Corban Winthrop.

  I'm thinking about how we might've just found each other anyway.

  “Did… are you okay?” Evan wanders past the foyer as I lean against the door, a little stunned.

  “Corban was there,” I say breathlessly.

  “Oh,” Evan’s face drops.

  “Give me my ring back,” Is all I can manage.

  Evan pulls the gold band out of his pocket, handing it back to me.

  “You know, July fourth is in a couple of days. Do you want to do anything?” He asks.

  His attempt to change the subject is futile

  “No.” I shake my head. “No.”

  “Come sit down.”

  He leads me towards the white suede couch in the sitting room. I kick off my shoes and gulp the water Evan brings me, then try to focus on the soft carpet underneath my feet.

  Athena appears from the patio with a book in her hands.

  “I'm guessing you didn't tell Noah?” Athena doesn't sound disappointed at all.

  “Corban. Corban was there,” Is all I can manage.

  “Oh… you told him?” Athena asks.

  “No,” I shake my head. “I don't know what I'm going to do.”

  I have the strength to leave him.

  I do.

  But I'm wondering if maybe what we have is stronger than the reason that we came together.

  Then I remember that Corban's kiss can't rationalize anything that he's done.

  Chapter 31: Corban

  July 4, 2017

  Ava's lips are still burning mine, even days later as I sit in my office, high above the New York skyline, floors below the city is quiet.

  Somewhere in the city, Elizabeth is unsuspecting.

  I've already set our servers into ghost mode with the program I created.

  When the staff comes back from their respective vacations, Noah will have their packages, offering them jobs with an equivalent to what they are being paid now.

  He's found most of them positions in LA.

  Some of them he wanted for himself, that's just fine, as long as my people are taken care of.

  I don't care about what happens to Clint.

  That bastard has cost me more than I care about.

  Our years of friendship has faded in my memory.

  He took Corona 150.

  So, if he's implicated, that's his fault.

  I had to re-write the whole program from scratch, keeping me from Ava even longer.

  Which only makes my anger flare up even longer, but the memory of how she kissed me back, her warmth, her hesitation, and how she had that ring?

  How did she even get the ring?

  I have a million questions but I know I will never get any answers.

  Not until I do this.

  Pausing over the enter key, I wonder what will happen once I'm done.

  It works like a leech.

  Connecting to Elizabeth's system was easy.

  For a smart woman, keeping computer files on all her clients was downright stupid.

  Though I can see why, having leverage on powerful men was a smart move on her part. However, showing what she's done will be easy.

  None of those girls she's tricked will be implicated.

  Just her.

  Deleting all the files on these men and women that she's held things over for many years will bring me so much satisfaction.

  Noah is hovering.

  “Are we ready?” he asks.

  “Just have to press enter.” I tell him.

  “Is there a trick to it?” he asks.

  “Pressing enter?” I'm confused if he's asking about the enter key, or why I'm waiting.

  “I can't do it while she's in the system,” I explain.

  “So, we're waiting?” Noah raises an eyebrow.

  Then he pops open a bottle of champagne.

  “We're waiting,” I confirm.

  I watch as the champagne
pours all over the concrete floors of my apartment and I don't care because all of this, the ordeal is over.

  He pours two flutes of champagne and hands me one.

  Though we don't drink.

  Yet.

  I watch another monitor.

  I wait for the indicator for her system access to go blank.

  “How fast does it work?” he's practically jumping out of his own skin.

  “Fast,” I answer.

  I am glued to the screens.

  “Can she see it?” it's almost like he wants her to watch her life's work disappear.

  “If she sees it, she'll run,” I point out.

  “And then what? It'll ping law enforcement?” Noah is verging on stupidity now.

  “You call Aidan Wilde,” I shake my head.

  “Right, that detective,” Noah nods.

  Noah is drinking, in smaller quantities.

  But he wants this over.

  Now.

  “She's off the system. Make the call,” I tell him.

  Then I press enter.

  Noah gets on the phone, balancing his champagne and settling the phone under the crook of his neck as I hear him ask for Detective Aidan Wilde.

  “Aidan Wilde, this is an anonymous tip that Elizabeth Darling is running I.S.A. Inc. She’s about to run,” Noah winks at me, then gives Aidan Elizabeth's midtown office address.

  It’s like magic, I watch Corona 150 work it's beautiful magic.

  Noah looks over my shoulder, and we watch all the system files disappear in record time.

  Bexley Fabbraro is gone forever.

  Everything goes.

  It’s done.

  The screen displaying Elizabeth’s system goes blank.

  “Is it done?” Noah asks.

  “It's done,” I sit back against the chair, knowing that I've just destroyed my business, everything I've ever worked for.

  The clock on my monitor reads 12:05 am.

  By morning, every investor I've ever had will hate me.

  I will be in jail.

  I can hear sirens out on the street.

  Whatever I’ve left on Elizabeth's computer will implicate her even if they don’t have enough evidence against her.

  I'll be so implicated they will hold me for days.