Coming Soon! Loving the Billionaire Picture Perfect
Chapter One
Staring out the window, my hands automatically fiddled with the paper wrapper that had covered my straw. I craved the taste of the sweet chocolate milkshake that sat in the plastic cup in front of me. Pregnancy had done strange things to my body, unfortunately this craving wasn’t one of them.
Closing my eyes for a moment I imagined Aaron sitting across from me. After the wedding everything had been perfect, at least until his father’s death. I knew he wasn’t taking it well, better than David had but still he was struggling.
Of course there was no way he was willing to tell me about it. He continued to treat me as though I might break if he told me anything too stressful. Watching him struggle, knowing I couldn’t help him certainly wasn’t good for me.
I was tired of feeling so helpless, I wasn’t that sort of person. In the past I had been the type to take action, I was in control of my life and everything in it… Or at least that was what I told myself. Jude dictated my every move if I was honest with myself.
But now everything was different, or at least it should have been. I stared down at the cell phone sitting on the table beside me. My stomach twisted uncomfortably and for a split second it was hard to breathe.
With Jude in the hospital I had truly believed that it would be the end of everything. I wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore. I wouldn’t have the constant fear nagging me, urging me to live my life looking over my shoulder.
All that had changed with one simple phone call.
Her voice had been filled with such anger, such bitterness and I was left in no doubt about her intentions. She planned to finish what Jude started… The part that made it worse was I had no idea who she was. How could you protect yourself from an invisible danger?
Swallowing back my fear I lifted the cup and sipped on the sweet chocolate drink. The taste exploded along my tongue and despite everything I had been worried about I felt myself smiling. It seemed I would always be far too easy to please.
I watched Cynthia as she hurried across the street, stopping to wave at me from outside the coffee shop door before she ducked inside. Men stared at her as she shook out her perfectly straight long blonde hair.
To look at us most people couldn’t tell that we were sisters. Sometimes even I struggled to believe we were sisters.
She was beautiful, tall and slender with large expressive blue eyes. Her hair wasn’t naturally blonde but after Jude she had decided to dye her hair. Going from a brown to her new icy blonde. Looking at her I realised it added to her innocent allure. An allure that constantly drew men to her, including Jude…
She was my sister and I loved her, I would do anything to protect her. I had done anything and everything in my power to protect her.
She plopped into the seat opposite me, a wide grin split across her face.
“You’re getting so big.”
She cooed, her hand reaching out towards the bump that prevented me from getting too close to the table.
“Thanks.”
I stuck my tongue out at her before I smiled. She wasn’t wrong, I was huge. Nothing fitted me properly anymore or at least I was convinced nothing looked right on me. Aaron was no help, he loved me in everything and nothing.
“Should you even be out like this?”
Cynthia’s face creased with concern as she scooped up the menu from the table.
“What do you mean? I’m having lunch with my sister that’s not exactly strenuous.”
“Yeah, but you know what the doctor said. Rest, take it easy, stay off your feet as much as possible…”
I waved away her concerns with my hand. The doctor had told me to take it easy and as far as I was concerned that was exactly what I was doing.
There was no way I was going to confine myself to a bed for the rest of the pregnancy. I would go mad and I didn’t plan on allowing that to happen just yet anyway.
“That’s what I’ve been doing but I need to get out. It’s a little stressful at the house after everything that happened with Aaron’s dad…”
I cut myself off, guilt causing me to chew my lip. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. It wasn’t my place to pass judgement on how Gertrude coped with the loss of her husband.
“Why what’s going on there? You know you can always come and stay with me.”
I smiled and picked up the plastic cup once more, sipping carefully through the straw before I answered her.
“I couldn’t, it’s Aaron’s home and well there is just so much going on…” I shook my head as though by doing so I could clear the thoughts from my mind. “Forget I even mentioned it. Let’s order, what are you having?”
I changed the subject, and food was the best way to knock Cynthia off course.
She glanced down at the menu and sighed before closing it and dropping it back on the table. I knew the look on her face. It was a look I had grown used to throughout our childhood. There was something she wasn’t telling me and whatever it was, I wouldn’t like it.
“I have to tell you something but you first need to promise you won’t get mad.”
I folded my arms across my chest as much as the bump would allow me. Leaning back in the chair I watched her carefully.
“Don’t look at me like that, Heather. I didn’t have to tell you this, I could just keep it to myself and you’d be none the wiser.”
“Just tell me, Cynthia.”
My tone of voice was exasperated. From the corner of my eye I could see the waiter approaching our table. I turned and shook my head. I suddenly wasn’t that interested in eating lunch.
“Promise you won’t be mad.”
She sounded like a much younger version of herself. It had to be serious if she was making me promise such childish things.
“Cynthia, the simple fact you want me to promise not to get mad, tells me I’m going to be more than mad… So just tell me.”
She chewed her lip suddenly nervous. I watched her drop her gaze, the table top becoming far more interesting than what she had to tell me.
I contemplated simply walking out. I could do that. She’d be angry at me but then no more angry than I was beginning to feel.
“You have to promise, Heather, not just for me but for the baby as well. Getting mad will only cause you stress and you don’t need that.”
“Then you should have thought of that before starting down this track, Cynthia. Why even bring it up if you know it’s not good for me? God, sometimes you really do only think of yourself.”
I started to stand but stopped as soon as I saw the tears gathering in her eyes. I had always been a sucker for her tears and it seemed now was no different. She reached out to me, grabbing my hand as she tried to push me back into my seat.
“Please don’t leave, Heather, please. I know you’ll be mad at me and I just can’t bear the thought of it but I have to tell you.”
“Fine, then no more childish games, out with it, Cynthia, or I’m out of here.”
I meant it and yet there was no way I would leave the coffee shop until I knew exactly what she was talking about. There was a sense of urgency in her voice and in her eyes. Whatever she had done was obviously reckless but that was nothing new. I was used to Cynthia doing terribly reckless things, it was how we had both ended up embroiled in the Jude mess.
A horrible thought hit me then and I felt my heart skip a beat. My blood ran icy cold and without thinking I found myself digging my fingers into the table top, as though it could stop me from spinning out of control.
“You didn’t, Cynthia, tell me you didn’t?”
My voice was low, emotion choked my throat.
She stared up at me, the tears filling her eyes spilling over her lashes and down onto her cheeks.
“I had to, Heather, I needed closure. The therapist I’m seeing told me closure was very important and I had to see him.”
“You went to see the man who nearly destroyed your life, who very nearly killed us? You needed closure so you went to that monster?”
I couldn’t help it, my voice lifted with each word I took. I didn’t care who heard me, I didn’t care that others in the coffee shop were beginning to stare over at our table. Anger boiled in my veins and I could feel my face getting hot.
“Heather, please you’re making a scene.”
“A scene? After what you’ve just told me, Cynthia, you’re lucky that I’m too big to grab you and shake you. Are you really that stupid?”
“I don’t have to sit here and listen to this.”
Cynthia’s face changed a look of defiance filling her eyes. She reached down to the floor and scooped her bag up from where she had left it.
Shaking my head I stared up at her as she prepared to storm out. But I wasn’t done with her yet.
“You think you can just walk out on me like that? You’re an adult now, Cynthia, that’s not how life works. You can’t just drop a clanger like that on someone and then storm off when they don’t react exactly the way you want them to.”
“You’re right, I am an adult now and I don’t need to sit around and listen to my sister pass judgement on me.”
Emotion washed over me, the anger I was feeling suddenly too much for my body to cope and deal with. Tears flooded down my face and I scrambled to find a tissue to mop them up.
I could understand what she was saying and part of me wanted to agree with her. She was an adult now, she didn’t need my judgement. Just because she was my little sister didn’t mean she was still a child and I shouldn’t treat her as one.
Reaching out I grabbed her hand. She let me cling to her as the tears raced down my face. I knew she could have simply shrugged me off but I also knew Cynthia and as much as we fought she still sought my approval.
“Cynthia, I’m sorry it’s just you shocked me. Every time I think about him… Every time I think about all the awful things he did I just…”
I broke off my voice giving out. Jude was a nightmare and I could have handled it if he had simply been a figment of my imagination but he was real. How a monster as bad as him had been created was beyond me. But to think that he might wake up that he might be suddenly thrust back into my life was something I had done my best to push from my head.
Until now.
Cynthia, dropped back into the seat opposite me, she held my hand as tightly as I clung to hers.
“Heather, I know how you feel about it and I didn’t go to see him to upset you. But he messed with my head, got to me, for a time I wasn’t sure if all the things he had done to me were because I deserved them… Part of me believed that he was still out there. Simply hearing he was in the hospital, that he was in a coma didn’t make it alright…”
She dropped her gaze and paused. I watched her square her shoulders and suck in a deep breath.
“I had to know that he wouldn’t come after me again. I needed closure that he really was out of my life for good, that we won.”
She squeezed my hand and I let her, holding back my words of anger and fear. My anger wasn’t truly aimed at her, it stemmed from my fear. She wasn’t the only one left with emotional scars because of the things he had done.
“Anyway, I couldn’t get in to see him.”
She added those words as an after thought.
I sucked in a deep breath and struggled to control my emotions. She had put me through all of that just to tell me she hadn’t seen him after all. I loved my sister but there were times when I was certain she was crazy.
“What do you mean you couldn’t get in to see him? I thought that was the whole point of this conversation.”
Cynthia shook her head and slowly I unwound my hands from hers. I drew back into the chair and closed my eyes. Pain had blossomed in my head behind my eyes. Small star bursts of colour erupted inside my eyelids and for a moment I could feel the room beginning to spin.
It took several deep breaths to get my body back under control once more. I copied the breathing exercises that the doctor had given me and slowly I felt my blood pressure beginning to subside.
“Heather, are you alright? Do you want me to call Aaron?”
Cynthia’s voice came to me from far away and when I opened my eyes small spots of coloured light danced in my vision.
“No, I’ll be fine. I think I just need to relax, maybe eat something.”
It was the very last thing I wanted to do but deep down I knew it was the best thing for me. Perhaps if my body had something else to concentrate on it would return to normal of its own accord.
Cynthia waved to the waiter gesturing for him to approach the table. I listened half heartedly as she ordered lunch for herself. Grabbing the menu I pointed to the first salad that I came across. My eyes didn’t want to focus in on the words and as long as it was food then nothing else really mattered.
“And can we have a large jug of water.”
Cynthia ordered as the waiter moved away.
“How are you feeling?”
She asked staring at me with concern filled eyes.
I shook my head and stood, the world swimming around me for a split second before I finally found my balance once more.
“I need to clean up in the bathroom.”
Without a backward glance I made my way towards the back of the coffee shop and the quiet shelter of the bathroom.
I stood in front of the sink and stared at my face in the reflection. My skin was pale and streaked from where the tears had dripped down my cheeks.
I splashed cold water up onto my face and let the shock of it quiet the turmoil in my head. I was still angry but it was beginning to fade, leaving me with nothing but the hollow feeling of exhaustion.
Cynthia was careless but that was nothing new. She had always been careless. She had allowed herself to be sucked in by Jude in the first place, even after I had warned her what he was like.
She was always so sure of herself, so sure that her decisions were the right ones. It never seemed to matter how much advice she was given.
Gripping the edge of the sink I closed my eyes and drank in long deep breaths. I had been wrong to think that going anywhere with Cynthia would be anything other than strenuous. She had that effect on me and she would always have it on me.
I plastered a smile back on and pushed away from the sink before moving back into the coffee shop. I watched Cynthia for a moment. She seemed oblivious to the room around her as she played with her cell phone.
Picking my way carefully through the tables I once more took my seat opposite her.
“Do you feel any better?”
I nodded before grabbing the fork placed on the side of the table. I pushed it into the salad and scooped up a large mouthful. Everything was fresh and it wasn’t until the food was actually in my mouth that I realised how truly hungry I was.
Cynthia sat and watched me for a few seconds before she too started into her food. We ate in silence but finally my curiosity got the better of me.
“Why didn’t you get in to see him?”
My question seemed to surprise Cynthia and for a split second it looked like she might choke. She recovered quickly and set the fork down on the side of her plate.
“I don’t want to get back into an argument, Heather.”
“Neither do I. I’m just curious as to why you didn’t go in? Did you change your mind?”
I decided to be diplomatic with her.
“No, I just wasn’t allowed. Apparently someone else was visiting him at the time and they only allow one in at a time. I think I might go back this week though, try my luck this time.”
“But you know he’s there now. I thought you said you needed to believe that he was there. Now you know…”
I trailed off and pushed the salad around the plate with my fork.
“I don’t think I can explain it to you. Either you get it or you don’t and I don’t think you get it. You always hated him, Heather but there was a time for me that I…”
She realised what she was saying before she even got the words out. I watched her clamp her lips together, her face closing down but it was too late her secret was out.
I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible, after all it was something I had long expected from her. She had loved him, there had been a time and I could only hope for her sake that, that time had passed, she had loved Jude.
“It’s all right, Cynthia.”
I reached my hand out to her but she shook her head. I jumped as she hopped up from her seat and grabbed her bag.
“I have to go.”
“But, Cynthia?”
I tried to talk to her, persuade her she was being ridiculous but it was pointless. I watched her drag her coat up from the back of the chair she had been sitting on before she fled out the door.
I sat there watching her progress up along the street before the crowd swallowed her up and she was gone.
Why had she reacted so badly? Perhaps she was right, I didn’t get it and maybe I never would but she was my sister and nothing would change that. I loved her no matter what but it seemed she couldn’t see that.
