Page 86 of The Husband Contract

I stare at him as we walk back into my office. Then, on impulse, I grab my phone.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“I’m calling Sergio.”

He answers on the second ring, laughing. “Hey, bro! What’s up?”

“What’s going on, Sergio?” I demand with a frown.

“I’m just here, smoking that good hash.”

“Sergio.”

“What?” He laughs harder. “I’m puffing the dragon, lighting up, bro. I’m aboutto?—”

I cannot believe my brother is smoking weed. I’m so fucking annoyed that it takes everything in me not to completely lose my gasket. “Sergio, are you high?” I say through gritted teeth.

“High? No, I’m not in the sky. Nooo.”

The guy is stoned, dammit. I’m so fed up of Sergio constantly making the wrong decision.

“Where are you?”

“On the loo.” He starts laughing again. “Oh my gosh. Am I funny? Should I be a comedian? Should I be the next Matt Rife?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Love, life, liberty for all. You ever thought about what it means to be human? Are we human? Or are the aliens human? And if the aliens are human, are we aliens?”

“I’m going to call you back later.” I hang up, frustrated and annoyed.

Jack’s eyebrows are both hiked up. “He was high as hell. What are you going to do, Sebastian?”

“He’s fucked up right now. I don’t know what I can do. Is this something I should also blame Willow for?”

Jack tilts his head to the side, boring his gaze into me. “You’re not responsible for your brother and she’s not responsible for your brother.”

“What about the millions she stole?”

He gives me a one-shouldered shrug. “Maybe figure outwhyshe got those millions. Maybe figure out what she’s done with them. Because I’m telling you, Sebastian, something here isn’t right. And I’d hate for you to go even further down this path of revenge and retribution only to figure out maybe the love between them was never that deep.”

“What?” I ask as he pauses.

He shakes his head. “I’m just saying…you feel it, and I feel it. That woman isn’t all bad.” He holds his hands up. “I have no skin in this game. I don’t want her. She’s beautiful, yes, but I have no connection to her. She may be a great actress, but her emotions feel real to me.”

“I know,” I say as I sink back into my seat. “But I hate her for how she makes me feel. I hate her for making me weak. I hate her for putting me in this position where I have to make hard decisions.”

“Maybe it’s notherthat you hate,” Jack says, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe it’s yourself.” He looks me dead in the eye. “Maybe you need to figure out exactly what you want from all of this Seb, before it goes too far.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Willow

The stack of newspapers on the dining room table all feature articles about the potential fall of Sebastian's company. I've read every single one of them multiple times. They’ve all been pretty in-depth about the future leadership of the company and that there might be a vote of confidence for the CEO role in the next few weeks. Sebastian may be dethroned, even though it’s his company. I should feel happy that he may lose everything after what he’s done for me, but instead I feel sorry for him.

I've been stuck here in the apartment with Janice for the past week. Haven’t seen nor heard from Sebastian in nine days. Not that I want to speak to him anyway. That jerk face is dead to me.

Janice said he's been sleeping at his office, putting out fires and trying to save his company. Apparently, a hugemerger with a European company is now at risk because word got out that Sergio sold a bunch of his shares and gave up his seat on the board. The stock market and speculators now assume it’s because he knew that something was wrong and the company was going down. But based on what I could figure out, Sergio had other reasons for using the money.