Chapter Thirty-Five

I watch as they have to drag her from the room, she is begging Greyson to keep her away from Max. Apologising over and over forever getting involved and I can do nothing but sit, unmoving in a state of shock.

Finally, she goes with them and I can still feel his eyes on me when the room is once again quiet. He locks his office door and comes back to the desk.

“Gen, are you okay?”

I’ve just found out my own best friend is in on all of this and has been from the start, I’ve just discovered that things with Alex are more sinister than I ever thought possible.

“How did you know”.

He moves to sit in the seat Vicky was in before.

“How did I know what?”


“Don’t play dumb, how did you know about Alex?”

He goes to explain himself, but I suddenly don’t want the answer to that question.

“Actually, how long have you known?”


Guilt washes over his face, and he breaks his gaze.

“I’ve known for a while Gen”.

“And you said nothing?”

“I didn’t want to upset you anymore; I know what Alex means to you”.

“This is why you got mad when he spoke to me, isn’t it? This is why you were so against me seeing him?”

“Yes. I know exactly what he is capable of Gen.”


“But you decided not to let me in on that?”

I feel hurt by the deceptiveness, why would he keep this from me. Why would he let me think Alex was normal, that our friendship was normal or that his thing for me was merely a crush”


“I wanted to be sure so when I came to you with all this you believed me, but things moved faster than I anticipated, and then when you came home and said you saw him with Brittany, I had to move some plans forward”.

“You mean what you just did with Vicky. That was part of your plan all along?”

“As soon as I found out I decided I would confront her, it wasn’t until Max revealed what they were doing that I would know what I wanted from her”.

“The memory stick”

“Exactly Gen, I knew I would be able to get her to give whatever she had up I just needed to wait for the right time”.

I want to be mad at him for keeping it from me however I can’t help but be curious as to what he is going to do next, on top of all of this I am a little hurt he didn’t think he could share this with me.

Although we are husband and wife that doesn’t matter, I get that I did, however, think we were at least partners, or somewhat friends. Clearly, he thinks differently as the trust I have for him is not reciprocated.

“Greyson”


He is staring at me intently as if he is trying to study me, watching for my next move, my next sentence but I can’t find the words.

“What is it Gen what are you thinking, talk to me”.

“Why would he do this to me”


“Because he is obsessed with you”


“But we were best friends with Greyson, he had so many opportunities to tell me how he felt. I mean there are times where I might have even returned it”.

Greyson stiffens in his seat clearly uncomfortable with what I just said.

“What I mean is, why would he go through all of this trouble when I lived with him for so long. If he really loved me as he said surely, he would have told me”


“It is not love Gen, its infatuation. When you lived with him it was easier, he could pretend that you would love him back one day and that was enough for him. When you decided to marry me, things changed for him”


“What do you mean Greyson?”


“He became obsessed with the idea of you and him, he had no regard for if you wanted it or not, it is enough for him that he does”.

“And you think that’s why he did it?”

“I know that’s why he wanted to be there for you so in his mind you would want him more than you did before. He wanted you to need him like you had needed him when you moved here like you had needed him when you had no job”


“But he was just helping me out”


“No one helps anyone for free, and the payment for him was the idea you would fall in love with him and live out his fantasy with him”


All of this information is too much, I can feel my chest tightening my breath quickening.

“Gen are you okay you have gone very pale looking”.

Greyson rushes over to my side holding my hand and talking to me but there are no sounds. How could Alex do this to me, how could he let me think that he was there for me this whole time? How could he have hidden this so well?

The air feels dry as I try to draw in deep breaths unsuccessfully. I keep replaying Greyson’s words over and over. Alex tried to ruin a fake marriage so I would fall for him. If I had really fallen for Greyson from the start what would he have done then, killed me? That thought makes me feel sick...

And Greyson, he lied to me about all of this and for what? To protect me, to shield me from harm or to do the same thing Alex did, to keep me for himself.

It’s all just too much.

“Genevieve, you need to breathe”.

I can’t focus on anything, my head feels dizzy, my stomach bubbling. I can’t hold it in any longer as I run to Greyson’s private bathroom sticking my head into the loo and emptying the contents of my stomach.

The beads of sweat trickling down my forehead as I manage to stand. Greyson hands me a cup of water and leans in the doorway.

“Are you okay”


“Oh, I don’t know, I’ve just found out my best friend is a psychopath and is infatuated with me. Sleeping with the person who I despise most to get back at me and my husband has been keeping secrets from me in a bit to save my feelings. So yeah, I’m fucking wonderful “

He rolls his eyes at my sarcasm.

“Good to see you haven’t lost your quick wit in all of this. How about we go home, I have some more explaining to do and you have sick on your shit”


He points at me and I see the clear vomit stain all down my front.

“Brilliant, I didn’t think today could get worse but here I am covered in my own vomit”


I crack a little smile at him and the tension in the room seems to relax.

“Come on we will use the private elevator; Jack is waiting for us downstairs”


I clean up and throw Greys jacket over my shoulder in a bid to hide the wet mark on my shirt, as we make our way through the office there is some small chatter among the staff but none of them dares to look at us. They must have all seen Vicky get escorted out and know that whatever conversation we had in there was not pleasant.

We make our way into the car and silence falls between us. Greyson pulls out his phone and starts furiously texting while I sit, eyes wide replaying every detail of the events that took place.

When we arrived back at the house Greyson had instructed Beverly to run me a bath, he insisted I go and relax before we continued the conversion and I'd be lying if I said the bubbles didn’t look inviting.

Greyson shuts the door behind me, and I strip off, letting my body sink into the warm water. Lavender and lemon filling my nostrils helped me to keep calm.

Lying back into the water I once again fixate on the day’s events, going over each detail for the Thousandth time.

Alex actually slept with Vicky to get what he wanted from me, did he think he would be able to keep that from me forever, moreover, did he think that if he was successful Greyson wouldn’t try to win me back. Alex has no idea how deep our relationship runs now did he honestly believe he would just let me go.

I think of Brittany, she is less innocent than she would like to have people think. Fooling both Maddox brothers with a pretend pregnancy, how did she convince a doctor to forge this for her.

What would she have done if Greyson had accepted her and her baby when it came the time to give birth? Would she have gotten a baby from somewhere or faked a miscarriage beforehand?

The latter doesn’t bear thinking about, if someone was capable of that then they are rotten to the very core. What would Max have done to her if he had found out before that she had made that up, it is integral to his plan, she would jeopardize that. His fury would be second to none.

Over and over the thoughts replay, each time I try to spot something I missed from the time before.

“Gen, are you almost done”


“I’ll be out in a second Grey”


I’ve decided that I only really have one question that I would like an answer to. Wrapping the large warm and fluffy towel around myself I head back into the bedroom.

Greyson is sitting in the chair, his tie off and his top shirt buttons undone. He looks stressed, in all of this, I never thought to ask how he was doing.

“Grey, I’ve been thinking”.

His eyes once again meet my own, I see the tiredness now.

“What happens now, I mean what do we do next? It seems as though the whole world is against us”


“We fight back Gen, and not for the company or to make my father happy. None of those things is important, we fight back for us”


He stands up walking over to me, wrapping his arms around my waist as I grip tightly to my towel to hold it up. He places a few small kisses on my forehead and cheek.

“Alex, Vicky, Brittany and my brother are all doing this for selfish reasons, but they didn’t count on one thing”.

“What’s that?”

He kisses me softly on the lips, resting his forehead on my own.

“They didn’t count on the fact that I would fall madly in love with the woman who threw her drinks at me”


He kisses me again, this time with a little more force.

“You love me?”

I can’t help but smile through the kissing, that’s all I’ve wanted him to say for the longest time and now he has I feel pure unadulterated bliss.

He breaks away from me, staring deeply into my eyes.

“Yes Genevieve, I love you. You are the only real thing in my world, and I will do whatever it takes to save that”


His words send shivers down my spine and at the same time make me blush so much I look down at the floor.

He lifts my chin to face him again, his stare making the heat rise in the room. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ecstatic right now.

“I love you too Greyson”.
We spend the next few moments locked in the embrace of one another, his soft kisses making me go weak at the knees.

I don’t want to, but I pull myself away, leaning my head on his shoulder.

“So, what happens now Grey?”

“Well now we have the memory stick, Gen, we have a Christmas party to get ready for “

There’s a soft determination in his voice showing me he means business with this.

“If my brother intended to put on a show then a show he shall get, it just might not be exactly what he was after”


“I’m all for revenge, I’m all for getting back at your brother but please just remember that he does have a wife and children and irrespective of his hideousness they are just people caught in a crossfire. They do not deserve to be dragged into this.”


“I know Gen. The way you care for people is one of the reasons why I love you, you know”.

I kiss him on the nose and pull away from him, he lets out a small groan at the loss of contact.

“This is all very lovely Grey, and while I do love you. You are not forgiven you kept something quite large from me and I’m just not over that yet”.

I wink at him as I grab some clothes from the door and head back into the bathroom. He is not getting off this easily. He has to know that to love is to trust and he did not do that.