The One Read online

  THE ONE

  (The Billionaire Next Door #9)

  By Violette Paradis

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  © 2014 Violette Paradis

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and characters are a product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, places, or people is entirely coincidental.

  ~Chapter 1~

  “Jason, wait!” But he was gone.

  I looked at Luke, hating the sight of him.

  “Why are you even here? I don’t want to date you anymore. Please leave me alone.” I turned on my heels to storm after Jason but Luke grabbed my hand, pulling me back. “Let go of me!”

  But Luke didn’t let go. I struggled against him as he pushed me against the wall. His overly sweet cologne and unappealing breath stung my nostrils.

  “You’re just as guilty as I am,” Luke said.

  “How do you figure that?” I asked through clenched teeth. My blood was boiling and I feared steam would start coming off the top of my head.

  “You were looking at me with those love eyes, luring me in. You want to get back together just as much as I do. Come on, baby.” He leaned in to kiss me.

  “Stop!” Without thinking twice about it, I spat in his face and kneed him between the legs. He shrunk in pain, cupping his manhood.

  “You bitch! Why did you do that?” He coughed and his eyes were watering, but I didn’t care. My thoughts were on Jason and what he must have thought of me. I moved, but Luke reached out and grabbed my shirt. “Sophia, I love you!” His voice was high and strained as he continued holding himself in pain. I pulled away as I gave him the most dangerous glare I could muster. I shook my head.

  “You don’t love me. You saw me in the papers, canoodling with a billionaire, and you thought something slipped through your hands, and now you’re trying to get it back. Well let me tell you something, this did slip through your hands and you can’t do anything about it. Now I know you for who you really are. You only want me because Jason wants me.”

  “I’m not sure he does anymore.” A pained, ugly smile crossed Luke’s face.

  Jason. My stomach sunk again. Taking my anger out on Luke, I pointed a finger in his face.

  “How dare you come here and ruin my relationship.”

  “It couldn’t have been that strong if one kiss broke it apart.”

  I resisted the urge to punch that self-absorbed smile right off his face. The last thing I needed right now was a broken hand and a criminal record.

  “You’d be surprised by how strong our relationship is. I’m convinced now that true love is something you’ll never get to experience.”

  I turned to leave but he called out my name. I clenched my jaw. My heart beat wildly in my chest.

  Now I was really mad.

  I turned back to him.

  “If you follow me, if you pursue me, if you EVER try to complicate my life again, I will destroy you.”

  “You and what army?” He snickered.

  “You know who my fiancé is,” I warned. “He can mess you up.”

  “If he’s still your fiancé.”

  Clenching my teeth, I stared at Luke dead in his eyes, envisioning him with no teeth and showing him that I was fucking pissed. Without a word, I turned and left him behind, hoping against all hope that Jason Powers was still my fiancé.

  ***

  As I drove back to our penthouse suite, tears crawled down my face. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to go back in time, back to when I was trying on wedding dresses with Ellie! I wanted things to be right again, like they were this morning.

  Why did Luke have to come into the picture?

  All I had to do was go and explain to Jason what happened. Luke was an old flame who showed up out of nowhere and kissed me. I didn’t kiss him back — sure I didn’t stop him either, but clearly Jason could see that?

  I slammed the palm of my hand on the steering wheel in anger. Hot, angry tears streamed down my face.

  How could I do this? What the hell was I thinking?

  My fingernails dug into the steering wheel as I imagined Luke’s face and all the terrible things I wanted to do to it. Oh, who was I kidding? I was at fault here! I was the one who messed this up. I let Luke kiss me. I had to straighten things out with Jason as soon as I could.

  Once I parked the car, I raced to the elevator. Just as the elevator doors opened onto Jason’s penthouse suite, Jason appeared on the other side. He did not look happy.

  “Jason!” I reached out to him but he kept his eyes fixed on me and his jaw clenched. I pulled back my reach and instead stepped out into the suite with him. “Let me explain.”

  “Explain what? That you were making out with another man?”

  “No, I wasn’t making out—”

  “Oh really? Because that’s what it looked like to me.”

  “Jason, let me explain.” I put my hand out and grabbed his arm but he pulled away.

  “There’s nothing to explain, Sophia. I saw you with him.” There was a hurt in his voice I had never heard before. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t.”

  He stared at me like he was staring into the depths of my soul. For some reason, the silence was worse than anything he could say.

  “Don’t lie to me, Sophia.”

  “I’m not!” The desperation was apparent in my voice.

  “I never thought that after all we’ve been through, that you’d hurt me like this.”

  “I wasn’t trying to hurt you—”

  “Goodbye Sophia.”

  “Jason, no!” It was only as I reached out to him did I notice the suitcase in his hand. He stepped into the elevator and pushed the button in time for the doors to close between us. I tried to reach out to him one last time but the doors were closed and he was gone.

  “Fuck!”

  I realized I had been holding in my breath that whole time and I finally let it out. More hot tears streamed down my face and I began sobbing uncontrollably. I looked around the empty penthouse suite.

  “Jason.” I said out-loud. “Jason.” My words echoed back to me as painful reminder of the empty suite. “Destroyer?”

  The dog was gone too. That’s when my heart really sunk. Refusing to believe any of this was actually happening, I ran to the bedroom, hoping that I was hallucinating and that I would see Jason curled up on the bed with Destroyer, but all I saw was an immaculately made bed with a note on it.

  A note.

  I almost didn’t want to read it, because reading it would make everything real and I so desperately wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

  As if time slowed down, I walked cautiously towards the bed. Looking down at the note, I wiped my tears away. The note was written in Jason’s scrawled handwriting.

  I need a break. Stay in the penthouse suite as long as you like. Jason.

  Completely numb, I stared at the words until they no longer held any meaning. There was no “see you soon” or “love” before his name. Just ‘Jason’, and that’s what hurt the most.

  The ink spread as my tears splattered onto the note, obstructing the words. It didn’t matter anyway because those words were tattooed on my mind, along with Jason’s hurt expression.

  How did this happen?

  I sat down on the lonely bed and stared off into nothingness as I crumpled the wet note in my hand.

  What now? I wondered. What now?

  ~Chapter 2~

  After the initial shock wore off, I cleaned myself up and decided to take action. At first I thought about calling him but
I knew there was no way he would answer a call from me after storming out like he did.

  He didn’t want to see or speak to me. The thought sat heavy in my stomach like a lump of coal.

  After pacing back and forth six hundred times, I got too antsy to stay in the penthouse suite any longer. Getting into my car, I drove to his workplace downtown. After riding the elevator up to his floor, I saw his secretary.

  “Oh hi Sophia!” Dana’s chipper demeanor faded as she saw my tear-strained face. “You here for Jason?”

  I nodded.

  She gave me an apologetic expression. “He’s not in right now. He said he was going on a work trip.”

  “Do you know where?”

  The secretary shook her head and shrugged. “He’s always flying here and there. I’d call him for you but he asked me not disrupt him. He was very strict about it.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  “Huh?”

  “You look really — rough.”

  I’m sure I didn’t look as bad as I felt.

  “No, I’m fine,” I lied. I looked up in the direction of Jason’s office where I could see his desk through the clear window. There was something unsettling about it. “I’ll see you later Dana.”

  “Bye. I’ll let Jason know you stopped by.”

  “Yeah, you do that.”

  I stumbled backwards into the elevator and got out of there as soon as possible. There was something strange about being in Jason’s office under these bizarre circumstances.

  As I stood in the elevator, I thought about what else I could do.

  He left.

  That was the only thing I retained from that interaction. Jason was gone and he didn’t want me to reach him. The knowledge of it was a punch to the gut.

  Without knowing where else to go, I went to Ellie’s place. Ellie had multiple heartbreaks over the past few years and if anyone could offer me advice and a shoulder to cry on, it was her.

  Ellie opened the door. Her wild hair was tied in a bun on her head, looking like a crow’s nest. I knew she was working as she had a little cushion tied to her wrist along with a number of pins.

  As soon as she saw me her smile disappeared. I couldn’t help but start crying right away.

  “Oh honey, what’s wrong?” She pulled me in for a hug so that I was sobbing onto her shoulder.

  “Jason,” I managed to say through sobs. “He left me.”

  “He what?” Her shock was so intense I nearly fell off the front stoop.

  I pulled back and looked at her through my puffy, swollen eyes. I sniffled. “Jason left me.”

  The shock was evident on Ellie’s face. She furrowed her brow, her eyes full of understanding. “Come on in, honey. I’ll get a pot of coffee going.”

  As I sat on Ellie’s couch, sipping on a cup of coffee, I relayed the story to her. I told her about Luke and how he forced himself onto me, and how Jason was there to see Luke kiss me.

  I sniffled and Ellie passed me the tissues.

  “I just — don’t — know — what — to do.” I said between sobs.

  “Oh, there, there, honey. I can’t believe that Luke. The nerve of him!”

  “And the worst part is I feel like I was actually enchanted by him for half a second. Can you believe it? I have the world’s most amazing guy wanting to marry me, and here I am getting myself mixed up with a loser from Maine.”

  “Well, he is a surgeon, honey.”

  I gave Ellie a stern look.

  “And an asshole,” she added.

  I nodded.

  “Listen, can’t you explain to Jason everything you just explained to me? Just tell him you were getting cold feet about the wedding and that you saw someone from your past. Tell him the loser forced himself on you. You’d be telling the truth.”

  I shook my head. “There’s no hope. I tried telling him that but he wouldn’t listen. He was too hurt. Even if I wanted to tell him now, I have no clue where he is. He’s gone, Ellie. Gone!” I buried my face in my hands again, sobbing uncontrollably. Ellie patted my back soothingly.

  “What are you gonna do?” Ellie asked.

  I sniffled. “I don’t know.” I looked up. “This morning my future was all wedding planning and spending time with Jason. Now it’s — it’s…” I shook my head, numb by the shock. “I can’t live in the penthouse suite anymore. Living there without Jason would be too painful. And I can’t live in my old place next door — I’ve already rented it out.” The realization that I might be left to find a new home — or worst, live with my mother — made my heart deflate.

  “Oh, honey, this can’t be easy. Look, you’ll move in here and sleep in the spare bedroom until you get things in order.”

  I sniffled. “Really?”

  “Sure! I have a spare bedroom. Plus, I spend a lot of time with Ty anyway so you’ll have this place to yourself most of the time, at least until you get back up on your feet.”

  The prospect was daunting. Ellie rubbed my back again.

  “But you don’t have to worry about that for a while. Just bring some of your clothes back here and we can sort everything out together.”

  For the first time since the incident, I smiled, albeit weakly. “Thank you Ellie.” I hugged her. “I knew you’d be there for me.”

  “Now, let’s get you cleaned up. All day I’ve been thinking about fixing myself up a big ol’ margarita. Want one?”

  “Can you make mine a double?”

  Ellie let out a short laugh. “That’s my girl. Now off to the kitchen so we can find the tequila.”

  ~Chapter 3~

  Each night became less and less lonely as I adjusted to sleeping in a small bed, alone. Ellie was a good roommate, though she was overly enthusiastic when it came to hanging out at night. She treated every night like we were at a sleepover watching movies and drinking wine.

  I did my work during the day and did the best I could not to think about Jason. As hard as I tried to forget him, there were mementos of him everywhere. Every dog that came into the clinic was a reminder of Destroyer, who was my dog too. Each dog that came in reminded me of the time Jason and I met, tangled in a bunch of leashes.

  I caught myself smiling at these memories and quickly stopped, remembering that I had lost my best friend.

  Focusing on work was a good diversion, allowing me to get through the day, but the urge was always there to look Jason up. Jason Powers couldn’t just disappear. If he popped up somewhere, the paparazzi would know. There were always photos of him on the internet — new photos, photos that could give me information. But my will was strong. I resisted, not wanting to put myself through the hurt of seeing his face and reliving the hurt I caused.

  Jason, I thought. If only I could tell him what had truly happened. Hadn’t he seen? I asked myself that question multiple times throughout the day. It was only when I was deep into thinking about him and what had happened that I realized how much time I spent devoting all my energy thinking about him.

  Get it together, Sophia.

  I couldn’t think about him if I wanted to move on.

  But I didn’t want to move on.

  I blamed that little thought hanging on the tip of my tongue and the edge of my thoughts on my unrealistic subconscious. A couple times I had almost said this out loud to Ellie, but I held my tongue. Ellie was all about moving on and healing from the past, but I couldn’t tell her how much I missed Jason even though every day he became more and more of a distant thought.

  I sighed and packed up my stuff, making my way home after one particularly long day in the office. A pug came in and it reminded me of Pugsley, Nana’s dog. Thinking of Nana made me think of my trip out to Montana, where I got to meet Jason’s family and see the cowboy daredevil behind the billionaire.

  Gosh, he was so goddamn cute.

  He was reckless and spontaneous — all the things I never was. He taught me not to worry so much, and here I was worrying away without him.

  Sophia, y
ou have to stop thinking about him.

  I drove home, wondering what movie Ellie wanted to watch tonight.

  I wonder what Jason’s doing tonight.

  Why did I torture myself with these thoughts?

  I pulled into the driveway and walked into Ellie’s place. It had been over two weeks and I now had my own key.

  “Hi Sophia.” Ellie stood just inside the entranceway, staring at me cautiously.

  “…Hi Ellie.” I eyed her suspiciously. “Are you okay?”

  “Okay? Of course I’m okay! Are you okay?”

  I raised my eyebrows at her. “I think so.”

  She gave me a big grin and looked at me with her giant eyes. “Great.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Ellie looked down then quickly back up. Her smile faltered.

  “I’m just making sure you didn’t see anything you didn’t want to see today.”

  “Anything I didn’t want to see — Ellie, what’s going on?”

  Ellie let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, I just want to prepare you for this.” Ellie picked up her pink laptop.

  “Hold on — if this has anything to do with Jason, I don’t want to see it.”

  “It’s not — well.” She hesitated. “There’s a little bit of Jason.”

  “No.” I took off my shoes and marched past her. “I don’t want to see anything involving him. I don’t even want to hear his name.”

  “But, I think you should really see this!”

  “Ellie, I asked you not to tell me about anything you see on those gossipy websites.”

  “It’s concerning you.”

  I stopped. “What?” Did I hear that right? “It’s about me?”

  Occasionally I saw my face on a magazine but I was usually overshadowed by Jason and whatever he was doing. Tabloids didn’t normally concern themselves with me.

  Ellie nodded.

  “Is it bad?” I asked.

  She made a face that was a mix between ‘yes’ and ‘not really’. I wasn’t sure how to interpret it.

  Clicking on the screen, she started a video.

  “No.” I pulled away. “I don’t want to get involved with this. Aren’t you the one who has been telling me—”