Page 113 of How to Get Even

Because shewouldhave to leave.

She’d seen that in his eyes.

There was no way she could continue working here and that devastated her more than she’d expected. The thought of disappointing Maurice, and abandoning Ali and Ye-Joon caved her chest, guilt and loss sharp cuts, stinging every time she took a breath.

She tried to sit on the sofa, but the anxiety flooding her system demanded movement, made her want to run. But notawayfrom Chase. To him.

Oh God, it was such a mess. She wiped at the tear falling from her eyes, knowing that she had to stop before Chase came to the office.

She’d heard the vague noises from below as the speeches were made. First by Tej and then Chase. She knew. She’d read the words they were going to say. And then as the sounds from the gallery quietened, and it wouldn’t be long before Chase came for her.

And that made her want to cry again. So instead, she set about removing the doctored sugar packets from the coffee tray. One by one, she sorted through nearly one hundred packets of sugar, pulling out the ones she could see the glue on from where she fixed the packet.

‘What are you doing?’

She flinched.

Removing every trace of my presence from this place.

‘I think some salt packets got mixed up in your sugar.’

She turned to face him and instead of the hugely successful gallery director who should be thrilled with the success of the evening, what she saw made her want to cry all the more. He looked hollow. Empty. As if something in him had just… gone.

‘What the fuck is going on?’ His defeat was worse than any kind of fury.

She wanted to go to him, to find comfort in him and hated herself for it. But she couldn’t hide from this and he deserved the truth.

‘I met Astrid, Paige and Sienna a few months ago,’ she started and went on to explain how they got snowed in, how they bonded over champagne and cake. ‘I felt like for the first time in ages these women understood me. Saw me,’ she tried to explain. ‘Because we’d all had recent bad experiences with our exes.’

‘So, a few glasses of champagne and cake and some shitty life decisions and that leads to me how?’

She knew she deserved his anger, but not his scorn.

‘Shitty life decisions? No. It wasn’t my life decision to abandon my wedding, and it wasn’t Sienna’s life decision to be abandoned for something supposedly better, it wasn’t Paige’s life decision that got her…’ Bella swallowed her words, refusing to betray her confidence and parade her violation in front of Chase as justification for her motives. ‘It wasn’t Astrid’s shitty life decision that saw her accused of sleeping with a married man,’ Bella pointed out.

Chase stared at her grimly, but she sensed his retreat.

Bella shook her head at him. ‘That hurt her.’

‘That’s between me and her.’

‘Maybe so, but you didn’t try and stop her from leaving. You didn’t try to let her know that Annalise was lying, did you? You let her think that she was a homewrecker. You let her think the worst about herself. That’syourshitty life decision, Chase.’

He had the grace to look away, leaving her to pick up the threads of the story.

‘We realised that we were in a position to take revenge against each other’s exes. Paige was travelling to the UK and tracked down Olly.’

‘And you got me,’ he said, bitterly.

Bella nodded. ‘I got you,’ she whispered.

Chase let out a bitter laugh. ‘Revenge?’

Bella nodded.

‘The article?’ he demanded.

Bella nodded. ‘It was before I knew. Beforeweknew that Annalise had lied.’

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