Chapter 20

“Good morning.”

Kaiser was up and staring at me with a self-satisfied smirk. He was the first man that I had slept with while not being in a relationship, and I was already enjoying the thrill that accompanied it.

Whatever happened last night, I didn’t regret it.

“You’re a hot one, Piper Taylor. I’m starting to regret hiring you.”

“How does that add up?” I asked, teasing him by flipping my hair behind my naked back. An ample view of my cleavage lay exposed above the blanket wrapped firmly around me. He leaned closer and trailed down my chest with his fingers.

Unlike the other guys, he didn’t ask if I slept well or enjoyed sex last night. He just went straight for it. He didn’t ask if I wanted any more, but I read his body language and spread my legs for him to take me.

He tossed the blanket aside and threw off his boxers, inserting his hardened organ deep inside me so abruptly that made me scream in ecstasy.

“You’re so wet, Piper,” he moaned, pinning me down with his massive size. He had a six-pack under his smart business suit, which I couldn’t have imagined until we continued our business in the hotel last night. He had taken a shower, and I feasted my eyes on his muscular body.

Right now, this muscular body was pressing down into my petite frame, leaving me no space to breathe, but making me moan uncontrollably. Especially when he did me raw. I felt him inside me like we were truly one. The union of our bodies just made me heave, and my pulse raced.

“Give me more,” I moaned.

He ploughed deeper inside me, rocking me so hard that I thought I was going to explode. I didn’t want him to stop. He kept taking me in that position until we both came together.

“Excellent morning sex,” I complimented him, reaching for my clothes beside the bed. His facial expression changed little from how it was, although his face was a little red from the strenuous exercise earlier. 

“You have a big appetite, Miss Taylor.” He pulled on his boxers and stepped into his pants, walking into the middle of the room to continue dressing in front of the full-length mirror. When he was fully dressed, he turned around and faced me.

“I’ll see you Monday at the office, and we can discuss your job offer.”

“That’s too long. What if I start tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” He snapped his fingers and pondered about it for a few seconds.

“I could start now if you want to.”

He just smiled. “Tomorrow.”

I wore the rest of my clothes and smiled back at him flirtatiously.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

He left the room, probably heading back to work. I thought about his charming face and features. He was tall, probably a bit over six feet, and had impressive endurance. But in the end, he would just be a stepping stone for me to achieve my revenge.

Piper Taylor’s heart was as if it turned to stone. I had enjoyed Jacques’ companionship, loved our life together, and appreciated how he had treated me well. But aside from being a wife in name, which I knew our marriage was non-existent now that I had resumed my original identity, I couldn’t bring myself to love him. What I had for him was merely gratitude and companionship. 

I had given my heart to Syl, and now, even without Syl, I swore myself to revenge.

Kaiser hadn’t left me any money to take a cab, neither did he give me anything in return for the hot sex we had. I wasn’t a prostitute, even though that new job he was giving me involved acting like one. I was to seduce clients with my appeal and my body and lure them into working relationships with Kaiser’s company.

His promise to me was that if I performed well, he would support me in my goal of revenge. The fact that he knew everything about me told me he had access to everything about me, like how Chanthara had lied to me about. But it also made me feel everything was planned. If he had planned to hire me from the start, and did his research on my past and present, it all made sense.

So, in that case, since he was set on helping me for a price, why not go with it? I had no qualms about using my body as long as I had my revenge.

I left the hotel and called for a private-hire cab to take me home. It was a good thing that nobody recognised me or even remembered I was that stupid, trusting girl back in Lin Corporation that gave her all just to help a friend.

Thinking back, I loathed that version of myself.

…………………………………………………………………….. 

I inspected Jacques’ old apartment. Apart from a laptop, his reference books and some old CDs, there wasn’t anything valuable. This wasn’t the same place that we had stayed before going to Thailand, however, Jacques had moved some of our stuff over from his apartment. 

It made me curious what kind of person Jacques was before being involved in this fiasco. I barely knew him outside work, and at work, I had nothing but praises for his professionalism and work ethic.

I plugged in the power cord and turned on the laptop. Perhaps there was ‌information saved inside it ‌I could use to understand how his old life was. Especially when he was no longer within my arm’s reach. I felt a small sense of longingness for him to dote on me, even if it was just for a minute.

The screen booted up in seconds, before asking for a pin code, rather than a password. Since it was only six digits, I wondered whose birthday he could have used. I knew his birthday, so it made me wonder if that could be the passcode. Absent-mindedly, I typed my birthday instead, and immediately, the system logged me on.

I leaned against the back of Jacques’ chair and clicked on the shortcut to his documents. As he was, everything was neatly organised, and nothing seemed suspicious. Perhaps I was the one who was dubious about Jacques, I thought.

Then I went to his browser history. Men, Syl included, often had a secret they found it hard to tell. That secret lay in their browser history, where they buried traces of indecency among logs of what seemed like visiting normal websites. But that wasn’t what I was looking for. I simply wanted to know what Jacques was like before. 

To my disappointment, he had cleared it out entirely, as if he anticipated ‌that I would check up on his past today. I gave up on finding anything about him. If he wanted to hide everything, knowing his personality, he was stubborn to allow anyone to find out.

But then a shortcut on the bookmarks bar caught my eye. He had logged his email address out, causing me to not be able to look through them, but among those useless links was a link to a blogging site. It never occurred to me that Jacques had such a hobby. Men of his age often found interest in gambling, women or just normal stuff like playing computer games and watching the latest movies.

Without hesitating, I clicked on the shortcut. What astonished me further was that the website had automatically logged in with Jacques’ username and password. When he cleared his history, he must have forgotten about the passwords and bookmarks saved on his laptop data. I reckoned he must have been in a rush.

The username he had chosen was not very impressive, but at least the page was hidden from public view. This made me suspect him further: why create a blog that was private? 

It just made me embarrassed looking at the title of his blog and his username; 

‘Piper_is_my_idol: The Secrets of an Unknown Admirer’

The first post started on the first day of work for us. We were part of a recruitment drive that employed college dropouts as part of the government’s directives to reduce unemployment by finding jobs for dropouts. The three of us and some other employees I wasn’t too familiar with received an induction on the same day.

There was a group photograph. I realised I was standing beside Jacques and smiling confidently at the camera. I didn’t need to be reminded of the happy-go-lucky, stupid and naïve version of me which I loathed. I focused on looking at Jacques instead. He appeared dull and introverted. This was the reason I had not noticed him before.

Instead, I was aiming high, pursuing Syl because the fact he was a doctor turned me on, without thinking of all the difficulties we would face in the long run. I trusted Sherry, believing that we were as close as sisters. If I had made a different choice then, how would everything have turned out?

Life was too short for regrets. I had to move on from Jacques and Sherry in the end. I scrolled past all our history quickly and went to the final post.

‘I have a secret. I can’t let her find out that dark side of me, even though it was five years ago, or she will hate me’

I realised he had posted those words on the day we had left for Thailand. But what secret could Jacques be hiding from me about his past? 

What happened five years ago?