Beauty and the Billionaire

STAYING AWAY

CHAPTER-36
STAYING AWAY

I didn't go to work next day. Apparently, Henry already knew everything. When I called to tell him that I wouldn't be able to make it today, he said I could stay at home as many days as I wanted. He also told me he had fired Mandy, George and Sara. And he couldn't believe Sara would do something like this just for money. She was one of our oldest employees. I agreed with him because I wanted to forget yesterday.

But something was stuck in my mind. Mandy said that this all was just not for Joseph's will, it was for something else as well. Something what...I didn't know. And she couldn't tell me either because my rescue had come.

I wanted to ask Austin if he was hiding something from me. But I couldn't. I wouldn't. He made it clear that this time I would have to make efforts in our...relationship or whatever we had going on.

I didn't understand his mood swings. One minute he was so sweet and so caring and he said things that made me sway on my feet and the very next minute he was this asshole that I wanted to throw out of the window.

I couldn't understand him, and I couldn't understand myself either. Austin and I were stuck on one routine only.

Sex, fight, sex, fight.

We had hot, mind-blowing sex and then the next day, we were back to fighting like cats and dogs. Or ignoring each other. Like we were doing now. He told me that I'd never be able to ignore him ever again, he made me scream it and now he was the one doing all this?

He wanted me to beg? For what...sex? Wasn't that a little...absurd?

For God's sake, why couldn't he be the sweet, caring husband all the time, or better, the asshole he is so that I could throw him out of my mind. Why did he have to switch roles?

And there I was again, thinking about my husband first thing in the morning.

And wait...did I just called him my husband? I noted that I'd been doing that lately many times.

He's not your husband, Eva. It's just an arrangement. He'd forget about you once this is all over. He wouldn't even look at you. He just pays attention to you because you are giving him what he wants. Sex.

I had to chant this mantra the whole time during my shower and my breakfast. And then I also noticed something.

When I was kidnapped, I wasn't that scared. I didn't know why. I mean I should’ve been because that man was holding a gun above my head and that bitch slapped me, twice, but I still had my attitude. I wondered why. Was it because I knew deep down that Austin would never let something happen to me or was it because something was wrong with me? Had I gone mad now? Did I lose my conscience?

Well, the only thing I knew right now was that I was losing my mind. Because of my husband, because of me, because of Mandy, because of...everything!

I should talk to someone. I should talk to mom.

I dialed her number and she picked up on the fourth ring.

"Eva, sweetie."

I smiled, "Hey, mom. How are you doing?"