An Inconvenient Attachment

Chapter Twenty One

After the random therapy session, I no longer brought up anything that happened the night Jason came to my house. Mainly because it brought Jason physical discomfort when I had asked. I didn't even have the guts to ask him if it truly was his father who was doing that to him. I went back to work with a clear head. It wasn't my business and it's not in my job description.

"You have returned so soon?" Mr. Abilon asked. "I thought you said it was a family emergency. That it was urgent."

I sighed, shutting my eyes for a moment. A victim of abuse or not, he was still as cocky as ever. "I don't think I have to discuss the details with you, Mr. Abilon," I told him sourly, placing the few files on his desk. "I am back now, why worry about where I went?"

"Because you lost an hour, an hour you could've spent working," he commented.

"But it was an hour I needed," I shot back. "I won't discuss it further."

"Such as how you won't discuss your late boyfriend, or, should I say, late husband."

I nearly slapped him right then and there. He was close, close enough for my hand to whip out and collide with his cheek but I shut my eyes, calming my immense rage from Jason's blatant disrespect. "Did you do a background check on me?"

He was quiet. I glared up at him, he was clearly regretting his words.

"Don't stand there and disrespect me, Mr. Abilon. I don't deserve that," I snapped harshly, turning and marching out of his room, slamming the door behind me.

Goddammit! Why did I even come back to work? I should've just taken the rest of the day off!

The fact that he went that far to get information about Nathan was beyond me. No one went that far and, frankly, no one asked me about my ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands. Yeah, that's right. Nathan and I were married. How badly things ended just fueled my hatred to ever be with someone again and Jason just blatantly taunted me, even after what I had done for him. He most likely only knew what the articles said.

Me and Nathan's court case went to the news almost instantly. In this society, modern feminists are like vultures to a dead carcass when it comes to domestic violence cases. I spent months going to court with Nathan until finally, finally, I provided proof. It took only one slip-up in a public place to finally put the bastard in prison for a very, very, long time. It annoyed me how much I had been thinking back to what happened these days, I spent years trying to forget it but now, it seems it's all coming back. Like every little thing is reminding me over and over again about what happened.

I sat quietly behind my desk, staring blankly down at my laptop. I knew what Mr. Abilon was doing. He was pushing me away, no doubt his ego could be saved if he allowed anyone to know what happened. My attempts were futile and he seemed to only grow more and more irritated and cold towards me the more I asked. 

I don't see why I had to care. I tried and it seemed all for absolutely nothing. If he was going to be a jackass I wasn't going to bother myself with worrying over him. He didn't even deserve my time. That was the absolute last straw. I could handle all the things he said to me the other times I asked but this, this takes the cake.

My eyes darted to another file on my desk and I sighed heavily. Of course, there had to be one I missed. I stood slowly, grabbed the file and entered his office without knocking this time. I slammed the file down on his desk and turned on my heel, ready to go straight back to my desk.

"Ms. Blythe," he called, stopping me dead in my tracks. "I apologize, that was uncalled for."

I laughed bitterly, turning around to face him. "Uncalled for? You brought up something so extremely personal about me and threw it in my face, as if it was absolutely nothing," I snapped. "I'm sorry for whatever you could possibly be going through but even you should know that that was a cheap shot. Even for you, Mr. Abilon."

"Elizabe--"

"Don't call me by that name, Mr. Abilon," I snapped again. "I am Ms. Blythe to you and you are Mr. Abilon to me. We should stop forgetting that." I turned away from him again, stopping at the door. "I am going to head home for the afternoon," I said so quietly, my voice nearly giving out on me.

"Ms. Blythe, wait--"

"Please, just stop. If you don't want to talk to me then don't, just promise me to never bring up..." I stopped, my voice cracking. "Never bring up him again."

I exited his office and moved to my desk, grabbing my coat and purse and leaving the building with haste. They were all the same. Why did I always seem to be garbage to men? Why did I not deserve the respect I so openly give them? I couldn't keep going around and doing this, at leas I had already initially called the day off so leaving wasn't a big deal but I couldn't keep running away like this. I could tell he regretted his words but that didn't change the fact that it didn't hurt any less.

The elevator door was about to close until a hand shot out, forcing the doors to retreat. I looked up, staring teary-eyed up at Mr. Abilon. 

"I'm sorry," he said suddenly, stepping into the elevator with me, pressing the button to shut the doors and then proceeding to press the emergency stop button when we moved an inch. "It was unfair of me to bring that up. After all, I only know what was written in the papers and...well, you can't trust the papers."

I kept quiet, staring down at the ground. "I just want to know who has been doing that to you, Mr. Abilon."

"It is better if you don't know."

The elevator doors opened back up on the same floor and Mr. Abilon moved to exit the elevator. "Is it your father?"

He stopped so suddenly. His body freezing, fists and jaw clenched. "No," he said roughly. "Enjoy your evening Ms. Blythe."

The elevator doors shut but I still stared where he once stood. He was covering up for his own father. Why would he do that? Why would he allow that?