Knight in Shining Suit (52 page)

Both of us stared at him.
I didn’t expect it, but he looked so angry with Adam… for touching
me? The same brotherly way that he always does.

“
Excuse me, Mr. Van
Woodsen?” Adam asked, dropping his hands and raising his brow at
Ryder.

As if he realized what he
just did, Ryder turned away from us and looked outside the
window.

“
Draw up the papers.
Minimize my losses. Pay her whatever severance pay you see fit. I
want out,” he said curtly and then he walked away without looking
at me again.

Adam turned to me. “Are
you okay?”

I nodded at first, and
then I shook my head. And tears rolled down my cheeks again. Adam
reached out and hugged me.

“
Damn it, Astrid! How many
more of these are we going to face? When are you going to give up
on that guy? You deserve better than this.”

“
I can’t give up, Adam. I
love him,” I said.

“
I know. But he doesn’t
even remember you.”

“
He… he made me promise to
always remember that he loves me. I will not break that promise. I
will not give up. I will wait for him.”

Adam sighed and then he
pulled away from me. “What do we do now that he wants to pull the
plug on you?”

“
How much does he want?
How much did he invest here?”

Adam and I looked at all
the reports that we have. Apparently, about fifty percent of
Ryder’s investment had already come back. It’s cash available in
the banks.

“
What if I just buy him
out?” I asked Adam, a far out idea coming to my head. Can I really
do this alone?

The business was doing
very well. I had four weddings lined up just this month alone and I
didn’t want to disappoint my clients. I cannot shut down. Just
because my ‘ever after’ is in jeopardy didn’t mean I would let down
the clients who put their faith in me.

Adam gave me the figure
needed to buy out Ryder’s investment. My heart sank. The money that
I currently had was just not enough to make the fifty percent, even
if I put all my savings into it.

Adam reached out for my
hand. “I know you really want this, Astrid. I will lend you the
money.”

“
Adam, it will take more
than a year for me to return it to you.”

“
Then it takes a year or
more,” he said. “Or if your stupid boyfriend wakes up earlier than
that, I’m sure he’ll be begging to put back his investment
here.”

I bit my lip. Four months
I had been waiting for Ryder to wake up. Nothing was happening. I
was getting weaker and weaker every day. It didn’t help that he was
not even trying to remember me and what I was to him before his
memories of me were taken away.

“
Are you really going to
do it for me?”

Adam nodded. “We may not
be related by blood, Ash, but I’ve always loved you as my
cousin.”

“
I’ve always hated you,” I
told him, laughing bitterly.

“
I know,” he
laughed.

I reached out to hug Adam.
I will always be thankful for him. He had always been there; during
the times I needed someone the most. And now, it seemed that he was
all I had for the second time in my life.

***

Ryder.

“
You did what?” Janis
almost shouted on the other end of the line when I told her that I
was pulling out my investment from Astrid’s business. “Why do you
have to be an ass, Ryder? Astrid will be jobless when you do that.
And that was exactly the reason why you invested in her in the
first place! You didn’t want her to be jobless. You wanted to help
her, but she wanted no help from you! So you devised a way to trick
her into accepting your offer…” She trailed off, realizing that she
said too much.

“
Thanks!” I muttered
sarcastically. I specifically told her not to tell me anything
about my past with Astrid until I am ready to hear it.

“
Undo this right now!”
Janis demanded.

“
Jan, why do you guys like
her so much?”

Janis sighed. “Because she
is a good person. She’s beautiful inside and out. And because she
is a hundred times good for you. And…”

“
Stop.” I told her. “I
don’t want to hear about her again, okay?”

“
Ryder, please! That
business is everything to Astrid. She worked so hard to put it up.
It’s doing well. You didn’t need the money! What were you
thinking?”

“
I just… I don’t know.” I
sighed. In truth, I really don’t know why I wanted to pull out my
money. I just didn’t want anything to do with her. I wanted no
connection with her.

When I went to her office,
I saw her portfolio and how good she is. The phone was ringing
non-stop with inquiries. It’s a good, lucrative venture. And she is
probably the best in town.

But I thought maybe she
used me to get to her dreams. She must have cajoled me to invest in
her to make her dreams come true.

But now, when Janis was
saying to me that I
tricked
her into accepting my investment, I was not sure
about what I did anymore. And I’m scared that when I wake up from
all this, I will regret my decision.

“
Undo it! I cannot believe
you would hurt her like this!” Janis said angrily.

I sighed. “It’s too late.
Her lawyer called.” Speaking of the good-looking lawyer, my blood
boiled when I remembered how tenderly he touched Astrid, as if she
was a crystal ball.

But she’s my crystal
ball!
At least that’s what everybody said
to me. And even if I didn’t remember this, somehow I didn’t like
the way he touched Astrid. They may be cousins, but they are still
not related by blood. I don’t understand, but an ugly, unfamiliar
feeling swept through me, I couldn’t resist telling the guy not to
touch her.

“
Adam?”

“
I guess that’s his name,”
I replied. “He said Astrid is buying me out. She will continue to
run the business and will return my investment to me.”

“
Wow!” Janis breathed, and
I can hear the admiration in her voice. “She’s really good if she’s
saved enough to buy you out.”

“
I think she is. I saw her
portfolio,” I said. “But it’s too complicated for me, Janis. I want
to remember Astrid… in my own time. I cannot go by what you guys
tell me about her. I will not put my guard down for
nothing.”

“
Put your guard down?”
Janis echoed angrily. “Sometimes, I want to take that guard from
you and hit you so hard in the head with it so you will wake up
from all this.”

I laughed humorlessly. “If
that was guaranteed to work, I would do it myself, you know.” I
sighed. “Speak to you later.” And I hung up.

I decided to go look
around my house. I only have a faint memory of it; it was new since
I just bought it.

I opened my fridge; it was
fully stocked. Funny. I haven’t been here for four months. But the
house looked very well taken care of.

Of course.

She was here, just like
she was in my apartment in Manhattan when I was in the hospital.
Had I asked her to be here too?

I went to my room. I found
that my clothes were all in order. The hamper was empty. One shelf
of my cabinet has some pieces of clothing that were not mine. I
took out a pair of lavender pajamas. Definitely not
mine!

The bathroom also has some
tampons, a pink razor, and some other feminine stuff.

Dear God!
I’ve been living with a woman! Somehow, it
terrified me. I never thought I would be capable of doing this. And
it made me even more curious. How did Astrid Jacobson make me do
all these?

I never dated a woman long
enough. I have had some flings. After we go to bed together, I call
a cab for them. They barely even stay the night.

What has this woman done
to me?

I went downstairs and took
a box. I shoved all of her stuff into it. I don’t know if I asked
her to live with me, but all that has changed now. I am not going
to let her invade my personal space anymore.

Then I fished my phone
from my pocket and scrolled to find her name.

Astrid Love

I blinked at the name on
my phone. What the hell? How did she make me do this? Maybe she was
lying. Maybe she really was a witch and she put me under a love
spell.

“
Ryder.” Her voice was
soft like velvet. The sound is as familiar to me as it is
strange.
This is so confusing.

I took a deep breath,
gathering the courage I needed. Gathering the courage to hurt her
again… one last time.

“
Can you come to my house?
You left… a couple of your things here,” I said, as gently as I
could.

There was silence. Then
she said, “Okay. I will also return your key. What time are you
going to be home?”

“
I’ll be here all
evening,” I replied.

“
I’ll finish my meeting
and then I will go there.” And she hung up.

I looked at the clock. It
was eight o’clock. Astrid is coming to the house. Somehow, an
unfamiliar feeling crept through me. My heart pounded in my chest
and my pulse was hammering like crazy.

What the hell is wrong
with me?
Am I…
excited?

29.

KISS:

The groom kisses the bride
at the end of the wedding ceremony to

seal their
union.

Astrid.

“
I
want you to stay here while I’m gone.”
His words echoed in my head over and over. Tears were rolling
down my cheeks.

Okay, Astrid. Better cry
now than later.
Better here than in front
of him.

I couldn’t show him how
affected I was. No matter how much I beg, it’s not helping him. I
didn’t give up on him yet. But I knew that putting pressure on him
would only make him run away more.

He did tell me that he was
always cautious about girls. Now, he doesn’t know me. So I fall
into the general category of women who just might like Ryder Van
Woodsen for money and not for who he is inside.

Quite ironic, actually. He
accuses me of the very things that kept me from taking a chance on
him. He worked so hard to turn me around. I broke my own rules, and
here I am now. Accused of being a gold-digging slut by the man I
trusted not to hurt me.

I guess not giving up
sometimes means you only need to wait. I decided not to pressure
Ryder anymore. I couldn’t break my heart over and over again
because I knew it wasn’t going to work. He could wake up or change
his opinion of me. And right now, he was not even close to doing
either.

I planned to prove to him
that I was not the woman he thought I was. As a start, I would have
his check on hand. Adam wired the money I needed to my account. It
would be a tough following months. But at least now I could say
that I fully own ‘Ever After’, my baby, my company.

I told Adam that I would
not invoke the severance clause in my contract with Ryder. I would
not take a dime from Ryder Van Woodsen. That is exactly what he
expected of me, and I was going to prove him wrong.

But the changes meant I
would have to transfer to a smaller place to save on rent. It also
meant I would have to work double time, lose a couple hours of
sleep and multi-task, as I couldn’t afford to hire extra hands just
yet.

I can do this. I’m a
rock.

It took me a while to
notice that the cab had stopped in front of Ryder’s house already.
I paid the driver and then stepped out.

I took a couple of short
breaths and then I rang the bell.

He opened the door. The
familiarity of the house and the person in front of me made me want
to break down and cry. It reminded me of the things that I used to
have and the dreams that came shattering to the ground. Never mind
the house. But the man in front of me… he was the one thing I
wasn’t ready to let go of.

He looked the same. God,
he even smelled the same! But he was not the same man who rescued
me months ago. He was not my knight in shining armor.

Before he left he told me
that he wanted me to stay in his apartment. He asked me to take his
car. It was his way of protecting me even though he wasn’t
physically with me.

I slept in his house for
months. Every day hoping, always praying that one day, he would
walk into that door and pull me into his arms, and tell me that
everything was back to the way it was. That he remembers me. And
that he loves me the same way.

But now, he was back in
Malibu. The first thing he did was pull the plug on the business.
And now, he was kicking me out of his apartment. Well, I didn’t
officially live here. But the man I loved told me I should stay
until he comes back for me.

But I guess… he’s never
coming back.

“
Come in,” Ryder said
politely.