Page 149 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

“You really think Penny would walk away?”

“She should.”

Ian shook his head. “She loves you.”

“She doesn’t know me. Not really.”

Ian shook his head again. “I think you’ve shown her the good, the bad, and the ugly already and she’s still here. You two have had arguments before. Really bad ones. And you always make up.”

“This is different. It’s not a discussion that we can both move forward from. I’m sick, Ian. I’ll always be sick.”

“What’s that line that people say? That you’ll love each other in sickness and in health?”

I laughed. “In wedding vows?”

“Yeah. Besides, you’re good right now. You’re better when you’re with her.”

“That’s a lot of pressure to put on her.”

Ian shrugged. “Like I said. You two have already been through a lot and you’re still together. You’re her professor, for fuck’s sake.”

I laughed.

“And makeup sex is hot.”

I stopped laughing. “Stop watching us have sex.”

“I didn’t say your makeup sex was hot. I just meant in general.”

“Voyeur.”

Ian laughed. “I’m just doing my job. Trust me, that’s not my kink. Although I do like the forbidden aspect. I just prefer sleeping with my boss’s sister.”

I glared at him.

“I’m kidding.” He laughed even though none of this was funny. “Well, I need to go shower. It was a loooong night.”

I didn’t like these jokes at all. “Stop it.”

“If you stop putting your phone on silent.”

Okay, fine. That was a little funny. “Deal.”

“And tell Penny the truth. It’ll be fine.” He slapped me on the back and stood up.

“Ian?” I said before he walked away.

He turned back to me.

“When you found out the truth about me…did you consider quitting?”

“You really think I was in any place to judge you?”

“That’s not what I asked,” I said.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “No, I didn’t consider quitting. I knew you needed me.”

I appreciated his honesty. And I was glad that he stuck by my side through that past several years.

But I didn’t want Penny to stay with me because she felt obligated to. I wanted her to stay with me because she couldn’t picture her life without me in it. But obviously I was glad Ian hadn’t said all that about his feelings toward me. That would have been weird.

“I almost forgot to ask, but have you checked your mail today?” Ian asked.

Speaking of weird…that was a very strange segue. “No, why?”

“Something came and I was curious what it was. I’ve had the guy at the front desk start sending me pictures of anything delivered. Luckily it wasn’t the guy you had fired this morning. Because he’s actually been very accommodating.”

Yeah, while I was waiting for Ian, I’d had some new guy at the front desk fired. He shouldn’t have let someone into my apartment without my permission.

“And getting the pictures will make sure we don’t have another flower incident on our hands. I’ll be right back.” He walked over to the elevators.

I sighed. The last thing I needed today was for Brendan to send Penny more gifts.

What the hell was that asshole’s game? I stared at the camera in the corner of the room as I waited for Ian to get back.

There was no way that Isabella had gotten access to the system.

No fucking way. So…how did she know so much?

Maybe someone had just told her about the cameras.

She said that I had my sources and she had hers. Who the hell was her source?

Ian stepped off the elevators holding a black envelope. He handed it to me.

Scrawled on the front in embossed gold font was “James and Rob.”

I looked up at Ian. “Who knows that Rob is visiting me soon?”

Ian shrugged. “I figured you’d told someone.”

“No.” I never really spoke to anyone. I opened the envelope and pulled out an invitation, if you could really call it that.

All it had written on it was an address for a bar in New York with a date and time a couple weeks from now.

The address seemed vaguely familiar, but I was pretty sure I’d never heard of the bar before.

I turned over the envelope, searching for a return address.

“It was hand delivered,” Ian said, knowing that what I was looking for wasn’t there. “And I already watched the security feed. It was a courier who dropped it off, so that’s a dead end.”

“I haven’t told a soul my address, Ian.”

He frowned. “Well…Isabella has it. And it was delivered this morning after she left.”

I pressed my lips together. Isabella had stormed out after signing the papers. It seemed pretty clear that she was done with me. “Why would she send this invitation to me shortly after she signed the divorce papers? And why wouldn’t she have just left it at the front counter when she was here?”

“Because she’s crazy. And I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it did kind of seem like she knew about the cameras. She was staring directly into the lens on the feed before Penny woke up. Maybe she knows about the ones downstairs at the front desk too.”

I didn’t like this at all. Yes, it made zero sense for Isabella to have this delivered to me. But somehow that just made me think it was her.

“You’re sure no one else knows your address?” Ian asked.

I nodded. Wait. “I may have mentioned to Matt that Rob was visiting. Maybe. I don’t remember. Or Rob may have mentioned it to Matt or Mason. And Rob knows my address.”

“Oh.” Ian nodded. “Good. I was definitely worried, but that makes sense.” He looked down at the invitation again. “The Caldwells are probably trying to bury the hatchet.”

“Yeah. That must be it.” We used to meet up for drinks every now and then, trying different bars. It made sense. It was still weird that they didn’t sign it though. And they could have just texted me.

The invitation didn’t look like something Matt or Mason would send. But…I didn’t know them that well anymore. That was the whole point. And I really hoped that hanging out again would bring us closer together.

I stared at the invitation for another second.

Maybe it was an invitation to Mason’s new sex club.

That would explain the secrecy of the whole thing.

But I thought I’d made it pretty clear to Mason that I wasn’t interested in that.

I put the envelope down on the coffee table.

I’d text Matt or Mason about it later. First I needed to get back control of my life that Isabella was trying to unravel.