Love & Conditions (New York Billionaires Book 2)

9| Misery

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Misery

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Chapter 9: Misery (Jules's POV)

"You what?" 

I stared back at Audrey but I couldn't hold her gaze and let out a soft sigh, dropping my head onto the table between us. 

"You didn't tell your parents that you broke off the engagement?" 

My response was a muffled, "No." 

"They think you're still engaged to my brother?" she asked, her voice going a little higher, a little louder. 

"Yes," I answered without lifting my head. 

"And now you... Now everybody's expecting you to bring him to Alex's wedding?" 

"Yup," I said, lifting my head up and throwing my ponytail over my shoulder. 

Audrey laughed humorlessly and leaned back in her seat, throwing her hands up before letting them fall onto the table so hard that the salt and pepper shakers toppled over but I caught them before they rolled off and glanced up at her sheepishly. "Jules," she said. "What the hell were you thinking? I mean, seriously. It's been a year, I don't understand how you managed to keep this from them." 

"I... lied!" I huffed before groaning and turning to stare out the window. 

"About everything? How did you explain moving into this apartment?" 

"I said I wanted to move because I got a job at The Bookmark and I took it because it was a good opportunity to do something on my own, away from Christian. I told them some bullshit about how it wouldn't look good if I kept working for my fiancé, so I was taking a different job, and that this new apartment was much closer to my new office." 

"And they believed it?" 

"Why wouldn't they?" My gaze narrowed on her. 

"Because The Bookmark pays you much less than Lukov Empires and Estates did. That has nothing to do with my brother and everything to do with the fact that the company you were previously working at was much better." 

"Shall we just disregard the fact that your brother and my ex-fiancé was also my damn boss at that company?" I asked, lifting my eyebrows in question. "I couldn't keep working for him after we broke up." 

"I understand that but lying to your parents?" 

"It's not like I enjoyed doing that," I mumbled, picking at my cuticles. "I just wasn't ready to tell them, I hadn't even come to terms with what happened. You know how my family is, they jump at the first taste of drama." 

"That's true. The Declans have a flare for the dramatics indeed," she shrugged, biting down a smile. 

"If they found out, their questions would never end. More importantly, if they found out why it happened, everything would be ruined."