Meant to Crash | ✓

Chapter Thirty-Eight

In that brief moment, seeing the ring, I had an out of body experience.

Floating outside of my own sense of self and watching above at what was playing out. Sebastian stood with his hand tightly pinned to his side, as though the weight of the wedding band was causing his arm to slug lower than it needed to, needing extra help.

The pressure of it all, the gravity to what he agreed to, settled into my stomach like a bad cold.

"You're getting married."

I was the one speaking. Finding strength, I stepped outside my apartment and closed the door so my nosey friends didn't hear me. I wanted to explode.

In private.

"Can we walk to your car?"

Sebastian merely nodded and went down the stairs first.

He looked so handsome in his pressed suit. He was always dressed in designer. It took everything in me to not gawk at his beauty.

I had to still be mad at him.

"I came here," he said, "so that I could offer you your job back."

My head shook. "I don't want it back."

"You already have a new job?"

"No, but - "

"Don't be so stubborn. Take the job back." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I've missed you."

"Don't. Don't come here and tell me stuff like that." I ordered. "You're getting married."

"Not like I want to."

What?

That made no sense.

Everyone got married when they wanted to. But he looked so upset - so unhappy. He didn't look like a joyful engaged man.

"Why would you propose to ..."

"Connie. I'm marrying Connie Irving."

"Well, why would you propose to her if you don't want her?"

"My sister," he grimaced. "When she found out about how close we had gotten, she demanded that I nip it in the bud and prove that I wouldn't let this affect the company. You don't know this, but the stock of the company went down the morning after we went to the club. My dad was on my ass."

"You're doing this because of some fucking stocks?" I roared. "You would let someone control your life because of something you have no control over?"

"You would never understand..." he shook his head into his hands. "My life has never really been my own. Even when I thought I did, there would be obvious moments where I noticed the outside world had more of a say than I did."

"I get why you disappeared all those years."

"No," he refused, "The reason why I disappeared all those years was to find someone."

That made no sense either - and I struggled to see if I could pick and pry at that statement any more.

"Please, Maddison," he took a step toward me, but then looked around, in fear of cameras or people. People could easily snap a photo of us on their cell phones.

He stepped back instantly.

"I need you back in my life - and way that I can possible have you."

"What you're offering me...sounds miserable," I said, coming to realize. "Why? Why should I want to work for you again if you can fire me so quickly?"

"I promise I won't." He raised his palm in the air. "I swear to you."

***

When I went inside the apartment, my heart was beating loudly.

Akin and Layla hounded me for details.

"He's getting married," I told them,"but not if I can stop it."

"Whoa, are you going to stop it from happening?" Layla asked. "You're badass if you do."

"He looked so sad out there." I explained. "He'll thank me for it later."

"What's the plan?"

"Operation: Get Connie in Trouble." I offered, "He was talking about the importance of the stock market. Why not use that to our advantage?"

"Why start with Connie?" Akin asked. "Why don't you target Sasha? She sounds like your real enemy."

"That's hard," I noted. "I wouldn't know where to start."

"We need to dig up some dirt on them."

"Yes," Layla added, "We need to investigate."

Like a light going off in her head, she clapped her hands together.

It was time for some heavy lifting work.

-----

a/n: short chapter - i know, but we're so close to the end! five more chapters (more or less)

please vote and comment your predictions