Love, Lies and Billionaires

Surprisingly, they disentangled rather slowly at the sound of the voice. Maren turned to Louise, who had just walked into her office. She folded her arms.

“I am so sorry ma’am, I didn’t mean to barge in. I promise I didn’t see anything. I swear,” she blurted. Her hands were visibly trembling.

Maren was unmoved. Her face showed no emotion as she stared at her. William, by the way, seemed amused. He resumed his place on her table while a smirk played at the corner of his lips.

“What do you want Louise?” She asked firmly.

“I um- I got the signed documents from the logistics company like you asked,” she replied, looking down at the document to avoid her boss’s eyes.

“Hand it over,” Maren said, while stretching her hands. Louise walked over quickly and placed the file in her hand and turned around to leave, but then stopped and turned back around.

“I really am…”

“Just get out!” Maren ordered, making her scurry out the door.

William chuckled quietly after she left, earning himself a death stare from Maren. She dropped the file with force on the large table. “You seem to be enjoying this, aren’t you?”

He didn’t reply. Instead, he just stood up from the table to face her, their bodies almost touching. He made a move to place his hands on her waist again, but she noticed on time and slapped his hands away.

She raised a brow. “Really? Is that all that you think about?”

William shook his head slightly, playing confused. “What do you mean?”

“We…I just got caught by my secretary, William. Stop trying to play dumb,” she said and moved away from him.

“So what?” He edged closer to her. “She’s your secretary. You’re her boss. You can punish her for barging into your office. It’s actually really simple,” he added and tried touching her.

“No, stop,” she slapped his hand again. “I don’t want you, William. I’m married to Alexander and I’m happy with him. I won’t have you ruin my life again,” she said, but it only earned her a chuckle from William.

Her brows creased in anger, she folded her arms. “Get out”

“Hey, slow down. It doesn’t have to be like this, Maren. I want you, I really do…

“Get the fuck out!!” she almost screamed. Her eyes were now reddened from holding in her tears for too long.

William paused for a while, then raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, fine. I’ll go,” he said and walked over to the door. He placed his hand on its handle, then paused to look at her.

“Get out of my life!!” Maren quickly said before he could say anything. He just scoffed and left.

Maren turned around to face the table. “Fuck!” she muttered quietly, trying to suck in her tears. She shut her eyes, anger clouding her mind.

She wasn’t angry about Louise walking in on her making out with William or angry with the fact that Willam was so thoughtless, but she was, in fact, angry with herself.

All her life, she has been an indecisive little girl who just waited till her mom, or probably the universe, to make a decision for her. Now, being an adult, things were different, and she had to make tough decisions.

There was Nathan to care for and her mom and Alexander and she had just discovered she hadn’t completely gotten over William, no matter how much she tried to cover it up.

Maren blinked back her tears and ran her fingers through her hair. She really shouldn’t be having such a breakdown, she thought to herself. She just needed to get through the six months for the contract and she would be in control again.

She walked to the other side of the table and sank into her chair, suddenly remembering Louise. After Alexander had granted her the loan to save her company, he assigned Louise, who used to work at his company as a front desk as her secretary.

He had given her the spot because of her loyalty to make sure the reports of Maren’s company gets to him or possibly keep an eye on her. And that was what Maren was worried about.

Shaking her thoughts away, she drew closer to the table and resumed her work.

“Mrs. Blackwood, a letter came in just now for you,” Louise said, marching into Maren’s office.

“A letter? Who still writes those?” She asked, engrossed in what she was typing.

Louise chuckled. “I’m as grossed out as you are, ma’am,” she said.

“Who’s it from?”

“It doesn’t say in the envelope. It’ll probably be written in the letter,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You haven’t opened it yet?”

“No, I didn’t know I could do that.”

“What if it were a letter bomb?” Maren said, hoping she’d get the humour, but obviously she didn’t as she began fumbling with the envelope.

Maren paused and looked up at her, making Louise stop midway from opening the letter. “I was joking,” Maren stated.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I-I didn’t get it”

“Place it on the table,” she ordered and turned back to her computer. Louise obeyed and turned to leave. “And-” Maren suddenly said.

“Yes, ma’am,” she turned back around.

“About today,” she began, keeping her eyes glued to the screen, that she hadn’t noticed Louise fumble with her nails. Something she did when she was keeping, something she shouldn’t.

“Do you report stuff to Alexander?”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“I give accurate company reports to Mr. Blackwood, ma’am,” Louise replied, extra humility in her voice that always disgusted Maren.

“I mean aside from that”

“No, not really,”

Maren raised her head to look Louise in the eye. “What do you mean, not really?”

“Well, he calls my desk sometimes to ask how you’re doing. That’s all”

Maren raised a brow. “Why can’t he just call my phone?” She asked rhetorically. “Anyway, I want nothing of anything you saw today to get out. Am I clear?”

“Of course, I saw nothing, Mrs. Blackwood,” she replied. There was silence as both women were to their thoughts.

“You can go, Louise,” she said after a while.

After she left, Maren sighed. She didn’t trust her. Her agreeing to keep shut was not ensuring enough. Her gaze turned to the letter on her table. She picked it up and pulled the paper from it.

Boldly written on it in block letters was: “I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!”