Siren

Matters of the Heart

I leapt to my feet, staring at her, fury and disbelief warring within me. Her eyes didn't leave my face, there was triumph in her gaze, as if she had successfully won the war.

"Hey Rox, I think I've got enough here for a couple of- Ohhhhh"

Evan stopped the moment that he turned into the room. He looked between me and Mel, reading the tension of the room, then dropping the bags on the floor and instantly joining me at my side.

"Rox?"

His hands closed on my shoulder, his voice gentle and questioning. I couldn't tear my eyes from Mel, my fist was clenched so tightly that my nails were digging into my palm, hard enough to draw blood.

"How?" I managed to ask through gritted teeth.

Mel crossed one leg over the other, placing the invitation on her lap and leaning back against the cushions.

"How did I know you were fucking my fiance?"

I felt Evan stiffen up beside me, his whole body was tense and on guard, he was ready to dive to my defence within a moments notice. Not that I needed him to defend me right now though, the anger that was coursing through my body was enough to make me want to charge at her and rip her to pieces.

"Well, you see, it didn't instantly register to me what was going on. Of course I realised there was something off with him. He was getting more and more distant, having less to do with wedding planning than he'd already agreed to."

She spat the words as though they were bitter on her tongue, before continuing.

"I went to see him at the office one evening, but he wasn't there. His assistant happened to let slip that he was having dinner at The Rouge. I knew there was no work reason for him to be there, that teamed with his behaviour, well, I'm a lawyer. I know when someone is hiding something, so I did what I did best. I looked into it."

"So you spied on us?" I growled, anger poured through my words like venom.

She seemed to take great joy in the effect she was having on me.

"Oh no, nothing so pathetic as spying on you." She tilted her head slightly in thought, "Well, not quite anyway. Why go to such drastic lengths when I had far easier ways."

"Then how?"

"We work in the same building. I simply stopped by his office."

"Somehow I fail to see how that would have told you anything, it's not like you found us stretched out across his desk."

My sarcasm seemed to knock her off guard for a second, she blinked a couple of times in succession and her smirk disappeared momentarily.

"No, but I did find his phone, it was simple really, I got him out of his office for a few minutes to photocopy some documents, whilst he was gone, I checked it. Right there, a whole stream of texts with a number saved simply as, R."

My breath was coming harder and faster as I longed to scream, to shout, to hit out. How could she do that?! Invade his privacy.

"I was going to run a little check on the number, but as I went to write it down, I realised there was no need to. I knew that number. It was you."

"Then why not call this whole fucking sham off?" Evan growled from my side.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" She taunted, her fingers tracing the corners of the invitation.

"Because he doesn't love you!" I snapped, I felt my limits breaching and I knew that I was giving her what she wanted.

She wanted to watch as I fell apart in front of her, but right now, I just didn't care about that. She wasn't just winding me up, she was toying with people's lives. More than that, she was playing with people who she was supposed to care about.