Charles reached for the handle. She grabbed him from behind, nails digging through his shirt. "This is all your fault!" she hissed in his ear. "If you were the kind of man I needed, I wouldn't have gone looking elsewhere." Ah yes. The classic 'you made me cheat' defense. He should add that to his collection of greatest hits. Charles turned slowly. "Are you listening to yourself right now?" "No one's going to care about your stupid pictures," she said, voice rising with desperate confidence. "Not the police. Not my parents. Roger owns half this neighborhood. You think anybody's going to take your side against him?" Charles stared at her for a long moment, then let out a soft, humorless laugh. Emmy's expression shifted, suddenly sweet as artificial honey. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Let's talk this through like adults. Sit down, breathe. I'll make your favorite—beef stroganoff. Remember how much you used to love it?" Used to. Past tense. Everything about them is pas

“I must commend your boldness.” While she was still talking a blue Rolls-Royce pulled in front of them.“My driver is here. Give me your number so we can discuss,” she said. Charles glanced at the car. She is rich and she is behaving like this? Now that she was standing up and her hair no longer in a ponytail, she didn't look like a middle schooler but that wouldn't change his perspective about her. “Hello?” She waved her hand in his face. “What do you need my number for?”“You must never mention anything you saw this evening to anyone.” Charles scoffed. “I had no intention of doing that.” Another frown flashed across Sadie's face. The man looks humble and he is talking to her like he'd to a normal person. Annoying yet amusing. “I'll still need your number though. By the time this gets in the news, you will be nowhere to be found.”“News? Do I look like a reporter? Even if I do, I can't cover cheap news like this.” Sadie scoffed. Is this man pretending not to know who she is or

—---At the Daryl's restaurant---Charles can't believe he agreed to this ridiculous thing. He is putting on a brand designed cloth that is worth millions of dollars and chewing gum like a total playboy. His job was simple—at least that was what the owner of the Tyrell Williams group said. The man had a daughter but the daughter had been going on a date with a very ruthless man of the underworld whose only mission was to bring the family business down. Now where did he fit in the drama? He just had to flirt with the man's daughter and rescue the clueless daughter from the ruthless man. Any man could have played this part but according to the owner of the Tyrell Williams group, the other men who had tried it in the past few months disappeared all of a sudden. As Charles entered the restaurant, he switched his walking step to one with some swag. Not difficult, really. He was a playboy before he got married to Emmy. He chewed recklessly on the bubble gum in his mouth as he approache

He pushed through the crowd until he made it to the front.Roger was on one knee, right there in front of Emmy.“Will you be my date?” Roger asked.Emmy blushed. Beaming, she stretched out her hand, and Roger slipped the ring onto her finger.“He’s so romantic!”“I wish I was Emmy.”“They’re so cute!”“When will someone propose to me like that?”Just before Charles could reach the gate and leave it all behind, he saw it. The kiss. Emmy clung to Roger like her life depended on it, like she had something to prove.While they were married, Emmy barely let Charles touch her. A hug—only when her father was around. And even then, it felt like a favor. He respected that. Gave her space. Thought maybe, just maybe, she’d open up someday.Turns out, none of it ever meant anything.“Hey,” he heard a woman's shout. The voice was familiar to the voice of the woman he met last night. He continued walking. “Man in black jacket and earring,” the woman shouted again. He still didn't stop. He had

Charles looked at his reflection in the mirror as he drove the Toyota Camry Sadie bought for him. They almost had a fight over it. She was going to buy him a Rolls-Royce but what the fuck was he supposed to do with it? Even without using some extraordinary cars, a few important people in Atlanta recognize him. What'd happen if he now used an expensive car? And he'll admit, he'd never been more pissed off than he had been since he met Sadie. She would always do something to get on his nerves. Like this morning… “You have to start working here,” she had tossed a card on the table. “No, thanks.” “One way or the other, I'm going to be forced to tell people that you are my husband, what will I tell them you do for a living?” And that way, she forced him to get out of bed and now here he is, driving to start working as a CEO in some company he is not interested in. He pulled into the gate of the company. He parked in the garage and came out of the car. Just to piss her off in