Page 77 of All That Glitters

Greg is a decent actor, and he’s managed to stay out of the tabloids so far, though I’m not sure if it’s because of genuine goodness on his part, or because he has a damn good manager and a team of lawyers at his disposal.

He’s been nothing but professional any time I’ve had to deal with him, but I’d seen the way he looked at Empire on the set that day.

He also hadn’t spoken up. She told me he’d been kind but insisted things are done a certain way for certain reasons.

His laser focus on her shaved cunt tells me I’ll have to watch him closely.

Do I trust him around Empire? No.

I haven’t got one fucking option left; I’ve already made my choice, so now I’ll have to just get over it. It’s not like I've got a shot at touching her again. The best I can do is make sure to be there on set with her, to somehow rearrange Parker’s budget to get an intimacy coordinator hired as soon as humanly fucking possible.

There wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room. He hadn’t been lying there.

With the headache reaching unmanageable territory, I whip out the phone and call Sherry for the second time.

“Hello, boss man,” she says after the third ring.

“Sher, are you taking the biggest breakfast break of your life?” I grind out.

“Hell no. You think I’d just disappear for hours to stuff myself at a buffet? Are you nuts?”

The woman gives me nothing but grief.

“I have no idea what you’re doing, but you haven’t answered me, and I’m in the office without you.”

She chuckles, the sound too girlish for the surly older woman I know and adore. “We must have missed each other, then,” she returns.

‘“I’ve been here for about an hour.” I shift in the chair, my ass numb and uncomfortable.

“You don’t need me right now, do you? I mean, you know how to make your own coffee, and you've got other people around to grab you something to eat if you get snippy.”

The headache is only going to get worse if I have to go around in circles with my assistant. “Look, I’ve got a shit ton of work today, and I’m going to need you to meet me at home. There are a few things we need to go over in person, but I’ve got to have my laptop to do anything,” I tell her.

“Oh, isn’t that funny?” Sherry laughs again. “I’m actually at the house now, with Empire. We’re going over the paperwork for the house and the inheritance.” She sucks on her teeth. “Aren’t you happy you have me? Otherwise, you would have left this loose end open.”

My heart seizes.

“What do you mean, you’ve got the inheritance papers?” I ask, my tongue numb.

“I mean, you’ve been putting it off for so long, I decided to get the papers signed for you, Marcus. What do you think I mean?” Sherry asks. “The lawyer called the office the other day asking if you’d gotten these papers signed or not. I thought you’d be happy to have one less item on your plate.”

I think I’m out of time, and Empire already knows I signed the papers to cut ties with her. At this point, there’s no chance in hell she hasn’t figured it out.

I bolt from the chair, standing swiftly enough to get lightheaded. I signed those papers angry and drunk, one of those moments I’m not proud of, where I’d been furious at her for staying in bed all day and determined to let her sink or swim on her own.

Fuck.

The phone falls from my limp fingers, and I race out of there.

I’ve got to get home and talk to her before she jumps to conclusions, before she thinks I signed those papers to get rid of her and I actually meant it. Otherwise, she’ll never forgive me.

TWENTY-NINE

Ilose my grip on the pen once, twice. Sherry just sits and stares at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish signing the papers with my shaky hand.

The caveat to my parent’s estate stipulates that Marcus will take care of me until I turn twenty-two unless we both sign off on these papers, and he’s already done his part on every single one of them. His signature is scrawled across the bottom of each page and dated for a month ago. One month, that’s all it’s been.

He’s wanted to get rid of me this entire time.

---