Page 63 of Bitter Confessions

The doors closed, stopping Jasmine from hearing the rest of the conversation. She felt Mo and Johan’s sidelong glances but kept her expression bland as she strode into a familiar reception area. Sarai spoke to two women behind a white desk. The wall behind the receptionists was staged with beautiful flower arrangements like a hotel lobby.

“This is Jasmine, Mr. Roth’s wife,” Sarai announced.

The receptionists gave her polite smiles, but as their eyes drifted over her, she was very aware of the fact she didn’t have on a lick of makeup. Her eyes were also puffy from reading Ballad of Deception and her recent freakout in the car.

“She came by to pay him a visit,” Sarai continued. “Is his eleven o’clock still running over?”

“Yes. We took in refreshments a half hour ago.”

Sarai nodded and turned to Jasmine, who was staring through the glass walls of a nearby conference room, where a meeting was taking place. “Have you been here before?”

“Yes, but it was late at night, and I went straight to his office.”

“You proved your worth in Colorado. Our time at the cabin reminded me what it’s like to have a whore who likes what you’re giving her.” She willed away the bad memory and reminded herself it was in the past, but couldn’t resist taking in the waiting area, where a very pregnant Colette had waited all day for Roth to give her five minutes of his time.

“Let me show you around.” Sarai linked arms with Jasmine and ignored her stiff body language. “There are forty-two employees here.”

Jasmine blinked. “He’s hired that many people since he arrived in New York?”

“No. Most were already in his employ but scattered in different regions. Now that New York is his headquarters, everyone’s been relocating. It’s been wonderful to walk down the hall to their office instead of worrying about time differences or organizing travel. Thank you for that.”

She had nothing to do with Roth settling in New York—he’d relocated before they came face-to-face in Colorado—but trying to convince Sarai of that was a waste of time. Roth’s PA would believe what she wanted to.

The interior designer who’d put her mark on Roth’s penthouses had taken a different approach with his headquarters. The office was airy, bright, and elegant, with a modern sophistication Jasmine knew Ariana would appreciate. The designer had mixed glass with gleaming wood and used dramatic lighting to great effect. The office was twice as large as she expected, and it had so much greenery she wondered if Roth had hired a full-time gardener to tend to all the plants. It was clear the office wasn’t tailored to Roth’s tastes but his employees’.

A break room had been made into an upscale café, with soft jazz music playing, a coffee bar with a fancy espresso machine, and chocolate-brown couches. A handful of people occupied tables, with their laptops in front of them, clearly there to work, not eat. Providing access to unlimited caffeine and a coffee-shop vibe without leaving the office would certainly keep Roth’s employees motivated and productive.

They continued the tour with Sarai pointing out all the customizations. It was clear Roth intended this move to be permanent. She’d assumed he still had another office in London, but according to Sarai, everything would be done here. She thought they wouldn’t run into each other much post-divorce, but the location of his office paired with minimal travel, the likelihood their paths would cross was extremely high. She couldn’t imagine how they’d interact in the future and didn’t have time to ponder it as Sarai introduced her to his staff.

Thankfully, the interactions were brief. The most that was required of her was a handshake or a polite smile. Sarai was stopped frequently and seemed to know exactly what each person wanted before they could ask.

“Yes, I saw your email. I’ll circle back to you once I’m through with the tour. I’m showing Mr. Roth’s wife, Jasmine, around the office.”

The office was relatively quiet, with phone calls answered immediately, voices kept to a low murmur, and the rhythmic tap of computer keys. Unusual for an office with so much activity. Then again, it was well-known that Roth hated unnecessary noise, and his employees didn’t have time to chit-chat—they were working their assess off to keep up with their workaholic boss, who Jasmine knew for a fact slept very little. There seemed to be an equal number of men and women, and they seemed to be from all over the globe. As she and Sarai passed spacious offices with frosted glass sliding walls instead of doors, she heard more than one employee speaking something other than English.

“You don’t like it,” Sarai said bluntly as she concluded the tour.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“I’m just taking it in. The designer’s taste is impeccable.”

“But not your style?”

She gestured to herself before flapping her hand at Sarai’s coordinated outfit. “You have more style than I ever will.”

Sarai cocked her head to the side. “I’ll ask around for eccentric designers who can come up with some off-the-wall concepts for your home office.”

Jasmine made a face, not sure how to take that. “Don’t bother.”

Sarai ignored her and pointed down the hall to the executive suite. “You know where to find him.”

“I don’t want to interrupt his meeting.”

The hustle and bustle of Roth’s employees was far too reminiscent of her family’s offices, and it reminded Jasmine she didn’t belong in this sector of his life. It wasn’t that long ago when she tried to dissuade Penelope from interrupting a business luncheon, and now she was doing the same without giving him warning. There was no guarantee the man she was beginning to trust in private would translate to his place of business. This was his domain. He wouldn’t take kindly to any distractions, especially when he was already leaving work early so they could have dinner together.

She extracted the bag of cookies from her purse and held them out to Sarai. “You can give these to him. I’ll see him later.”

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