Betrayed: Keeping her in the Dark Vol. 3 (19 page)

I stayed on the phone most of the morning trying to find a Mohel. You couldn’t swing a dead cat in this country without hitting a few priests or pastors, but finding a Rabbi who also performs circumcisions was a little difficult. 

“Would you like some lunch?” John asked as he walked in my office with a few bags of something that smelled delicious. 

“That would be wonderful! Thank you!” He sat in front of my desk and pulled out 2 containers of food. He placed one of them in front of me and his phone rang. He sat down and answered it. 

I could tell he wasn’t talking to Liam, so I tried not to listen. I took out the napkins and plastic ware from the bag and looked at both containers of food. I tapped my fork on the side of the desk and he covered his phone with his hand. 

“Is there a problem?” he asked. 

“I can’t decide between the cheeseburger and the chicken salad?” I made a popping noise with my tongue. 

“Well this should help you, the cheeseburger is mine.” He went back to his conversation. I heard him say the names Gloria and Irene, so I knew he was talking about his daughters. 

“I’m taking the cheeseburger,” I said and he rolled his eyes. I took a big bite to show him I didn’t care. If he wanted first choice on the food, he shouldn’t have been on the phone. 

He finally hung up and starting eating the chicken salad sandwich he had bought for me.

 “I’ll let you have some of my fries,” I said. 

“You’ll let me have some of my fries and you can have this yogurt if you want it.” 

“You wouldn’t happen to know how to perform a circumcision would you?” 

“Mrs. Hastings, is our relationship about to take turn down a very different road?” We both laughed. 

“Seriously, I need to find a Mohel in like 3 days, because we are under time restraints, I somehow need to make an opening magically happen at the Plaza Hotel in New York in June, which is only 8 weeks away, mind you for a wedding, and I need to find 50 guys that look like Mr. Darcy for some crazy ‘Pride and Prejudice’ convention.” 

“Were you scared?” he asked as he shoved a handful of fries in his mouth. He was talking about Nick. He didn’t need to say it because I knew. He wasn’t there, but I heard Liam talking with him about it. 

“Yes and no.” I rolled my eyes again and took of bite of cheeseburger. He waited patiently for me to finish my answer. 

“I’m scared of Nick. I mean, I was when he had me, but not like I was of Liam when we first met.” I didn’t finish that part of my answer, because I wasn’t exactly sure if John knew that Liam had bought me from an auction. 

“I was scared I was going to have to do things I knew Liam could never forgive me for doing. But I knew deep down he wouldn’t hurt me. Maybe that’s crazy.” 

“That is crazy,” John said.

 “I’m not scared now. I don’t think he will take me again. I think he is obsessed and this is just a game for him. He wants to win. That is what scares me, because Liam wants to win too.” I shook my head. 

“He doesn’t care about getting arrested or possibly going to jail for the rest of his life anymore. When he was looking for me, he said he didn’t call the police because he didn’t want to go to jail. He has always protected himself first. Now it doesn’t matter to him anymore. He wants to kill him. That’s what scares me.” 

“Why would he go to jail for calling in the police to find you?” he asked. I lowered my eyes. I said too much. “Why would Mr. Hastings go to jail for calling the police?” I shook my head.

“John, I can’t.” 

“What? You can’t what? Trust me?” I stood up. “I’m the guy that gets paid to keep you alive, and you can’t trust me?” he dropped his napkin on the desk and started out. 

“He bought me.” He turned back to me. “Liam bought me from an auction in Paris. He thought it was an organized thing with girls who wanted to be sold. But I had been kidnapped while I was on vacation and forced into it.” He started back to me. “He saved me from being passed around Europe for the next 10 years as a sex slave and then killed for being too old.” He still hadn’t said anything. 

“If anyone ever found out he could go to jail. Only 7 people really know the truth,” he looked down at the floor and cleared his throat. “Maybe 8…Trig might know the truth.” He shook his head.

“I didn’t know.” 

“I know you didn’t. I’m sorry if this changes how you feel about me or Liam,” I was going to add a ‘but’ to the end of that sentence. 

“It doesn’t. It doesn’t change my feelings.” He nodded and started out of the room again, and then turned back. “But it does make this a little more difficult.” He sat back down and we finished our lunch. I could tell by the look on his face that he had more questions but wasn’t sure if wanted to ask them. 

We cleaned up all the trash from my desk and I walked out with him to throw the trash away. 

“If you need to ask me anything else, I’ll be in my office.” 

“Thank you for having lunch with me.

“I’ll be outside,” he said. 

I finished the day by booking a small audition for ‘Mr. Darcy’ look a likes and managed to make it home before Liam. 

I was sitting on a bar stool at the island in the kitchen eating sunflower seeds when he walked in. 

“Is eating sunflower seeds bad for you?” I asked and put another one in my mouth. 

“Ah, no, I don’t think so.” He leaned up against the door frame. “I think they are good for you.” 

“I mean the things over the seeds? The covers, these,” I held up a seed that hadn’t been shelled yet. 

“You mean the shell?” he asked. 

“Yes, the shell. Are they bad for you?” I put another in my mouth. 

“I really don’t think so. But to be safe I wouldn’t eat them.” 

“Ok.” I moved the pile away from me. 

“You aren’t shelling them?” he asked. 

“No. It got to be too time consuming. All that work for such a little thing. So I just started eating them whole.” He laughed and took a bottle of water the refrigerator and then went back to leaning against the door frame. 

“Norah, I hope you don’t do that with seafood?” He gave me his cocking smirk.

“What’s for dinner?” 

“Chicken pot pie.”

“We had chicken pot pie on Sunday.” 

“No, you had chicken pot pie on Sunday, and Rosa froze the leftovers. So now we are having chicken pot pie tonight.” He turned his back to me and went to the over to look at the timer. 

“How much longer?” he asked.

 “I told John about us.” I started picking at my nails. He turned and looked at me. 

“What did you tell him?” he took a sip out of the water bottle. 

“About us.” I loved it when I was vague with Liam. I hated it when he did the same to me, but I loved watching him squirm. 

“What about us?” he asked and walked to the island and leaned forward on his elbows. 

“I told him about us.” He stood straight up because he understood. 

“You did?” he asked. “You told him?” he didn’t give me a chance to answer. “Why would you do that?” this time he waited. 

“We had lunch together and it came up.”

“You had lunch together?” 

“I think he was trying to keep me in the building.” He laughed at that. “Are you mad?” I asked. 

“Is he mad?” he asked back. I let out a deep breath. 

“I don’t think so. He seemed concerned.” 

“Concerned?” I nodded. “Concerned like he cares for you concerned or concerned like he’s going to the police concerned?” I smiled and reached across the island and took the water out of his hand and took a sip. 

“Like he cares about me concerned. I don’t think you need to worry about the S.W.A.T. team busting down the door or anything.” He walked over and kissed my lips. 

“Little one, they don’t have S.W.A.T. Teams in London, but I get your point.” He kissed me again. 

“The chicken pot pie will be done in 10 minutes, go take a shower,” I breathed on his lips. He stuck his tongue out and licked my lips.

Liam

Things had pretty normal for a week.

She didn’t just act like she had forgiven me, it really felt like she had forgiven me. 

I didn’t feel nervous about being around her or like she might leave me. We went to work every day, ate dinner together in the evening and our bedroom was just as hot as it was in the beginning. 

I came out of the shower and she was sitting on the bed in a turquoise night gown with pink and yellow butterflies on it. 

“Is the night gown new?” She looked down at her cleavage and back up at the papers she was looking at. 

“Ahh, no, this is old.” She put a pencil in her mouth and typed something on her lap top. 

“Ya know, I left my work in the study, why didn’t you?” I asked as I sat down on the bed facing her. 

“I have to get this done,” she wasn’t looking at me but she was typing something aggressively. 

“What are you doing?” I looked over the lap top but couldn’t see anything I could recognize. 

“I am looking at pictures of young men and trying to determine if they look like Mr. Darcy,” she looked up at me briefly and then back down again. 

“Norah, you really need to delegate this kind of stuff.” 

“No, I don’t. My system is fine the way it is.” 

“I’m sorry who here among us has owned their own company for more than a few months?” I asked. She leaned back and took the pencil out of her mouth. “How long have you owned your own company again, I forget?” I asked with my cocky smile. 

“11 months,” she replied. “How long have you been a control freak, know it all, jackass?” she retorted.

“Since long before that,” I said. We both smiled at each other. Her smile was more sarcastic. She typed a few more things and then shut the computer down and laid it on the floor. 

“That’s our way isn’t it?” I slid closer to her on the bed.

“We like the fight. I like to make the obvious observation and hear your snappy little come backs. You like to prove me wrong, call me a jackass and let me say something sarcastic.” I leaned her back on the bed and covered her body. 

“You like to get me all frustrated and flustered over you, so you can kiss me with those gorgeous lips of yours and make me feel so much better,” she said. I leaned down and kissed her. 

“I am so glad I decided to marry you,” I breathed against her neck. 

“I’m so glad I decided to let you marry me,” she chuckled. I leaned up and looked at her. 

“Hey, let’s go away for a few days. I’m serious. I can rent that house in Florida that I rented before and we can go lay on a beach for a few days.” I waited for her to answer. 

“Ok.” I waited for her to say something else because nothing had ever been that easy with her. 

“Ok, that’s it.” 

“Yes. Ok. It sounds very relaxing. I’m not going to argue.” I rolled so she was top of me. 

“Oh, but I wanted to argue some more.” 

We made love all night and in the morning I booked the house in Florida for a long weekend. 

But I was never able to make plans. Will walked in my office just after lunch with news that changed everything.

Chapter Sixteen

Norah 

I went to work the next day to clean up my desk and make sure the upcoming events were all taken care of so I could leave town for a few days. I took pleasure in completing tasks and filing them away under the ‘done’ category. I was walking on air all day. It was as if Liam and I had started over and everything was new again.

I couldn’t wait to get home to him and then go away for some time in the sun.

But everything changed when he came home. I knew something was bothering him when he didn’t come in to say hello, he didn’t want any dinner but he went straight to the gym and ran most of the evening.

I asked him what was bothering him several times but he wouldn’t said anything. I went to bed alone after waiting up until almost midnight. I was hoping we could talk about our weekend away but it was obvious he didn’t want to talk.

When I woke up in the morning he wasn’t in bed. I went to look for him before I got ready for work and he was asleep on the couch in the study. He was still wearing his gym clothes and there was an empty bottle of some kind of liquor sitting on the table beside him.

When I woke him up, he acted like he wasn’t sure where he was or why he was here. He barely looked at me and then started up the stairs to get ready for work.

“Don’t wait for me. I’m going in late today,” he shouted from the staircase.

I went up and got myself ready while he laid in bed.

“Liam,” I whispered to him and ran my hand over his face. He jerked his hand very fast and grabbed mine.

“I just wanted to make sure you were ok?” I said. He let my hand go and slowly leaned up.

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Go to work. I’ll see you later,” he stood up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, then walked to the bathroom.

 I couldn’t imagine what he was keeping from me now, but whatever it was is was painful for him

I got home from work early because I had planned a special dinner, but he was already home. I wasn’t even sure he had gone to work. He was sitting by the fireplace with glassy eyes. He had been quiet and withdrawn for too long and it was beginning to not only worry me, but scare me. Liam not wanting to have sex or sleep in our bed was just not normal. I kneeled in front of him and placed my hands on his thighs. 

I wanted to wait for him to confide in me, but I couldn’t wait anymore. 

 “Liam, please talk to me. Something is wrong, I know it. You can tell me, whatever it is, and we’ll get through it.” He looked down at me and moved my hair off my shoulder. 

 “I love you so much, you know that right?” I nodded. “I hate how we came together and what happened to you. But I would do it again in a heartbeat to save you.”     

“I know that.” He put his hands in his lap and lowered his eyes to watch himself entwining his fingers. 

“I have something to tell you, and you aren’t going to like it. But I don’t know what to do and I need your advice.” He took a breath and I did too. Liam needed my advice, now I was completely confused.