Page 28 of Crossing the Red Line
I didn’t need to look away from her; I knew her father was staring at me.I also knew he was going to kill me.
“Annulment?What annulment?”Larson questioned.
Ella spun around and looked at her father, and then back at me, her eyes horrified and then filling with tears.
“Why would you have just stood there and not told me he was there?”she said through clenched teeth.
“Ella, I demand answers,” Larson said, looking between the two of us.
Larson’s eyes drilled right into me as he stood there waiting for a response from one of us.
Ella was like a deer in headlights.She looked first at her dad, then at me, then back to him, not saying a word.
“So, just as I figured.He had something to do with it.You’re not resigning, and I want an explanation right this minute.What the fuck is going on here?”
I looked over at Ella.She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack; she was pale, and her chest was rising and falling in rapid succession.
“I…I can’t do this…” she muttered and took off down the hall, not looking back at either of us.Instead of following her, I turned back to her father, met his eyes, and stepped forward.
“What do you have to say for yourself this time, Clark?”he questioned.
“I have nothing to say, but I think we should talk.”
I pushed past him and entered his office, pacing back and forth while I waited for him to close his office door.
Chapter Eleven
Ella - Sunday Night
I stared at my phone,the email from my father causing my stomach to roll.He’d put it in writing and had sent a copy to Human Resources, notifying them he refused to accept my resignation.Anger flooded me as I stared at my screen.
“Can I help you?”I heard and looked up to see the girl behind the counter at Sip and Stir staring back at me.
“Coffee, black please,” I demanded.
“Size?”
Ignoring her, I hit reply to the email.
“Miss, what size would you like?”
“Large,” I said, letting out a huff.
I’d been in a mood the entire weekend, ever since running out of the arena on Friday.I’d left my father and Lucas standing there in the hallway staring at one another and had locked myself in my apartment, ignoring all calls and messages the entire weekend.
I tapped my card and then moved down the counter and grabbed my coffee from another girl, making my way out of the shop and heading back home.I stopped at the corner, glancing at the text messages that had come in over the weekend.
Aurora, Lorelai, and Layla had all messaged a couple of times, but Lucas had blown up my messages ever since Friday night.It had been so bad I’d had to shut my volume off.
I shook my head as I stared at his name.Seventeen messages over the course of the weekend.You’d have thought that when a few of them hadn’t been read he’d stop sending them.The man was persistent if not anything else.
The moment the light changed, I shoved my phone in my pocket and made my way across the street, stopping in at the small grocery store for some things.I’d lived on cold pizza for the past two days and needed something a little healthier for dinner tonight, and something for lunches for the week because, apparently, I had to go to work.
I gathered a few things, paid for them, and then left, making my way around the corner to the condo.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone standing at the front door of the building, but since I didn’t want to be bothered, I didn’t make eye contact.Instead, I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out my keys, opening the front door.
“Ella…” I heard a familiar voice say from behind me.
I stopped, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then glanced over my shoulder.Lucas stood there, dressed in his grey sweatpants and his Dominators sweatshirt he always wore when returning from an away game.He looked tired, even stressed.
