Page 115 of The Husband Contract

“Do you really want to know?” She sounds like she’s high, like she’s ready to cry or laugh, and I wonder if she’s mentally okay.

“I do want to know. I think you owe me that.”

“I don’t owe you anything, Sebastian. I am so much better than you. I’m smarter than you. I’m tougher than you. I can have any man I want, and I have had your brother.”

“Louisa, just tell me what is going on.”

“All these years you’ve treated me like shit, Sebastian. You’ve used me. You’ve led me on. You’ve?—”

“What are you talking about? I have never?—”

“When we first met, right after David passed, I was in love with you. I was there for you. I thought we would have a relationship. I thought that once the years went by, you would realize I was the one constant in your life, but you didn’t care about me. You slept with woman after woman. You broke my heart. And yet, you still called me all hours of the night.”

“I called you for work purposes. You were the investigator for my company, Louisa.”

“Do you really think you paid me enough to be there for you at your every beck and call? Do you really think that?”

“Louisa, if I hurt you in any way, I’m sorry. I never intended to. I didn’t even realize you had these feelings. You slept with several of my friends! You understood that I was not looking for anything with you.”

“All I know is that I’ve loved you for many years, and you couldn’t care less about me. And I knew I was not going to let it happen anymore. You could not take advantage of me. So I took what I wanted. And you know what? Sergio—sleeping with him—it was like getting revenge on you.”

“How is that getting revenge on me?”

“Because I knew that emotionally he can’t take anything. I knew that he would break. And I knew the one person in your life who you loved was him. I knew that if he broke, you would break. And I knew if your company started going down, your entire world would crumble. And I was right.” She laughs loudly. “I was absolutely right. You’ve lost everything, haven’t you?”

“You’re fired, Louisa.”

“Do you think I give a fuck, Sebastian? Do you know how many millions I have? I wasn’t coming back to work anyway.”

“And what about Charlotte?” he says. “What if I prosecute? She’ll lose everything.”

“Charlotte? You think I care about Charlotte? She was just a nobody. Literally, I met her in a bar, and she was easy to manipulate because she was greedy and poor. We ran this game a couple of times. She got her money. She can pay for an attorney.”

“You’ve really fucked up a lot of people’s lives, Louisa. Was it worth it?”

“Was it worth it?” she repeats. “I don’t know. Ask me in a couple of weeks. I’m flying to Jamaica. I’m going to Hedonist Island. I’ve got a plan to meet a man who has a lot more money than you do, and, well, as you know, I have a way with my lips.” She cackles and makes a slurping noise, and I want to throw up.

“Or do you not remember the way I sucked you off? Doesn’t that keep you up at night, Sebastian?”

His face goes red with anger. “What the fuck, Louisa?”

“Don’t think I don’t know where you are,” she laughs. “Don’t think I don’t know that you’re standing in the lobby of the Whispering Haven Bed and Breakfast right as we speak.”

“How would you know that?”

“There’s a camera there,” she says. “One I had Charlotte install, that I monitor. Because I knew the first thing you would do when you found out that Willow betrayed your brother was try and exact revenge on her. I knew the first thing you’d do is go to Whispering Haven and try and seduce her.” She laughs. “And you’re there right now. But you see, Sebastian, I don’t care. I was always one step ahead of you. I planned it all. I got Willow that job at the Magnolia Club. I knew you would be there that night. I am a mastermind. There’s nothing you can do to hurt me. Keep looking around the lobby—you’ll never find the camera. You can tell Willow she’s done. Charlotte’s going to kick her out by the end of the year. And her and her little friends betterfigure out what they’re going to do, because they won’t be getting a recommendation either.”

And with that, Louisa hangs up.

I stand there, my heart pounding. I don’t know if I feel worse for him, or worse for me. He stares at me through gritted teeth. “I’m sorry. I don’t know that there’s really anything we can do.”

“I need this job,” I say to him. “I can’t afford to be fired.”

“Do you really think she’d do that? I can go to the police. I can prosecute. I can?—”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t want that. I don’t know what I want. I need to think about everything.”

“I am sorry you got involved in this, Willow.”