Page 59 of The Billionaire's Betrayal
Silence.
"Talk to me, darling, say something."
A muffled sob came through the line, stabbing my heart.That simple sound contained so much pain that my eyes filled with tears.
"Eva, if only you knew, I'm so sorry.I'm asking for your forgiveness...Come back, we need to..."
A sharp click.The call had just cut off, leaving me with my unfinished words, my incomplete apologies.
I stood there, motionless, the phone still pressed against my ear as if I could hold onto her that way, frozen in a mixture of shock and despair.The water droplets from my shower were drying on my skin, making me shiver, but I didn't move.My mind was spinning emptily, unable to form a coherent thought.The echo of her sob still resonated in my head.
Then, a vibration broke the silence.A notification.
A text message appeared on the screen:
EVA:I'm fine.
A lie.Nevertheless, I was grateful that she was still communicating with me.As long as she hadn't cut all ties, as long as she kept this thin line of dialogue open, I still had a chance to win her back.
And when that happened, I would spend the rest of my life making sure she never had reason to doubt again.Never again would she have to hold back her sobs on the phone.Never again would she have to lie and say she was fine.
I pressed the phone against my chest, as if this simple gesture could bring me closer to her, bridge the distance between us, and finally let my own tears flow.
Monday morning, when I opened the door to my office, a feeling of guilt immediately washed over me.These walls had been silent witnesses to my daily betrayal of the woman I loved.It was here that I had let another woman intrude into my space, into my thoughts.Here that I had almost given in to the attraction, letting myself be carried away by a fleeting desire.
Every detail of the room seemed to remind me of my mistakes: the echo of Audrey's presence in this place, the memory of those moments when I watched for her arrival, when I waited for her smile, when I sought her proximity.These moments of weakness now made me nauseous.How could I have let myself go like that, risking Eva's love for a few forbidden thrills?
Would Eva ever forgive me for desiring another woman?Nothing was certain, and this uncertainty was eating away at my soul.But I would fight for her, for us.I would regain her trust, even if it took years.
The sound of her silent sobs when she called me last night would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Where was she?
What was she doing?
I didn't know, and this uncertainty was gnawing at me.
When Audrey came to see me in the middle of the morning, I froze imperceptibly.The last time I had seen her, she was naked in my office, her dress lying at her feet.This memory now made me deeply uncomfortable.What kind of woman imposed herself like that, uninvited?I was aware that I had behaved ambiguously toward her, but things should never have gone so far.
Eva's questions came back to me, and for the first time, I allowed myself to look at Audrey differently, to question her past actions.An insidious thought began to form: why had she tried so hard to get the projects that Eva cherished?
"Why did you tell Eva about the necklace?"I asked, carefully observing her reaction.
If she was thrown off by my question, she recovered quickly.
"I didn't plan to tell her, she asked me about it," she replied hastily.
Her answer was anything but convincing.
Eva, who avoided Audrey like the plague, would have gone to ask her questions about a necklace she didn't know existed?Moreover, Eva's letter suggested a completely different story.
Increasingly specific suspicions began to form in my mind.Our stay in New York came back to me: Audrey claiming to have forgotten the necklace that went with her dress.This detail, trivial at the time, suddenly took on another dimension.Had she manipulated me into giving her that gift?And what if it was just part of a larger plan?
The more I thought about it, the more suspicious the events of the past few months seemed: her increasingly suggestive outfits, her requests for private advice, her personal confidences that created an artificial intimacy between us...Nothing was left to chance.Each gesture, each situation now seemed to have been carefully calculated.
I looked at her again, and doubt settled in.Was this seductive woman who had haunted my thoughts sincere, or was she just a talented manipulator?A wave of nausea overcame me at the idea that I might have been the naive plaything of a cleverly orchestrated plan to destroy my relationship and have me under her control.
Audrey came by my office again in the early afternoon, using some excuse to linger.Her presence, once enchanting, was beginning to annoy me.Her charming smiles, her soft voice that had previously captivated me, now seemed too studied to be sincere.Observing her more carefully, I noticed what I had ignored until then.She was still strikingly beautiful, but this beauty now seemed manufactured.Her outfit, much too sexy for a professional setting, her expertly applied makeup and her deliberately seductive attitude with the men around her were all signs of a perfectly orchestrated performance.I found myself thinking back to Eva's words to describe Audrey: "that manipulator."What if she was right?
